In Your Dreams (2025)

This was not nominated for Best Animated Film for the 2026 Oscars but I liked it so much more than Elio, which was--and really--this is going to be very unpopular--more than the K-Pop Demon Slayers movie that has been playing on a loop almost at my grandkids house, they like it so much. There is an "in the beginning" scene where Stevie is a young girl and her happy parents are taking a break from playing music together to make her breakfast. Fast forward to the present. Stevie is now in middle school. Her little brother Elliot annoys her because they share a room, he keeps trying to do magic tricks, and he does not recognize the conflict Mom and Dad are now experiencing. Mom is no longer performing with Dad. She is a teacher and is about to leave for an interview with a job that could mean a lot more money for the family. But they would have to move. Leaving their home in the suburbs is unthinkable to Stevie and Dad. The alternative, Mom’s leaving them behind to take the job, is unbearable. Stevie worries about the stress in her parents’ relationship. She makes breakfast but tells each parent the other one made it for them, to try to bring them closer. And then, as can only happen in an animated movie, Stevie finds a magical dreams book. When she and Elliot recite the incantation together, they find that when they sleep, their conscious selves can enter and change the worlds of their dreams. There is a recurring joke about the way Elliot’s white noise machine puts him into a deep, instant slumber. Over the course of the film, Stevie will learn to appreciate Elliot as a partner. And she will learn that she cannot fix everything, and that’s okay. More important, she will learn to see understanding and new opportunities inside what appeared to be insurmountable problems. It is a fun story line and beautifully animated, so while it did not make the final cut, it really is a good one.