In Your Dreams is heading to limited theaters on November 7th, 2025 and on Netflix on November 14th, 2025. It comes from director Alex Woo and was co-written by Woo and Erik Benson. The animated movie is a comedy adventure about Stevie and her brother Elliot who journey into the absurd landscape of their own dreams. If the siblings can withstand a snarky stuffed giraffe, zombie breakfast foods, and the queen of nightmares, the Sandman will grant them their ultimate dream come true…the perfect family.
We got the chance to sit down for a press conference about the film that featured the following talent and crew.
- Craig Robinson (Baloney Tony)
- Simu Liu (Dad)
- Cristin Milioti (Mom)
- Jolie Hoang-Rappaport (Stevie)
- Elias Janssen (Elliot)
- Gia Carides (Nightmara)
- Alex Woo (Director, Screenwriter & Creator)
Here’s what director Alex Woo has to say about the film.
IN YOUR DREAMS began ten years ago, when I left Pixar to start Kuku Studios. At the time, we were a tiny team of three, imagining the kinds of stories we wished to see in the world. One of our first ideas was a film about dreams.
Dreams have always fascinated me. Why do we have them? Where do they come from? What do they tell us about ourselves? Making this movie gave me the chance to explore those questions in the most fun and fantastical ways I could imagine.
The film takes us through surreal dreamscapes, filled with spectacular visuals and hilarious,
out-of-this-world characters. But at its heart, it’s a grounded, emotional story about two siblings finding their way through a world that doesn’t always make sense.
It’s a feeling I know well.
When I was six years old, on a cold Minnesota morning, I woke up to find my mom at the front door with her bags packed. She gently told me and my brother that she needed some time away to figure things out for our family. I didn’t fully understand what that meant—but I knew everything was about to change.
The world didn’t feel quite as safe after that. The alarm of that morning woke me up to the reality that life is far from perfect.
Luckily, I wasn’t alone. My brother and I hatched some harebrained schemes to save our family. None of them worked – but the bond we built on that journey helped us find a way forward in the middle of the unknown. And thankfully, my parents eventually did figure things out. They’ve now been married for almost 50 years.
I made this movie with the belief that the best way through is with an open heart—that sometimes we need to let go of what we dream life should be, and hold on to life as it actually is.
I hope you enjoy IN YOUR DREAMS, and that it inspires you and your family not only to dream big, but to find joy in all of life’s moments; because even when it’s messy, it’s beautiful.
— Alex
The Press Conference For In Your Dreams
Here’s what the various voice actors had to say about their characters and how they relate to them.
Jolie: So, my character is Stevie. She is like this self-described fixer. She always wants to fix everything. You know, she’s noticed a little tension between herparents, and thinks that if she can find the Sandman, and that he can grant them her one true wish, that she can fix her family. But as she goes on this journey, she starts to realize, like, you know, maybe not everything in life can go exactly the way we planned. Maybe that’s okay. Especially when, you know, she has, like, family to support her. She also thinks Elliot is really, really annoying.
Elias: It was a lot of fun. I mean, Elliot is just super high energy, crazy, funny. He loves magic, as you could tell from his magic pajamas. And yeah. He’s like your typical younger brother. He really looks up to Stevie, and he just wants, like, to spend time with her, and hang out with her. And I can relate to him in that way, because I also have two older siblings, so I know what that’s like.
Here’s what Alex had to say about his journey to making In Your Dreams.
This movie is very much about me sort of reconciling and dealing with the fact that life is not perfect. And that there’s a lot of messiness in life. But there’s also a beauty in that. So, yeah. So, it’s sort of a combination of this really intimate, personal story with this big, adventurous, fantastical, spectacular world of dreams. So, you know.
Cristin Milioti and Simu Liu had this to say about portraying parents going through a rough patch in the film.
CRISTIN: Like, the most challenging part would maybe be to like know how to calibrate it. Like, it’s constantly changing. Which is so cool. And so rare. Like, you would never get to do that, obviously, on, like, a live action thing. And the rewarding part, I feel like is hopefully, you know, any kids or adults that are dealing with like a nuanced situation at home feel comforted as well as entertained.
SIMU: I think it’s always hard, you know, whenever you don’t — you know, this is gonna sound cliche, but I believe, you know, acting is reacting a lot. And it’s hard when you don’t have anything to react off of. Like, you know, most of my initial work as dad was done not with Cristin, but with Alex voicing my wife.
In Your Dreams releases in theaters on November 7th and on Netflix on November 14th. It’s adorable, so make sure to bring the family along for the ride.
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