I’m actually kind of grateful that I got the chance to review Dream Productions. When I saw the first trailer for Inside Out 2 and Anxiety showed up looking strangely close to Tito the Anxiety Mosquito, I thought “Oh, so they’re just doing Big Mouth now?” If that was a theory then Dream Productions is definitely the confirmation—they’re actually just doing Human Resources now.
That’s a joke of course, but Dream Productions did interest me because I have somewhat complicated feelings about Inside Out as a franchise. I felt like the first movie was a genuinely inventive idea that introduced kids to the idea that emotions—and the processing thereof—are a complicated mixture of things, and doing anything more is just watering down that original concept.
Dream Productions is kind of just that—a watered-down rehashing of ideas and storylines from Inside Out that attempts to look and feel like something original, but fails to find any solid footing to explore the genuinely interesting ideas it’s trying to present.
The four-episode series—which really could have just been a solid hour-and-a-half film—is a mockumentary about the titular studio. It’s the place within Riley’s mind where her dreams are created in real-time as she sleeps. However, the real story is about Paula Perssimons—played by Paula Pell which makes the Big Mouth connection even more hilariously apparent—a famous dream director who was behind some of Riley’s most memorable childhood dreams.
“Dream Productions does maintain the franchise’s bright colour palette and unique mind-world conceit, and there are some fun ideas being had with both the behind-the-scenes and on-the-screen presentation of movies…”
However, Paula’s stardom has lost a bit of its lustre as Riley has started moving into her teens, as she’s been unable to create any dreams that really resonate with the girl. Things get even more complicated when the studio head Jean Dewberry—voiced by Maya Rudolph…Wow, so this is just Human Resources all the way down—pairs Paula with her nephew and auteur independent Daydream director Xeni—voiced by Richard Ayoade—in order to try and pull her out of the past. Desperate not only to connect with Riley but to keep her status as a big shot director, she’ll do whatever it takes to make a dream that keeps her on top.
The story was the thing that really put me off about Dream Productions because it doesn’t seem to get what it is or what it’s about. There are some lines of dialogue about how dreams totally aren’t random and are meant to help Riley process her experiences and emotions throughout the day, but they end up feeling like complete afterthoughts since the actions of the focal character seem like deliberate attempts to manipulate Riley and get her to feel what Paula wants.
The story focusing as hard as it does on Paula’s attempts to maintain relevancy despite wanting to learn or grow in any way sacrifices a lot of Dream Productions’ potential premise. Early on we’re introduced to other supposedly big-name directors in charge of things like Sports Dreams and Nightmares, but they’re almost immediately shoved off to the side and never really come up throughout the show—aside from a handful of mockumentary confessional moments.
Dream Productions could have been an actual exploration of the function of dreams in a way that—like Inside Out—was digestible for children to understand. I get that it is a movie for kids so it’s going to be exaggerated to some degree, but the average 12-year-old isn’t having highly detailed, cinematic-styled prophetic dreams that are actually going to influence their next-day decision-making.
“Dream Productions could have been an actual exploration of the function of dreams in a way that—like Inside Out—was digestible for children to understand. “
It could, however, have found an interesting way to help kids understand that dreams can be a reflection of things going on in their lives built on their memories or current deep thoughts that need to be considered but shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Furthermore, there’s this seemingly underlying theme of Paula being a legacy director who is unable to let go of the past and wanting to crank out safe, recognizable dreams and being unable to recognize or make room for young, visionary talents like Xeni or her assistant-turned-director Janelle—voiced by Ally Maki—who want to make creative, artistic dreams. The show treats it like a criticism of Paula, but it honestly felt profoundly hollow.
Dream Productions does maintain the franchise’s bright colour palette and unique mind-world conceit, and there are some fun ideas being had with both the behind-the-scenes and on-the-screen presentation of movies; however, it suffers by having all the characters looking a bit generic. Inside Out wasn’t pushing the boat out too far in terms of character design, but there was at least some thought process behind how Joy, Anger, or Sadness were visually represented. Here, everyone is just some kind of bean and it lacks any kind of distinct recognition.
Honestly, I just can’t tell who this is supposed to be for. The mockumentary style in Dream Productions suggests it’s for older audiences who may have had a fondness for Inside Out, but the plot is so generic and hollow that I can’t see them getting anything out of it. But that same style and episodic design make it a really boring show that I honestly couldn’t see kids getting a lot of value from.
I guess if we wanted to be extremely glib about it, they might like the bright colours and friendly character designs, but it’s just a shame that something like Inside Out should be given such a low bar. Dream Productions is not the worst thing I’ve seen out of Disney lately, but it’s certainly not as memorable as either of the Inside Out movies.
