In Your Dreams

Rated PG • Netflix

Netflix hopes to spark kids’ imaginations with its new feature-length animated movie In Your Dreams, a film exploring the space between wishing for a better future and being content with present reality.

The heroine of In Your Dreams is Stevie, a teenage girl who longs to return to the perfect childhood of her memories. She’s got an annoying little brother named Elliot, and she struggles with the idea that things will never be the same again. Moreover, her parents’ relationship seems to be deteriorating. Money’s tight, and Mom thinks about taking a job in another city.

Just as these dark clouds are forming, Stevie and Elliot find a magic book that allows them to enter the world of dreams. If they can get past the sinister Nightmara, they’ll find the Sandman who has the ability to make their dreams come true. But, as one might expect, things in the dream world aren’t as they seem.

Not every parent is going to feel comfortable letting the kids watch In Your Dreams. It’s rated PG for thematic content, action, some rude humor, and scary images. Many of the dream sequences trade on cheap gags meant to appeal to young boys. Lasers shoot out of people’s posteriors, and the protagonists find themselves in a “naked dream” (with some pixelation). The talk about the parents’ potential split-up felt a bit heavy for a kids show. I can’t imagine this movie would make children, regardless of their parents’ marital status, feel better.

Though much of the plot feels derivative, the movie’s not all bad. We see siblings learn to rely on each other, we learn that the dreams of our hearts can lie to us, and we get to hear some fun needle drops along the way.