Netflix's new animated film In Your Dreams follows two children, Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and Elliot (Elias Janssen), who are siblings and realize their parents are about to get a divorce. This discovery leads them to attempt to reach the legendary Sandman in their dreams, who has the power to make their most cherished wishes come true. Also starring in the film are Simu Liu and Cristin Milioti as their parents, with Craig Robinson bringing Tony Baloney to life, Elliot's favorite stuffed animal.
The Direct was on the red carpet premiere for In Your Dreams in Los Angeles, where the cast and filmmakers spoke about the story (which includes some creative dream worlds), which teaches audiences that things don't always go your way—and that's perfectly normal.
Director Alex Woo explained that the movies he watched growing up "falsely" told him that "if you work hard enough, you want something badly enough, you can make your dreams come true." Sometimes it simply doesn't work out, and given that, the filmmaker wanted to explore the question of: "How do you navigate sort of an imperfect world and an imperfect life and the messiness of life?"
Jolie Hoang-Rappaport explained that the movie shows that "sometimes you can't realize all of your dreams," and "not everything can be perfect, and that that's okay."
On the red carpet, The Direct spoke with Alex Woo (director), Erik Benson (co-director), Jolie Hoang-Rappaport (Stevie), Elias Janssen (Elliot), and more. The full quotes and all the footage can be seen below. In Your Dreams will be available to stream on Netflix starting November 14, 2025.
In Your Dreams Has an Important Message About the Messiness of Life
- The Direct: "Now this movie is, it's obviously literally about dreams, but it's also about achieving your goals, and, you know, making the reality you want to see and you want to live in. Can you talk about how this movie explores that concept and those ideas in unique ways?"
Alex Woo: I mean, I think that's very much the journey that Stevie and Ellen go on. They go to find the Sandman so he can make their dreams come true. And, yeah, this movie. I made it because a lot of the films that I grew up on, they sort of told me, I think falsely, that if you work hard enough, you want something badly enough, you can make your dreams come true.
And I think sometimes that's true, but most of the time in life it's not true. Like, this is not most of my life. This is like one day out of my 44 years. And so, you know, you've got to live life when it's not always a dream come true. And how do you do that? How do you navigate sort of an imperfect world and an imperfect life and the messiness of life? And that's really what I try to do with this film.
Erik Benson: I think that was always the sort of key to this one and what I was drawn to, which is this, expectations versus reality, right? I think we could all relate to this, you know, conjuring this idealist idea of our life and how we want it and shape it to be, and then you're just like, Wait, it's not turning out the way I wanted.
This is way off from my narrative, and how can this be, right? And so I was really drawn to that idea, because I think there were, as hopefully a lot of people, you sort of feel these sort of ebbs and flows of [when] life is going good [and when] life is not going good at all...
You realize, and hopefully, this is one of the messages of the film that people can take away is, just like, well, those things, yes, life will sort of ebb and flow, but you do have your relationships. You have your family to lean on, if you find those sorts of anchors, that love in your life, that you can get through it all right? It'll sort of support you through all the craziness [outside of your control] that life will throw at you.
Jolie Hoang-Rappaport: I think part of it is that sometimes you can't realize all of your dreams. Not everything can be perfect, and that that's okay... That's kind of what Stevie learns. It's like, she's a bit of a perfectionist, and she learns that, like, not everything is always going to be perfect, but that's okay, because you can always lean on your family and support each other.
Elias Janssen: This movie can really teach you that things don't always work out how you think they should, and that's okay, like there's not always a clear path of how to resolve something.
The full interviews from the red carpet of In Your Dreams can be viewed below:
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