‘In Your Dreams’ Director Alex Woo on How Sets Were Inspired by Childhood Visits to Chuck E. Cheese and Disney’s ‘It’s a Small World’ Ride
Netflix’s latest animated feature, “In Your Dreams,” follows a pair of young siblings as they navigate a fantastical dream world, seeking the mythical Sandman in hopes that he can fix their family. Director Alex Woo, who previously worked as a story artist on Pixar’s “Cars 2” and “Incredibles 2,” makes his directorial debut with a story that is deeply personal.
“When I was 6 or 7 years old, I woke up one morning and my mom had her bags packed,” Woo tells Variety of the film’s genesis. “She was at the front door, and I had no idea what was going on. She had to gently explain to me and my brother that she was going away to figure out things for our family. I didn’t really know what that meant, but I knew things were about to change.”
When Woo left Pixar in 2016, “In Your Dreams” was one of the first ideas he had. While movies about the dream space have been successfully told (“Inception”), it hadn’t been done in the animated world. Woo was up for the challenge.
In the film (now streaming on Netflix), Stevie (voiced by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and Elliot (voiced by Elias Janssen), learn that their parents’ marriage is under strain. Mom (Cristin Milioti) wants to move to Duluth to become an assistant professor, while Dad (Simu Liu) wants to stay put. Stevie takes it upon herself to keep the family together, and with her younger brother, uses the dream world to find the Sandman and turn her dream into a reality.
As Woo worked with the creative team, he collaborated closely with production designer Steve Pilcher to bring the world of “In Your Dreams” to life. Flying beds, animated breakfasts, sand creatures and a floating river of ball pit balls were all part of the visual storytelling. While fantastical, everything was grounded in reality. Polly’s Pizzeria was inspired by Woo’s childhood visits to Chuck E. Cheese, and the floating river with animated beavers was inspired by Disney’s “It’s a Small World” ride.
Below, Woo and Pilcher speak with Variety about their process and how they grounded the animated feature in reality.
It coincided with the inception of our company. I left Pixar in 2016 and spent the first year or two dreaming up different ideas for movies and TV shows that we wanted to see. We realized it’s hard to give a dream movie stakes because anything can happen, so that was the big challenge. We knew we wanted to do something in the dream world, but we needed an emotional core to the story. That’s when I brought up this thing that happened to me when I was 6 or 7 years old. I woke up one morning, and my mom had her bags packed. She was at the front door, and I had no idea what was going on. She had to gently explain to me and my brother that she was going away to figure out things for our family. I didn’t really know what that meant, but I knew things were about to change. A lot of this movie was inspired by that experience.
Steve Pilcher: It was based in a real world, obviously, and then a dream world. I talked to Alex about where he grew up, and I went on Google and scoped out Arden Hills, Minnesota and the streets where Alex lived. We looked at all these different parameters to establish this world because when you go to the dream world, you’re going to associate with that and their lifestyle.
Woo: That was very deliberate. Everything in the dream world was based on something in the real world. In the film, they go to Polly’s Pizzeria. I used to go to Chuck E. Cheese a lot and spent a lot of time there as a kid. I loved it. But looking back, it’s janky and comical. That ball pit river is inspired by the experiences I’ve had at Chuck E. Cheese. As a kid, the first time I went to “It’s a Small World,” I found it quite scary because you’re in this dark tunnel. It’s really amazing — you’re seeing all these animatronics and all these set pieces — but as a kid, it can be terrifying because you have no idea where you’re going. That’s why I chose to set the nightmare version of Polly’s Pizzeria in that environment.
Pilcher: Whenever they go into the dream world, they’re going there for a purpose, and they’re trying to find the Sandman. We thought a ride was perfect, but let’s use ball pit balls. We took Elliot’s interaction with the “beat a badger” and used that as a motif because you could start with that and turn it into a nightmare.
Woo: It was part of the original pitch. The inspiration for it was that my mom used to make french toast for us on Sunday mornings. Stevie represented this perfect happy family time for her. We knew that if that’s what her happy place is, then of course she’s going to have this happy dream.
Pilcher: One of the things that we did come across early in the boards was that the castle was made out of waffles. We had the idea to turn it into a craft-based world. If a child played and made their own Breakfast Town with their food, Stevie might use milk cartons for buildings. Since it was french toast, the idea was, “Let’s make it a French medieval-themed Breakfast Town.”
Woo: Our art director, Rachel Daniels, built a craft-based Breakfast Town using cardboard and milk cartons to get a sense of scale and how the materials would look. She’d take shots using her phone. So we did a lot of research, because that’s the only way you can make it feel authentic.
Pilcher: We also found that certain elements took us out of the film. What would a child use? White glue, popsicle sticks, construction paper — crudely cut out and stuck on a milk carton.
Woo: It was a huge challenge. It was, “How do you differentiate the Sandman, the sandlings and their environment, and not make it feel like one big brown mush?”
Pilcher: When you have characters like the Sandman and the sandlings, they’re curve-based characters. To complement that, you use straights, which we decided to build out of cubes. It’s cube-based everywhere. The design of the sandcastles was based on sand buckets — when you fill them with sand and turn them upside down, you get that pyramid shape.
Woo: With the sandlings, they had an inner glow, so that helped separate them from the background. They’re live characters, whereas the castle was a dead object, so there was no light inside the castle.
Pilcher: In the pizza place, there are “Go! Go! Cory Carson” rides that the kids go on. We thought we’d include that because it’s Netflix.
