For Alex Woo, the director behind In your dreamsthe story is linked to his own experiences.
In this latest animated film from Netflix, “a pair of young siblings navigate a fantastical dream world, searching for the mythical Sandman in the hopes that he can repair their family.”
“When I was 6 or 7 years old, I woke up one morning and my mother was packing her bags,” says the filmmaker in an interview with Variety.
He recalls, “She was at the front door and I had no idea what was going on. She had to kindly explain to me and my brother that she was leaving to sort out our family’s problems. I didn’t really know what that meant, but I knew things were about to change.”
Additionally, Alex expands on how the idea of In your dreams was born. “It coincided with the founding of our company,” he says. “I left Pixar in 2016 and spent the first year or two dreaming up different ideas for movies and TV shows we wanted to see.”
The director continues: “We realized that it was difficult to give stakes to a dream film 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 mentioned this thing that happened to me when I was 6 or 7 years old. I woke up one morning and my mother had packed her bags,” notes Alex.
“She was at the front door and I had no idea what was going on. She had to kindly explain to me and my brother that she was leaving to sort out our family’s problems.”
“I didn’t really know what that meant, but I knew things were about to change. A lot of this film was inspired by that experience,” concludes the filmmaker.
In your dreams is streaming on Netflix.
