Netflix Oscars in your dreams have a breathtaking story of origin

Since the addition of the Academy Award for best animated functionality in 2001, it has been supposed for a long time that the winner would come from one of the powers of the industry: Disney, Pixar or DreamWorks Animation. During a large part of the history of the category, this hypothesis was true. However, in the past three years, the Oscar has gone elsewhere. Netflix snagled the statue in 2022 for “Pinocchio de Guillermo Del Toro”, “Studio Ghibli won the first prize in 2023 for” The Boy and the Heron “, and last year’s award ceremony made the history of the animation of the year. These victories mark a silent but significant change in the recognition of animation by the academy: despite the inherent problems Displayed by the perspective of the academy on animated cinema, art, innovation and emotional depth are no longer limited to major studios.

Netflix, in particular, has become a serious competitor in this evolving landscape. To date, the streaming giant has won seven nominations in the category of the best animated features, with an victory (and undoubtedly, an additional victory should have a victory for “The Mitchels vs. The Machines”, a film that the viral ubiquity of “Incanto” may have overshadowed). Now, all eyes are on their next animated feature, “in your dreams”, which already seems to be on a confident path to the number eight appointment.

The film follows Stevie (expressed by Jolie Hoang -Rappaport) and her young brother Elliot (Elias Janssen) while they are swept away in their own dream landscape to find the elusive Sandman, who promises to realize their dreams – if they can find it. They must sail on surreal landscapes mentioned in imagination and nightmares, with the beloved stuffed giraffe of Elliot, Baloney Tony (Craig Robinson), serving as an improbable companion. Teaser’s first trailer was presented at first at the Annecy international animated film festival, but I had the opportunity to preview prolonged scenes during a private Netflix event. Director Alex Woo, making his long beginnings, speaks frankly about his breathtaking path to work in some of the biggest animation houses of the game to make his first feature film under his banner Kuku Studios.

Before Alex Woo founded Kuku Studios, he won a Student Academy Award (for the very brilliant “Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher”), served as history manager at Pixar Animation Studios and worked as a development director at Lucasfilm Animation. During his stay in Pixar, he worked on “Ratatouille”, “Wall-E”, “The Good Dinosaur” and “Finding Dory”, with the old pair that went to the back with victories for the best feature film animated at the Oscars. Since the Kuku studios foundation, he has created and executive has produced the preschool Netflix series “Go! Goy Carson”, but has been working to bring “in your dreams” on the big screen for about a decade.

“At the time, we were a small team of three of three, imagining the kind of stories we want to see in the world,” said Woo. “One of our first ideas was a film about dreams […] The film takes us through surreal dream landscapes, filled with spectacular visuals and hilarious and out of the world, but in its heart, it is an emotional story rooted on two brothers and sisters who find their way through a world that does not always make sense. “History is personal for Woo, who explained that the dynamics of sisters between children and children were based on his own relationship with his brother and their experience as children when children are based on his relationship with his brother, and their experience in children, according to Eldiot, is based on a relationship with his brother, and their experience in children is based on a relationship with a relationship with children, in a relationship with children, in a relationship with children.

“She gently said to me, me and my brother, that she needed a little time to understand things for our family. I did not fully understand what it meant – but I knew that everything was going to change. The world did not feel as safe after that. The alarm of this morning awakened me to reality that life is far from perfect.”

He is so deeply entangled in his own life that Woo said that one of his friend saw the film and his reaction was: “You know, this film is just a really diverted way of telling you to your brother that you love him”, and Woo replied: “Make movies is easier than managing your feelings.” By attacking an existential theme, “in your dreams” offers a space for young audiences to deal with more difficult subjects, which has become extremely difficult to find.

Like many of us, Woo has grown up on films that told us that if we wish it enough and if we want something bad enough, our dreams will come true. But then we grow, and we realize that sometimes it is correct … But sometimes this is not the case. With this harsh reality that is looming in the distance, it is difficult not to fall into nihilism. As Woo was thinking, “I really wanted to make a film that explores the question of what you do when your dreams don’t really come true? How do you find hope? How do you continue to move forward in life? How do you find a way to go?”

Woo explained that dream films in animated space have been all the whales of each studio, and except for something like the spin-off “inside” spin-off “Dream Productions” (which works as a working comedy that occurs To be in the Dreamland studio film version), no one could find a way to make a dream film have issues. Once Woo and his team cracked the idea, they jumped to make it to make sure they could beat their competitors in punch. But the real motivation factor was the story itself. “I made this film with the conviction that the best way to cross is with an open heart – that sometimes we have to abandon what we dream should be and keep us with life as is the case,” said Woo. “I hope it inspires you, you and your family, not only to dream of great, but to find joy in all moments of life, because even when it is disorderly, it’s beautiful.”

The premise is charming, but the visual ambition and the narrative heart raise it beyond the familiar. The images I have seen and the teaser above revealed a rich film with a construction of the world in layers, an emotionally anchored character dynamic and a visual style that mixes dreamlike abstraction with tangible warmth. If “in your dreams” holds the promise of his first images, it could be more than Netflix Netflix’s next pretender – it could be a sign that the landscape of the family film finally widens once again, both in the scope and in the mind.

“In your dreams”, November 14, 2025, and presents vocal performance by Craig Robinson, Simu Liu, Cristin Milioti, Omid Djalili, Gia Carides, Sungwon Cho and Zachary Noah Piser.