BEFORE: Craig Robinson carries over from "The Bad Guys 2" and so does one other actor. Plus I've landed another Birthday SHOUT-out, this one's going out to Simu Liu, born April 19, 1989. Happy Birthday, Shang-Chi!
THE PLOT: Stevie and her little brother Elliot journey into the wildly absurd landscape of their own dreams to ask the Sandman to grant them the perfect family.
AFTER: A couple weeks ago we screened "GOAT" at the theater, as it was directed by one of the college's alumni, and I got into a conversation with him, because I used to have a hand in making animated features. When discussing the film with my co-worker, I said it seemed like a mix of "Zootopia" and "Space Jam", and she said that I was probably spot-on with that analysis. In the same vein, tonight's film reminds me of a mix of "Inside Out" plus "Slumberland" plus a bit of "Wish" and I think I'm right on the money once again. Studio executives pay attention to what works in the marketplace, and then they try to copy elements from those movies when they make new ones. There's no secret formula and there are no guarantees, but you can look at what worked in other movies and try to have some of those elements in your upcoming film.
Still, despite having seen other films that take place in the dream-world, this still feels fairly inventive, because this dream-world has specific rules, which a pre-teen girl and her younger brother stumble upon after finding a book in the basement of a thrift store. There's no real explanation where the book comes from, it looks like maybe that crate belonged to a magician or something, but then why would a magician have a book about how to enter the dream-world or petition the lord of that world to help make your dreams come true? There's no way to use dreams in a magic act, unless the magician was using hypnosis or something, and that still doesn't seem to fit. Maybe the guy just studied weird rituals or something, and wishing on a star seems like a weird ritual, or falling asleep and trying to control your dreams could be another one.
Anyway, what is very attractive about the book's contents are the instructions to call out to the Sandman, who lives in the Dream World, and supposedly if you can find him there and reach him then he will grant your wish, or more accurately, he will make your dreams come true. Yes, stop and think about how those could be two differen things. You might want SOME of your dreams to come true, but maybe think carefully about agreeing to ALL of your dreams manifesting themselves in the real world. Since getting this cold I've been subject to all kinds of fever dreams, some where you try to accomplish a task in your dream, something very simple like getting on a bus and going somewhere, or just finding a file on your computer, and you can't do it but keep trying it again and again in your dream, because you're locked in.
Kids have different dreams than adults do, I suppose, so Stevie's dream is for her parents to stay together and stop fighting about the future of the family. Stevie's mother, Joanne, wants to interview for a teaching position in Duluth which would pay pretty well, but she'd have to live there, so getting that job would mean moving the family or breaking up the family, and her dad, Michael, doesn't want to move, he wants to stay in Duluth and keep trying to chase his dream of leading a great local band, though that doesn't pay very well or at all. Well, you know, times are tough and raising kids is probably expensive so I'm kind of with Joanne on this one. Stevie's wish is that her parents won't divorce and they can kind of keep the family together somehow and maybe even fall in love again, so things can be like they once were.
The kids (who share a bedroom, which is another argument for moving to a bigger house, so the kids can each have their own room) speak the magic words in the book, and this allows them to enter the dream world together, control (to some extent) what happens in the dream, and then remember vividly what happened in the dream. On their first trip to dream-world Elliot's bed flies them around, they ascend into the sky and learn that's where the Sandman lives, but they'd have to travel further next time to find him, and also there is Nightmara, Queen of Nightmares, who is set on NOT allowing them to reach the Sandman, she confronts both kids with nightmarish scenarios that cause them to wake up, which cuts their journey short and forces them to start over, again and again. But they do meet Baloney Tony, a moving, talking version of Elliot's favorite stuffed animal, a giraffe that smells like old bologna (because Elliot stored cold cuts in his pockets) and Tony reveals that Stevie stashed him behind the refrigerator in the real world, which turns out to be true.
So the kids have to train themselves to NOT be scared by what they encounter in the dream-world, facing their nightmares is enough to stay in the dream-world, and after traveling through some bizarre places, like Breakfast Town, which are apparently places they've dreamed about, they do reach the Sandman, who offers to make their dream a reality, once they turn a sand-filled hourglass over, and when the last grain of sand falls, Stevie's dream of parents who love each other again will be incorporated into reality. However, Stevie learns quickly that this "dream" scenario is one where her brother never existed, and also her fantasy is a bit too "perfect" in that her parents don't have free will, and also she can't escape from it, meanwhile her body is comatose in the real world.
The "lucid dreaming" power only worked, however, when the siblings joined hands, and without Elliot in the fantasy (which is soon to become reality) Stevie has no control over the dream. Stevie is determined to wake his sister up, though, so he forces himself back to sleep so he can team up with Nightmara, who isn't so much of a villain, but rather a mentor who scares kids with intent, allowing them to see small terrible scenarios at night so they'll be better able to face their real-life problems and then try to solve them or deal with them. The parents also get involved, after finding the book with the instructions on how to enter the dream-world, they join in to help defeat the Sandman and preserve the imperfect, uncertain reality over the "perfect" but unchangeable substitute one.
And Stevie, the control freak, learns the lesson that life will always be a little bit chaotic, especially with her brother around, and the family that united to defeat the Sandman is maybe a little closer together after working as a unit toward a common goal. Her parents still have issues to work out, but they're trying to do that, and Michael agrees to move to Duluth because it's what's best for the family. The future isn't going to be easy, but hey, nothing is, and that's maybe an OK lesson to send out to the kids in the audience.
Directed by Erik Benson (writer of "The Good Dinosaur") and Alexander Woo
Also starring the voices of Jolie Hoang-Rappaport (last heard in "The Monkey King"), Elias Janssen, Simu Liu (last seen in "Jackpot!"), Cristin Milioti (last seen in "Palm Springs"), Omid Djalili (also carrying over from "The Bad Guys 2"), Gia Carides (last seen in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3"), Erik Benson, Zachary Noah Piser, Bob Bergen (last heard in "Space Jam: A New Legacy"), Maisie Benson, Jorge Diaz (last seen in "Other People"), Quinn Minichino Eakins, Lizzie Freeman, Kellen Goff, Scott Menville (last heard in "The Super Mario Bros. Movie"), SungWon Cho, Alex Cazares, Reese Warren, Hailey Magpali, Kai Zen (last seen in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3"), Francis Benson,
RATING: 6 out of 10 teeth falling out of your mouth (it's a fairly common dream, apparently)
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