Woo: There are “Go! Go! Cory Carson” stickers on Elliot’s bed. The idea is that when he was 5, he watched that show and put the stickers all over his bed. Also, when we’re first introduced to Stevie and she’s getting ready, she high-fives a lucky cat. There’s a post-it on there that says, “Find your retainer.” She ends up finding it in Breakfast Town, behind the fridge.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
“When I was 6 or 7 years old, I woke up one morning and my mom had her bags packed,” Woo tells Variety of the film’s genesis. “She was at the front door, and I had no idea what was going on. She had to gently explain to me and my brother that she was going away to figure out things for our family. I didn’t really know what that meant, but I knew things were about to change.”
When Woo left Pixar in 2016, “In Your Dreams” was one of the first ideas he had. While movies about the dream space have been successfully told (“Inception”), it hadn’t been done in the animated world. Woo was up for the challenge.
In the film (now streaming on Netflix), Stevie (voiced by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and Elliot (voiced by Elias Janssen), learn that their parents’ marriage is under strain. Mom (Cristin Milioti) wants to move to Duluth to become an assistant professor, while Dad (Simu Liu) wants to stay put. Stevie takes it upon herself to keep the family together, and with her younger brother, uses the dream world to find the Sandman and turn her dream into a reality.
As Woo worked with the creative team, he collaborated closely with production designer Steve Pilcher to bring the world of “In Your Dreams” to life. Flying beds, animated breakfasts, sand creatures and a floating river of ball pit balls were all part of the visual storytelling. While fantastical, everything was grounded in reality. Polly’s Pizzeria was inspired by Woo’s childhood visits to Chuck E. Cheese, and the floating river with animated beavers was inspired by Disney’s “It’s a Small World” ride.
Below, Woo and Pilcher speak with Variety about their process and how they grounded the animated feature in reality.
It coincided with the inception of our company. I left Pixar in 2016 and spent the first year or two dreaming up different ideas for movies and TV shows that we wanted to see. We realized it’s hard to give a dream movie stakes because anything can happen, so that was the big challenge. We knew we wanted to do something in the dream world, but we needed an emotional core to the story. That’s when I brought up this thing that happened to me when I was 6 or 7 years old. I woke up one morning, and my mom had her bags packed. She was at the front door, and I had no idea what was going on. She had to gently explain to me and my brother that she was going away to figure out things for our family. I didn’t really know what that meant, but I knew things were about to change. A lot of this movie was inspired by that experience.
Steve Pilcher: It was based in a real world, obviously, and then a dream world. I talked to Alex about where he grew up, and I went on Google and scoped out Arden Hills, Minnesota and the streets where Alex lived. We looked at all these different parameters to establish this world because when you go to the dream world, you’re going to associate with that and their lifestyle.
Woo: That was very deliberate. Everything in the dream world was based on something in the real world. In the film, they go to Polly’s Pizzeria. I used to go to Chuck E. Cheese a lot and spent a lot of time there as a kid. I loved it. But looking back, it’s janky and comical. That ball pit river is inspired by the experiences I’ve had at Chuck E. Cheese. As a kid, the first time I went to “It’s a Small World,” I found it quite scary because you’re in this dark tunnel. It’s really amazing — you’re seeing all these animatronics and all these set pieces — but as a kid, it can be terrifying because you have no idea where you’re going. That’s why I chose to set the nightmare version of Polly’s Pizzeria in that environment.
Pilcher: Whenever they go into the dream world, they’re going there for a purpose, and they’re trying to find the Sandman. We thought a ride was perfect, but let’s use ball pit balls. We took Elliot’s interaction with the “beat a badger” and used that as a motif because you could start with that and turn it into a nightmare.
Woo: It was part of the original pitch. The inspiration for it was that my mom used to make french toast for us on Sunday mornings. Stevie represented this perfect happy family time for her. We knew that if that’s what her happy place is, then of course she’s going to have this happy dream.
Pilcher: One of the things that we did come across early in the boards was that the castle was made out of waffles. We had the idea to turn it into a craft-based world. If a child played and made their own Breakfast Town with their food, Stevie might use milk cartons for buildings. Since it was french toast, the idea was, “Let’s make it a French medieval-themed Breakfast Town.”
Woo: Our art director, Rachel Daniels, built a craft-based Breakfast Town using cardboard and milk cartons to get a sense of scale and how the materials would look. She’d take shots using her phone. So we did a lot of research, because that’s the only way you can make it feel authentic.
Pilcher: We also found that certain elements took us out of the film. What would a child use? White glue, popsicle sticks, construction paper — crudely cut out and stuck on a milk carton.
Woo: It was a huge challenge. It was, “How do you differentiate the Sandman, the sandlings and their environment, and not make it feel like one big brown mush?”
Pilcher: When you have characters like the Sandman and the sandlings, they’re curve-based characters. To complement that, you use straights, which we decided to build out of cubes. It’s cube-based everywhere. The design of the sandcastles was based on sand buckets — when you fill them with sand and turn them upside down, you get that pyramid shape.
Woo: With the sandlings, they had an inner glow, so that helped separate them from the background. They’re live characters, whereas the castle was a dead object, so there was no light inside the castle.
Pilcher: In the pizza place, there are “Go! Go! Cory Carson” rides that the kids go on. We thought we’d include that because it’s Netflix.
Woo: There are “Go! Go! Cory Carson” stickers on Elliot’s bed. The idea is that when he was 5, he watched that show and put the stickers all over his bed. Also, when we’re first introduced to Stevie and she’s getting ready, she high-fives a lucky cat. There’s a post-it on there that says, “Find your retainer.” She ends up finding it in Breakfast Town, behind the fridge.
This interview has been edited and condensed.