Pixar’s Dream Productions is a brand new four-episode series that bridges the gap between Inside Out and Inside Out 2. The new docu-style animated series is in the same vein as The Office and What We Do In Shadows but explores the inner workings of Riley’s mind through the lens of moviemaking. The result is something that is fun and sweet while remaining grounded through real-world research on dreams.
Set in between the events of Inside Out and Inside Out 2, but before the new emotions joined Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, and Fear, Dream Productions follows acclaimed dream director Paula Persimmon (Paula Pell), who is pressured to make another hit dream for the demanding studio head Jean Dewberry (Maya Rudolph). When Riley’s memories need extra processing, the emotions send them over to dream production. It is there that the dream directors come together to make dreams. Some might be joyful, others are scary, or funny, or celebrate athletic achievements. Whatever the case may be, they will directly impact Riley’s decisions. So when the day of the school dance gets closer, Riley starts to get nervous about what she will wear, if she will ask a boy to be her date. She even contemplates about not going at all.
When Paula, a dream director who lives in the past and holds on to faded dream orbs of Riley outgrowing her pacifier on her shelf, is tasked with making a dream about Riley’s tough decision, she goes about it the wrong way. Though Janelle (Ally Maki) – Paula’s dutiful assistant armed with a clipboard and headset – tries to convince her boss to move on, Paula firmly believes that Riley is still attached to cupcakes, Polly Pocket-like toys, and unicorns. So, as one might imagine, the final edit of the dream confuses Riely and frustrates Jean.
When Janelle gets promoted to make her hit dream, Paula makes poor creative decisions, most of which cost her position as the joyful director. If Paula wants to keep her job, she must co-direct a hit film with Jean’s nephew, daydream director Xeni (Richard Ayoade). Xeni is more of an indie director and shares a different vision of making dreams than the corporate studio ones. Though Seni’s known for his day dreams, Jean believes he is ready for night dreams. This puts Paula in a bind. So to make sure that Xeni stays out of her way, she makes him do below-the-line work like making Canadian boyfriends for Riley’s dreams. And while a lot of the props and sets are made by the mind workers, distortion filters allow us to see what Riley sees in her dreams.
Their polarizing dynamics make for quite the duo. Both must learn to get along in the cutthroat business of making Riley’s dream. But they can’t help but get in each other’s way. Paula’s dreams are colorful, bright, and sparkly but based upon outdated trends like Unicorn Clam toys and forgotten milestones like Riley not using her pacifer. Xeni, on the other hand, wants to make auteure dreams. His monochromatic films aren’t mainstream and far too niche.
The series is more of a commentary on what the audience wants to see and how some studio heads and directors lose sight of what’s important when they focus more on accolades and monetary success. And we get to see how much of that success is defined by how Riley’s core emotions react to the dreams. Some are so shocking that the emotions have no choice but to wake Riley up. And some may be so confusing that the control console starts to malfunction, which causes Riley to sleepwalk – an event that angers Jean. However, their roles in this don’t go beyond that as this is a series about the dream makers.
Dream Productions uses the docu-style narrative for the storytelling to take audiences into the world of making dreams. Audiences follow Paula and Xeni along as they often clash creatively. We also get to see how below-the-line workers have to put up with the various egos at play. These dream directors also have to deal with time constraints and budgets. They have to get these dreams in as Riley sleeps, and sometimes they have to act fast if Riley has anything that gets her to sleep sooner, like a warm cup of tea or her nana’s blanket.
Since Dream Productions follows documentary-style storytelling, it gets playful with the confessional. These revealing moments provide hilarious insight into how some characters feel about each other. So, if you like similar docu-style shows like The Office of What We Do In Shadows, you might want to try Dream Productions.
However, the jokes about the filmmaking process and life on a studio lot, as well as the dream jargon, may go over the audience’s heads. Hollywood trades like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are translated into dreamy trades like Sleepy and The Rileywood Reporter. But Pxar has a way of making all of that comprehendible through the use of color and humor. Paula’s loyal dog Mel, short for Melatonin, could put any of the mind workers to sleep the moment they touch the dog.
What makes something like Dream Productions‘ animation so unique is that not only does it bring back the styles that we all know and love, but the dreams allow for other techniques to be introduced to a world that is imperfect, fuzzy, and filled with pill-bodied mind workers. Riley’s drawings of her teenage self become an intricate part of her dreams. However, the visualization of the character is unique as she’s literally a character on paper. Though he movements are limited, she has a broad range of expressions.
Dream Productions isn’t precisely the deep analysis of psychological concepts that we saw in either one of the films, it is a four-episode series that has fun with the world-building, while serving as satire on the filmmaking process and slightly informative on the inner workings of how dreams are made.
8.5/10
All four episodes of Dream Productions drop exclusively on Disney+ on December 11, 2024.
