‘Dream Productions’ Review: Pixar Spin-Off Curse Strikes Again

I hate to say it, but Disney+’s catalogue seems to be the bane of creativity. Filled with projects that don’t demand to be seen, only created to flesh out a streaming service with messy and poorly put-together television series. From weak franchise sequels such as The Santa Clauses, to catfishes like Moon Knight, the service proves itself at fault time and time again. With Dream Productions, the show seems to fit both into the former and a new category. Read our Dream Productions review.

Dream Productions is the latest Pixar spin-off, branching the time between Inside Out and its sequel. The show follows a crew, in a mockumentary format, that creates the dreams 12-year-old Riley (Kensington Tallman) experiences as she grows up. 

The four-episode miniseries very clearly takes inspiration from the television phenomenon The Office, with the way it’s shot and the way the script is written, opting for a more fast-paced and humorous environment than the usual Inside Out heart. The result, to me at least, is a weak follow-up to what was a great film in Inside Out 2. The show lacks that feel-good charm that audiences have come to love in those two movies.

On the contrary, however, conceptually, the show is a blast. Playing around with fantastic ideas of lucid dreams, sleepwalking and more, it’s definitely an interesting addition to the franchise in regard to world-building. It’s far from perfect of course, with some aspects not making sense compared to previous concepts established prior.

Animation-wise, it’s subpar in comparison to Pixar, but when compared to a standard animation series, it’s entirely serviceable. Pixar has set the bar so high that their best is expected of them, even though the company at its worst looks better than 70% of animated projects in today’s cinematic landscape. 

At its core, the show suffers from poor execution. This can be seen in the poor script that envelopes some decent concepts, dragging down the overall series where it’s nothing more than an excuse for audiences to pass the time, and for Disney+ to release another project over the holiday season. The show sadly continues a trend with Pixar spin-offs being considerably worse than the mainline entries- looking at you Lightyear. 

Dream Productions stars Paula Pell as Paula Persimmon, Richard Ayoade as Xeni, as well as the emotions of Inside Out. All four episodes of the miniseries are streaming in full on Disney+. 

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