Dreambuilders goes into the world of dreams for an adventure of two families becoming one. The film centers around pre-teens Minna (Robyn Dempsey) and her new step-sister Jenny (Emma Jenkins) as the two struggle to get along after their families move in together.
When Jenny threatens to have Minna’s beloved hamster sent to an animal shelter, Minna decides she must do something to change her mind by changing her dream. This starts Minna on a path to change Jenny slowly with her newfound dream-hopping power, but there are dangerous consequences to messing with dreams.
The premise and some of the tone could lead audiences to view this as a dream version of Disney’s Inside Out. By delving into the dream world, it tries to conceptualize dreams, the subconscious mind, and the effect they have on the conscious mind. It has the framework for conceptualizing these ideas for children, such as a simpler metaphor of dreams as a floating soundstage, visualization of the mind-space, and colorful humanoid beings who work in your mind. But much like the floating soundstages connecting people's dream worlds with floating railroad tracks, the film’s actual use as a metaphor for exploring the mind is not held up by much.
Dreambuilders might not have intended for this comparison, but even for entertainment value, it leaves much to be desired. The characters are rather simplified with common character tropes as personalities and tragic backstories to elicit empathy. The one-sidedness of the characters is accentuated by the frequently stale dialogue and stiff voice acting. Some of the stiffness might be a result of being dubbed into English. On a good note, the closed captions are well-timed and accurate to the English dialogue. The menu options are easy to navigate for basic closed captions and watching, but the chapter options to jump to a specific part are a bit clunky.
There was some tension between the family and some scary action scenes that might upset younger audiences, including verbal arguments, breaking objects, scary imagery, spiders, and mild peril. On Jenny’s social media, there are additional instances of bullying towards Minna and some of the comments made were not only not age-appropriate, could be triggering to children and adults. The parents offer no real emotional support, and Minna is often asked to push aside her feelings and “put on a happy hat” to please Jenny. Not a recommended purchase. Aud: I, J, P.