Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

A few days before watching the 2025 animated film ‘In Your Dreams’, I happened to skim through an article in Vogue headlined ‘Eldest daughter syndrome is affecting more than your mind’, which is essentially about how elder daughters might be ‘over-caring’ for their loved ones at the cost of their own health. Stevie, the protagonist of this film is a bit like that: she thinks it’s her responsibility to keep her family together, and ensure that her bickering parents do not split up and break their home.

Directed by Erik Benson, Alexander Woo, ‘In Your Dreams’ is all about how Stevie (voiced by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and her annoying, mischievous brother Elliot (Elias Janssen) stumble upon a magical land that allows them to have the same dreams in an alternate fantasy world inhabited by the ‘Sandman’, who has the powers to make people’s dreams come true. So, Stevie decides to ask Sandman for a wish, however, getting to the King of dreams is wrought with dangers… and nightmares. The siblings go on a crazy adventure to get their wish.

Funnily, ‘In Your Dreams’ opens with a cute sequence of a younger Stevie happily helping her parents out in the kitchen. The three of them are having a blast, that’s until baby Elliot starts crying for attention, and Stevie wishes she didn’t have a brother. Fast-forward a few years, Elliot is still annoying, but he loves his big sister.

Simu Liu (Shangi-Chi, Marvel Zombies) and Cristin Milioti (Palm Springs, The Penguin) voice the parents, who used to be in a band together, but now it’s just the father struggling with his music career, while the mother has a teaching job. Due to creative and personal differences, the couple keeps getting into arguments, and the sensitive Stevie is seriously worried about her parents splitting.

Stevie’s innocent efforts to make her parents work highlight ‘In Your Dreams’ might seem funny, but it serves as a cautionary mirror to adults about the impact of overlooking a child’s emotional intelligence and insight into household dynamics. Although, it’s the adorable love-hate sibling bond between Stevie and Elliot which brings a lot of warmth to the tale.

“I can’t move to the city. My skin will lose its beautiful country glow!” – this was Elliot’s hilarious response when his sister tells him their parents might separate and the kids will have to move from their small town. It doesn’t really sound like something a little boy would say, but at least it indicates how Elliot has preserved his childlike worldview and doesn’t understand the serious implications of a divorce between his mum and dad.

The siblings’ adventures into the wild, weird world of dreams, where both their fantasies and nightmares come alive, deliver a lot of fun, whimsical moments. And in keeping with the global K-pop fever, especially with Netflix’s K-pop Demon Hunters turning into a smash hit, ‘In Your Dreams’ also features a Korean character, a teen called Joon Bae whom Stevie meets at a bookstore and develops an instant crush on. To keep him around, Joon Bae takes a second part-time job at a restaurant Stevie’s family frequents, and well, he obviously turns up in her dreams too.

The animation for ‘In Your Dreams’ however was a hit and miss for me. The character designs were minor tweaks from stuff that already exist in Disney Pixar universes, and Stevie often looked like a plastic doll with a bad hair-cut. On the other hand, the character design for the Sandman was quite unexpected, he looked like a mash of Santa Claus and God from Matteo Ferrazzi’s webtoon ‘Adventures of God’.

In a few scenes of ‘In Your Dreams’, the animation switches up the style to old, colorful, cartoon network style designs (like the scene pictured above), and I wished they had done the whole film like that. It’s more playful and energetic.

The climax is clichéd, relying on the power of “family” and giving the kids a happy ending, which is going to make kids believe that they can indeed go Parent Trap mode and save their parents from splitting. Not sure if that’s a great idea. But otherwise, it’s a decent one-time watch.

Rating: 6.5 on 10. Watch ‘In Your Dreams’ on Netflix.

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