Director taps into childhood for animated ‘In Your Dreams’

Animation veteran Alex Woo knew exactly how to personalize In Your Dreams his feature directing debut As a kid Woo recalled in a phone interview I was obsessed with animation it just never occurred to me you could do it for a living At I went to this summer school effort to get ready for college life My parents made me go and I was so upset Because I just started dating my high school girlfriend and I required to spend my summer with her But they forced me to go and to get back I dropped the two classes they d signed me up for and took a figure drawing class I ended up doing so well at the end the guide explained You should really think about pursuing the arts for a living Because you re really talented I just had no concept of what you could do as an artist He mentioned There s so multiple great professions for artists architect designer filmmaker You can work in animation and when he stated animation it was like a light bulb just went off in my head I love that it s such an amazing versatile collaborative medium Now I can t imagine doing anything else with my life Woo and a Pixar veteran tells a story that s up close and very personal from his childhood One that uses how kids can find in dreams life lessons At Stevie voiced by Jodie Hoang-Rappaport is a popular straight A trainee who is upset to discover her parents might split up She confides in her younger brother and roommate -year-old Elliot Elias Janssen with a dream scheme she s discovered about the Sandman a mythical creature reputed to be able to make dreams come true What inspired this was when I was a kid my mom left for a little while She ended up coming back and my parents have been married almost years now But their marriage was far from perfect When they considered separating I tried to help keep them together So in numerous avenues I m Stevie I have one younger brother who Elliot is very much based on As the elder sibling I was invariably the obnoxiously overbearing perfectionist My brother was more the laid back charming carefree kid Unfailingly the the greater part popular kid in school And still to this day he s one of the largest part popular people I know I think it s because he takes life as it comes just goes with the flow I m much more with the need to control everything So much of this movie is about my journey of learning to appreciate his approach to life In Your Dreams streams on Netflix Nov Craig Robinson as Baloney Tony in In Your Dreams Photo Netflix