What to Watch: Why this Netflix family film isn’t as sweet as it looks
· Citizen
Every now and then, there’s an unexpected little film that gives you a hug. In Your Dreams, an animated family movie on Netflix, gives more than just a single embrace. It’s for anyone who’s ever had a nightmare, whether asleep or awake.
It’s for anyone who’s ever wanted something to work out when the odds are stacked against them, and at the same time, a stark reality check about the challenges of emotional journeys for both grown-ups and kids.
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But In Your Dreams is as packed with entertainment as it is with life truths.
Stevie is a 12-year-old perfectionist trying to hold on to a family life that is somewhat unravelling. Her younger brother Elliot, an aspiring magician with a naughty streak, is her reluctant sidekick, while Michael and Joanne, the folks, are in a struggle between themselves about their own future together as a couple. Mom wants stability and a 9-5 picket fence life, while dad, well, he’s hanging onto his dreams to make it as a rock star. Divorce is the sword of Damocles that hangs over the pair and the family.
Divorce threatens their family
So, as fate would have it, Stevie and Elliot discover a book called Legend of the Sandman at a second-hand store. Inside, it features a legend that promises Sandman can grant anyone an ultimate wish if they find him, and there’s a ritual guide that’s included to get to him. It demands that the two kids enter a mutual dream world.
After a few tries, the two get it right and enter some pretty strange landscapes. Through these journeys into the subconscious, they also discover that they can shape the reality inside the dream, as long as they stay connected to one another. An old plushie giraffe named Baloney Tony, which used to belong to Elliot, joins the quest (think Donkey’s role in Shrek).
The nightmare sequences designed to test Stevie and Elliot include dreamscapes featuring scary, zombie-like breakfast cereals and being pursued by Nightmara, the Queen of Nightmares. But nightmares were not the only challenge in this tale.
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When the kids finally locate and meet Sandman, he’s not what he’s cracked up to be, either. Instead of being a wish-granter, Sandman traps dreamers in perfect, endless fantasies to feed on their dreams. He never makes dreams come true; in fact, he just David Copperfields’ them and bluffs. Stevie becomes trapped in a perfect dream, and it’s up to Elliot to save her.
Sandman not all he seems to be
In parallel to the two youngsters’ bedtime caper, mom and dad fight for their marriage. Dad agrees to move home so that mom can get a stable job, allowing him to continue pursuing his dream, but at least there’ll be regular food on the table. It’s not a U-turn, but it shows how compromise and fighting for love and family can create new beginnings and second chances.
Stevie, giraffe and Elliot in In Your Dreams. Picture SuppliedThere are a lot of nuances in this film, and to thread out the entire plot would be telling. But what’s refreshing is that the ‘teachable moments’ in the movie are not as obvious as the almost instructive manner that some other producers approach lesson-telling inside storytelling.
In Your Dreams is different. It’s not a yawn, it’s a smile, it’s a warm and fuzzy flick that, beyond being really entertaining, also teaches us grown-ups a thing or two. Because frankly, divorce is the easy option, and sometimes, the friction to create stability is worth passing through instead of the battleground and heartbreak that divorce serves up. It’s too easy to give up these days, and in this movie, nobody does. And that’s the point.