Netflix invited JoBlo to their animation studio to check out their new movie, In Your Dreams
I’m at Netflix Animation Studios in Burbank to see what goes into the making of a computer-animated film: in this case, November’s In Your Dreams, a film that marks director Alex Woo’s feature directorial debut, although he’s had a relationship with Netflix thanks to his short-form kid series Go! Go! Cory Carson. In Your Dreams, Woo says, has been nine years in the making. And we’ll get to see the first 30 minutes of that nine-year journey.
Inside of the screening room – situated outside of a lobby that holds props from Netflix’s most popular stop-motion projects: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Wendell & Lucy, Chicken Run 2 – we’re greeted by Woo and producer Tim Hahn. After a brief intro and background on their Kuku Studios, the footage rolls. We meet the family and get a solid idea of what makes them such a unit. Sure, there’s their morning french toast routine but there’s a genuine love for one another…torn apart as the parents (voiced by Shang-Chi’ Simu Liu and The Penguin’s Cristin Milioti) drift in separate directions. Netflix even made french toast a part of our day, as we got to see how a resident pro whips up a gourmet version (similar to the family’s) while we journalists try to mimic it with junk food inside.
The animation is more or less what we’ve come to expect – but it really comes into its own when the dream sequences start (and yes, The Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” is played). With their bed as their quasi-DeLorean (Woo cites Back to the Future as a seminal film), siblings Stevie and Elliott (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport and Elias Janssen, whose voice work started five years ago) are put into a world that isn’t beyond their wildest dreams – it is their wildest dreams. The centerpiece here is Breakfast Town, with a town square made entirely of food, with some shots that have so much going on you’ll need to pause to catch each motion of every food group and to see that every building is somehow modeled after a household item.
Sequences like this will justify its streaming home, as you’ll be able to pause and marvel at how much is going on. Yes, the oranges are playing pranks on bacon and the blueberries are swordfighting and the cocktail weenie is talking smack. No doubt Sausage Dog and a moldy muffin named Delilah are the runaway characters within the dream universe, but it’s Baloney Tony (Craig Robinson, a spot-on casting choice) – a missing stuffed giraffe from Elliot’s even-younger years – who gets the bulk of the fanfare and merchandising. (Everyone in attendance was given a Baloney Tony stuffed animal, but most of us really hoped for a Delilah – seriously, she’s hilarious.)
It’s sequences like this (some seen in the trailer) where In Your Dreams shines, as the world the team has built is both outrageous in its absurdities yet relatable in its commonalities. The way the animators have created such a stark – yet subtle – trip from normal life to dreams is truly incredible, with clever use of color schemes and design throughout.
Two key players who will go far too unnoticed for their contributions to executing Alex Woo’s vision are VFX supervisor Nicola Lavender and production designer Steve Pilcher, a Pixar alum. In a “deep dive” into their work and their goals, the two showed off several pieces of pre-vis work to give an idea of how such a vision evolves. They also outline the importance of the journey in terms of not just the child characters but smart animation. While dreams we have can be jarring, they were determined to find a way to transition from the real world to the dream world through a path that felt like floating off to sleep, the idea being that what we do while we’re awake is manifested while we doze.
And how they get from the conscious to the subconscious is insanely clever – but more importantly, it enhances the movie. Speaking on this, Pilcher told me, “It matters to us as creators to make sure [the style and subtleties are] there for you. But if you pick up on it, that’s awesome…You probably wouldn’t notice it and that means we’ve done our job. Because we want you to immerse in the story and not think about that, but we want that to kind of take you into the story.”
I’m visiting Netflix Animation Studios in July and In Your Dreams comes out on November 14th. That doesn’t leave much time in between but the bulk of the work is set. But there is still some drawing and voiceover work to be done – by us, anyway.
One of the other fun breakout sessions Netflix has provided us with is a drawing demonstration with writer/director Alex Woo. In the same theater as the screening, Woo stands before a portion of the journalists and tells us we’ll be drawing Baloney Tony. There’s a circle for the belly, an “x” stitch for the eye (believe me, he’s a mess), the token black spots. And Woo’s drawing looks nothing like my interpretation. Woo checks on the class and high-fives me, because he’s a supportive guy. Then we draw Delilah, my version of which is better than Tony, but it turns out mold is hard to draw. But Woo high-fives me again, because he’s a nice guy. Then it’s time to sketch Sausage Dog, but mine looks more like a pickle (or worse). And Woo high-fives me once more, to which I tell him he’s just making fun of me now – which he doesn’t deny, because he’s a funny guy. During the post-demo photo op, I open my sketchpad and tell him, “I’m going to tell everybody you drew this and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Others excelled in the drawing demo, nailing the sheer intricacies of a living, breathing piece of french toast in the form of a queen. I fared much better during our voice recording session. For this portion of the day, we’re first ushered into the control room where we’re shown a page of the script. In it, Baloney Tony is recently reunited with Elliot while Stevie is being given nothing but lip from the beat-up stuffed animal (again, Craig Robinson absolutely nails the character).
Past the glass is the recording booth – not the one the cast used, but a recording booth. It’s immaculately clean and feels untouched; it has an almost surreal quiet that catches every one of us who steps in off guard. We’re greeted by producer Tim Hahn, who’s there as a hype man. We’re given five of Tony Baloney’s lines to say, mock-interacting with Stevie. And while I won’t be replacing Craig Robinson or given a SAG card, I landed every single line – except one, because it turns out overlapping voiceover is one of the hardest things you can do when it comes to animation VO. But the engineer behind the mic – and Avid’s Pro Tools, the software used here – is encouraging, saying, “That one was practice.” It’s his version of a high-five, because he is also a supportive, nice and funny guy, clearly a requirement to stick around Netflix Animation Studios. (Note: Video footage of this exact moment is forthcoming ahead of the film’s release…I promise it’s better than my drawing!)
The VO session, as with the drawing demonstration and VFX lesson, are all designed not just to show us the work behind In Your Dreams – after all, that’s why we were invited – but how hard and intricate it is. (That the french toast decorating session was also an impossible task is entirely on me.) And it truly all is. Those versed in animation tend to know which studios to shy away from and which movies are going to have a style that’s plain off-putting. But Netflix has a track record that shows they aren’t one of them, and we have faith – and I have proof based on the first 30 minutes – that In Your Dreams is one to see. You might not have the chance to see it in theaters during its awards-qualifying run, but you will on November 14th on the streamer. And you’ll have the luxury of pausing in Breakfast Town!
At the end of the day, as I was waiting for my Uber, I took in the lobby of Netflix Animation Studios. There’s a giant board that clacks – not unlike an old-school train station flip board – through what the studio has had to offer so far, from wooden boys to Korean demon hunters. And then there is In Your Dreams, a permanent fixture that will be there with the rest as Netflix stakes their spot in the world of animation.
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