Alex Woo is the founder and CEO of Kuku Studios, an independent animation company. Woo was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He moved to Hong Kong as a teenager. He later got his degree from NYU where he earned an Oscar at the 31st Student Academy Awards in 2004. He joined Pixar Animation in 2005 as a story artist where he worked on several of their major projects. His first was Ratatouille (2007). He lasted over a decade and his last project at Pixar was Incredibles 2 (2018). His debut work under Kuku Studios was Go! Go! Cory Carson (2020), an adaptation of a toy line. This is Woo's debut feature as director.
I've talked about the Pixar formula, which are story elements, that Pixar uses repeatedly. It's bled over to Disney Animation. Its current release, Zootopia 2 (2025), has echoes of that Pixar formula. Its effectiveness is a bit blunted in that blockbuster sequel. Here, Woo takes all the best tactics from that Pixar formula and applies it very well. Some of the best Pixar films center on domestic issues and families dealing with internal strife. Having worked on Incredibles 2, which is essentially about a family of four, it's not surprising that Woo's debut feature is also about a family of four.
Jolie Hoang-Rappaport (The Monkey King and Watchmen) voices the character of Stevie, the narrator and the protagonist. She's a teenage girl, probably 12 or 13. She lives with her younger brother, Elliot, voiced by Elias Janssen (The Mindy Project and Jane the Virgin), and her parents. They live in some suburban area in Minnesota. Stevie is noticing that her happy family isn't as happy as it used to be. She first noticed a change when her younger brother was born and was a screaming baby. She noticed another change when the careers of her parents started to be not what they both might want. She particularly notices her parents quietly arguing about it.
Her fear is that her parents will split up and divorce, which will result in their lives changing for the worse. She tries what she can to keep her parents together, reminding them of happier times. However, when her mom gets a job offer in Duluth, a place her father doesn't necessarily want to go, Stevie's fears are amplified and feel more urgent. One day, she learns there is a magical being named the Sandman who can make dreams come true, almost like a genie. Stevie's dream is to have her parents not split up and stay married no matter what.
In a reversal of A Nightmare of Elm Street (1984), the main plot becomes Stevie wanting to fall asleep, so she can find this mythical creature and have her dream become literally true or be made her new reality. In the 1984 horror, the kids were trying to stay awake and not lose consciousness. Here, it's the opposite. Stevie is desperate to enter into slumber. It's not to say that there isn't a Freddy Krueger-like figure here because there is and her name is Nightmara, voiced by Gia Carides (Big Little Lies and My Big Fat Greek Wedding), the literal embodiment of people's nightmares and fears.
Nightmara remains an unseen antagonist. She simply manifests the fears of Stevie and Elliot. Those manifestations in the dream world are brilliantly realized and a lot of fun as well. Going inside a child's head and dealing with their emotions reminded me of Inside Out (2015). There's a montage of those manifestations that really impressed me. I was already impressed with the storytelling up until that point. Mainly, I was impressed with the horror and the pop culture references. Yes, there were on-the-nose music references like the use of Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" and the older song "Mr. Sandman," but there's a Chuck E. Cheese reference that was more creepy than all of Five Nights at Freddy's (2023).
Woo is clearly inspired by a wide swath of media. Japanese anime is referenced here. There was a scene that felt inspired by Jim Henson's Labyrinth (1986). I also got vibes from Wolfgang Petersen's The NeverEnding Story (1984), which is about a boy entering a magical land via reading a book. Elliot is the one that finds a book about the Sandman that kicks off the premise here. I've made comparisons to Pixar films all throughout, but this film is produced by Netflix. I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the parallels to another animated feature on the streamer, that of Over the Moon (2020), another story with Chinese connections that centers on a young girl, along with her brother, traveling across space and time to meet a magical being.
I haven't seen every animated film in 2025, but this one stands out as one of the best. Current predictions have this film not getting nominated at the 98th Academy Awards, but in my estimation it should. My only nitpick is how the character of the dad is depicted. Simu Liu (Barbie and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) voices the dad. Liu is very muscular in real-life. He's very athletic and super-ripped, but the visual depiction of his dad character is a very slubby guy. It's a nitpick, but it's also a funny joke, given who the voice actor is.
Rated PG for thematic content, scary images, action, peril and rude humor.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 30 mins.
Available on Netflix.