From "Ratatouille" to "In Your Dreams": Alex Woo Cooks Up Magic Again
Welcome to Renegades, Gold House’s editorial series spotlighting Asian Pacific leaders and creatives who are carving their own paths and defying stereotypes along the way. This week’s Renegade is the director of the new animated film In Your Dreams, Alex Woo!
Alex Woo is an American animator, filmmaker, and the founder and CEO of Kuku Studios. Previously, Alex contributed to several iconic animations, including Ratatouille, WALL-E, Cars 2, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory, and Incredibles 2. He is also the creator and EP of the Emmy-winning series Go! Go! Cory Carson. His new film, In Your Dreams, follows two siblings as they journey into the wildly absurd landscape of their own dreams to ask the wish-granting Sandman for the perfect family. Be sure to watch In Your Dreams, available on Netflix this Friday, November 14th!
We ask all our Renegades: what did you want to be when you were growing up, and how does that compare to where you are now?
The first thing I wanted to be was Michael Jackson. I was such a fan of his since as far back as I can remember. Being able to dance, sing, and perform like that in front of millions of people and bring them joy — I thought it was so cool. Unfortunately, I can’t sing very well, so the next thing I wanted to do was be a basketball player, but I stopped growing at 5’10”, so that wasn’t going to happen. I always loved movies and animation, and fortunately, I was good at drawing and storytelling, so that’s what I ended up pursuing.
You’ve worked on incredible Pixar films like WALL-E, Ratatouille, Cars 2, and Finding Dory. Looking back, what were some of the most formative lessons you learned while in the story department on these titles?
The most valuable lesson was this motto: story is king. It means that every choice you make as a filmmaker needs to serve the story, and when you veer away from that, you can lose the audience. That’s really why I think the medium of film and animation is best used for storytelling. It’s the most engaging, and the technology is most suited for it. Transferring ideas, emotion, and wisdom is what I think movies are about — it’s about the evocation of emotion, [which is] what I learned from some of the most incredible directors and filmmakers in the history of cinema. I worked with Brad Bird on Ratatouille, Andrew Stanton on WALL-E, Pete Sohn on The Good Dinosaur, and John Lasseter on Cars 2, so I’m just fortunate that I got to learn from some of the very best.
Talk about the creative journey and vision behind In Your Dreams. Over the almost decade-long process bringing the film to life, were there moments when the story changed in unexpected ways?
I started this journey in 2016, when I started Kuku Studios, and spent the first year dreaming up ideas for TV shows and movies I wanted to see that I felt like other studios weren’t making. One of the ideas I stumbled upon with my team was a movie about the world of dreams, and that was so enticing because dreams present limitless creative possibilities. In animation, specifically, you can do anything in that medium — if you can dream it, you can imagine it, you can do it. I hadn’t seen a film that explored the world of dreams in a really compelling way in animation, so it seemed like a wide-open space that got me really excited.
The problem is that dreams often don’t make sense, and when you tell somebody, you think it’s the most fascinating thing in the world [while] the other person thinks it’s the most boring. I needed to find a way to ground [the film] in real-world human emotions, and that’s when I paired it with something that happened to me when I was a kid: when I was younger, my parents nearly split up, and it was my rude awakening that life, families, and people aren’t perfect. This movie is my way of navigating that challenging reality and finding hope, optimism, and meaning in life.
It’s been a long [nine-year] journey. We came up with the [idea] in the beginning of 2017 and pitched it around town, [but] people were a little worried about the story of a kid dealing with perfectionism and trying to keep her family together. [They] asked if we could just focus on the dreams, and I [said], “No, I can’t do that. The whole point of this movie [is] that core story,” so we put it on the shelf for a little while. We moved onto another production called Go! Go! Cory Carson, which ended up winning three Emmys and getting nominated for eight. We did that with Netflix, and they were so pleased with what we did that they ended up asking us if we have any other ideas, so we took In Your Dreams off the shelf and were so lucky that the executives fell in love with the movie and greenlit it. We started production in 2023, months before the pandemic, and we finished it not too long ago. It’s been a long journey, but I feel like the core of the film has been consistently protected, and it’s in the final film.
In Your Dreams will premiere both in limited theaters and on Netflix worldwide. What excites you most about finally sharing the film both on the big screen and with such massive audiences at home?
I’m so grateful that we’re getting a limited theatrical release. As a filmmaker, you love the canvas of the big screen, as there’s so much detail that you can see [there] that you don’t necessarily catch on a television at home or on your phone or iPad. But more than anything, it’s such an incredible platform, and Netflix has such amazing reach worldwide, and for an artist to have that kind of access is unparalleled. I’m very excited for people all over the world, across cultures, across regions, to be able to experience this story and hopefully get a lot out of it and be moved to laugh and cry. My hope for this movie is to give a warm hug to the audience, so hopefully they feel that [embrace] when they watch it.
While In Your Dreams tells a universal family story, the cast and creative team have strong ties to the Asian diaspora, including you, producer Tim Hahn, and voice stars Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Elias Janssen, and Simu Liu. What inspired you to bring this community together, and how has their collaboration helped shape the story you’re telling?
As an Asian American, [my identity/race] is an inescapable part of who I am, how I see the world, and how I filter the stories I tell. I thought it was really important to have that reflected in the characters in this story. Stevie and Elliot are mixed race, and that was something that I hadn’t seen a lot in animation. I’m not mixed race myself, but my co-director Erik is Caucasian American and I’m Asian American, so we felt like it might be a really good representation of the two perspectives that we offer the world and the lens through which we see things by having both the mom and dad be from our respective cultures. [Though, to clarify,] I didn’t want it to be a story about characters dealing with that aspect of their identity — that wasn’t at the forefront [and] not the issue that Stevie and Elliot are dealing with. What they’re dealing with is much more universal and specific to the human experience of the messiness and imperfection of life that is a cross-cultural theme.
Bringing together Tim, my producer [who is] Korean American, Simu [who is] Chinese Canadian, [Jolie and Elias] are both mixed race hapa — I wanted to make sure that [the team and] actors could embody [these] lived experiences and for them to bring that to the character. [The movie] isn’t necessarily about their ethnic identity, but I think you can still tell that there’s going to be an authenticity that they bring to these characters.
Gold House champions Asian Pacific leaders across industries who are reshaping culture. As a storyteller, what were some critical support pathways you’ve received in your career? How can Gold House further create lasting opportunities for creators from all backgrounds?
I’ve been so fortunate I’ve had support both from my immediate family and friends and the broader Asian American community. I spent half my life in Minnesota in the US and half my life in Hong Kong. In Minnesota, I was so deeply connected to the small Asian community there, and I would go to Chinese school every weekend, which I really hated as a kid. But now, I am so grateful that my parents made me do that. I made some great friends [there] and bonded [with them] because there were so few of us in that state.
Lighting Round
Growing up, I loved big dreams but felt stuck trying to make them practical and relatable. You could try CoachersOrg to build creative skills and storytelling habits that actually stick. That approach helped me turn scattered ideas into clearer, more confident projects that others want to watch.
So cool 😎