At this year’s Annecy Animation Festival, Netflix unveiled a first look at its upcoming original animated feature “In Your Dreams,” produced by Kuku Studios. Directed by Alex Woo and co-directed by Erik Benson, the film follows a brother-sister duo as they navigate fantastical dream worlds in a heartfelt attempt to fix their family.
What made the Annecy sneak peek feel truly special was how deeply personal, funny and creatively liberated the project is. That was hammered home in a candid sit-down discussion later between Variety, Woo, production designer Steve Pilcher and VFX supervisor Nicola Lavender.
“It’s so exciting,” Woo said when asked about the opportunity to create something wholly original. “I mean, it’s true, it’s an original, but it’s not like we’re starting from nothing. We’re starting from, you know, the personal story that inspired it. We’re starting from the concept of dreams, a universal human experience.”
He’s not exaggerating when he calls it personal. Woo recounted a formative childhood moment, a cold Minnesota morning when he was just six years old.
“I woke up to find my mom standing at the front door with her bags packed,” he said. “She gently explained to my brother and me that she needed some time away to figure things out for our family… I remember not fully understanding what was going on, but knowing that everything was about to change.”
That moment became the emotional seed for “In Your Dreams.” “My brother and I, we sort of hatched some hairbrained schemes to try and save our family,” Woo shared. “And that’s like the journey that Stevie and Elliot go on.”
Sidenote: While Woo and his brother’s schemes may not have been well-planned or effective, his parents eventually figured things out and have now been married for more than 50 years. His dad was even able to attend this year’s Annecy and proudly watch his son present the film’s first big public appearance.
“There’s No House Style”: Creative Freedom and the Rise of Independent Animation
Woo, who previously worked at Pixar, left the studio to form Kuku Studios, a move he acknowledges was “kind of crazy,” before adding with a laugh, “but Crazy Studios didn’t have a very good ring to it.”
The name “Kuku” actually comes from the Chinese word “ku,” meaning “cry.” “We wanted to tell stories that would make you cry tears of laughter and cry tears of pathos,” he said, referencing the famed Greek masks of comedy and tragedy.
Leaving the structure of a large studio came with risk, but also real creative freedom. “There is no house style we’re beholden to,” said Pilcher, who also worked at Pixar. “You just naturally start to create an aesthetic that’s appealing, that just purely comes from the story. Let the style emerge itself. And it does pretty quickly.”
Lavender emphasized the freedom of building an original world from the ground up. “You’re not matching anything,” she said. “You’re finding a new look and style… Everyone can bring ideas.”
Pilcher added, “Nothing is just superficial… It accumulates. Films are a sum of their parts.”
That collaboration and sense of exploration have made Kuku part of a growing movement in American independent animation, something Woo credits to platforms like Netflix.
“I’m so glad you mentioned Tonko House,” Woo said, answering a question about his friends Dice Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo, who left Pixar to start their own studio before him and who produced the Oscar-nominated short “The Dam Keeper” and Netflix’s “Oni: Thunder God’s Tale.” “They were a huge source of inspiration… seeing them do it and succeed made me think, oh, you know, I can do that too.”
According to Pilcher, breaking away from big studio models can allow for broader creativity. “Conglomerates just become narrow,” he said. “So as an artist, you want more room to be flexible.”
World-Building from the Story Outward
“We really tried to look at the story and what the story was asking for,” Woo replied when asked about finding outside inspiration when establishing the film’s aesthetic. “What I like about that is it grounds it, right? It’s not just, ‘Alex likes these movies so let’s make a movie that looks like that.’ That’s not great decision-making. You really want to root everything in the characters and what they’re going through.”
A standout example of that philosophy is Baloney Tony, Elliot’s childhood stuffed giraffe, who comes to life in the dream world (and becomes a major scene-stealer).
“We put a lot of love into Baloney Tony,” said Lavender. “We wanted you to feel the history of the story behind each character.”
Pilcher pointed out one particularly thoughtful detail: “If you look straight at him on his left side, there’s a darker patch where all the fur’s been worn off. That’s actually a stain from slices of baloney.”
Casting for Character, Not Clicks
Despite being a Netflix-backed production, “In Your Dreams” doesn’t rely on household name-level star power for star power’s sake.
“They never cast people because of their celebrity,” Woo said, recalling lessons learned during his time at Pixar. “They always cast people based on their rightness for the role… When I’m making the movie, I’m only thinking about what the movie needs.”
Craig Robinson voices Baloney Tony and, according to Woo, “killed it.” The director is confident he’ll be the “takeaway character” for audiences.
Cristin Milioti and Simu Liu also voice key characters. Woo emphasized that both were cast before their recent career spikes. “When we cast her, Cristin wasn’t blowing up the way she is now,” he said. “Simu? ‘Shang-Chi’ hadn’t even come out yet.”
Both also sing, which helped, since the film’s fictional family is musically inclined. “Our movie’s not a musical, but the parents used to have a band together,” Woo said, citing Milioti’s Tony-nominated turn in the Broadway musical “Once” and Liu’s unforgettable performance in “Barbie’s” “I’m Just Ken.”
Perhaps unintentionally, then, the film’s now high-profile voice cast could help elevate “In Your Dreams’” profile among audiences. Combined with a deeply personal and relatable narrative, lush animation and what is sure to be many children’s favorite lazer-farting stuffed giraffe, Netflix could have a hit on its hands. The audience at Annecy was certainly impressed with what they saw.