Director relates to Netflix's 'In Your Dreams' story

For Alex Woo, the director behind In Your Dreams, the story is relatable to his own experiences.

In this latest Netflix animated movie, "a pair of young siblings as they navigate a fantastical dream world, seeking the mythical Sandman in hopes that he can fix their family."

“When I was 6 or 7 years old, I woke up one morning and my mom had her bags packed,” says the filmmaker in an interview with Variety. 

He recalls, “She was at the front door, and I had no idea what was going on. She had to gently explain to me and my brother that she was going away to figure out things for our family. I didn’t really know what that meant, but I knew things were about to change.”

Moreover, Alex expands on how the idea of In Your Dreams came into being. "It coincided with the inception of our company," he says. "I left Pixar in 2016 and spent the first year or two dreaming up different ideas for movies and TV shows that we wanted to see."

The director continues, "We realized it’s hard to give a dream movie stakes because anything can happen, so that was the big challenge. We knew we wanted to do something in the dream world, but we needed an emotional core to the story."

"That’s when I brought up this thing that happened to me when I was 6 or 7 years old. I woke up one morning, and my mom had her bags packed, Alex notes. 

"She was at the front door, and I had no idea what was going on. She had to gently explain to me and my brother that she was going away to figure out things for our family."

"I didn’t really know what that meant, but I knew things were about to change. A lot of this movie was inspired by that experience," the filmmaker concludes.

In Your Dreams is streaming on Netflix.