‘Dream Productions’ Review: An ‘Inside Out’ Spinoff Spotlights Disney’s Disdain for TV Shows

“Dream Productions” is less of a TV series and more of a distress signal. Tasked with making an entire show out of whatever scraps were left over from the studio’s film department, the team behind Pixar’s first — and second-to-last — animated series concocted a spinoff to “Inside Out” about chipper, dedicated directors who, despite doing their best day after day, live under constant threat of demotion or outright termination if the dreams they create aren’t immediate and lasting hits. Sure, these diligent artists learn a few personal lessons along the way — “acknowledging fresh point of views” chief among them — but by the time you get there, it’s no surprise the show’s climax involves a crazed studio head producing a literal nightmare designed to ruin a little girl’s life.

Even if the vast majority of franchise TV extensions from Disney+ didn’t already consist of third-rate Marvel movies chopped up indiscriminately into episodes and “Star Wars” shows meant to fill in the gaps between big-screen space adventures, “Dream Productions” would still stand out as a program so misguided, it dashed Pixar’s TV dreams for good.

I’m sorry, dear readers, if my tone seems unnecessarily harsh for a review about a kids show starring Mr. Peanut’s purple aunt (voiced by the legitimately great Paula Pell), but it’s infuriating to think anyone may have lost their job because their employer didn’t consider making TV might require an actual investment in time and resources. Granted, to any parent who lets Disney+ autoplay “Dream Productions” after their children’s bazillionith viewing of “Inside Out” or half-a-bazillionith viewing of “Inside Out 2,” the four-episode limited series could be worth the 94 minutes of peace and quiet. (Although, if your kids aren’t sophisticated enough to watch each lengthy end credits sequence, you’ll only be blessed with about 80 minutes of tranquility.) Still, to this TV critic– nay, to this TV fan, “Dream Productions” isn’t just a barely coherent cash grab riding the coattails of Pixar’s hit movie sequel; it’s part of larger pattern of sloppily put-together streaming shows, which seem to originate whenever Disney+ executives gesture vaguely toward an idea or character in one of their films and say, “Well, that doesn’t meet our standards for a Feature Film, but it’ll make for sufficient slop to feed our streaming subscribers.”

So what are the base ingredients of today’s fine-dining experience? Joy is baked into “Dream Productions”– wait, let me rephrase that for grammatical clarity: “Dream Productions” features plenty of Joy, the character voiced by Amy Poehler in both Pixar motion pictures, who pops in as a form of managerial oversight during each episode. Along with the other four lead emotions, Joy is still, essentially, in charge of Riley (Kensington Tallman), so she’s also kinda, sorta invested in Riley’s dreams — and I don’t mean her hopes and plans for the future. Joy cares deeply about those, but she only keeps one half-asleep eye on Riley’s nighttime hallucinations, which also sounds like the most attention anyone should bestow on this show.

In the world of “Inside Out,” dreams are just memories that may need “extra processing.” Sometimes, that means reframing a promising memory to give Riley added encouragement. Sometimes, it means dwelling on an embarrassing memory to better understand how she felt. Sometimes, it just means watching a unicorn dance on a cloud. A good dream may be remembered for a few weeks or a few years. A bad dream (not a nightmare, just an ineffective dream) evaporates before Riley opens her eyes.

Guiding the creation of these dreams is a bustling film studio known as Dream Productions, where we meet the series’ actual lead character, Paula Persimmon. A veteran director clinging to her past accomplishments, Paula is the fun dream director. She loves being silly and making Riley laugh, so she keeps memories of Riley’s favorite dreams (aka Paula’s hit dreams) on their own shelf and revisits them for inspiration in the present. “I just love making these dreams for Riley,” Paula says. “I hope she never changes.”

Well, guess what? She’s changing! “Dream Productions” takes place after “Inside Out” (when Riley is 11 years old) and before “Inside Out 2” (when she’s 13), pivoting around a relatively minor moment in the girl’s childhood: a school dance. Riley doesn’t know what to wear, who to take, or how to feel about an event with new romantic implications, and her dreams are meant to help her untangle each knotty decision.

‘Dream Productions’Courtesy of Pixar / Disney+

Paula, however, isn’t equipped to loosen anything trickier than a bow, and soon she’s in hot water with the boss. Her assistant director and protege, Janelle (Ally Maki), gets promoted as a possible replacement, and her once-inferior nemesis, Xeni (Richard Ayoade), the nephew to the studio head, is assigned to be her new, uncooperative, artistically delusional A.D.

That’s a lot of characters to establish and relationships to juggle in a four-episode limited series, and “Dream Productions” never gets a handle on either. Xeni is a pretentious indie filmmaker who starts out shooting daydreams (a lesser art than directing actual dreams), but it’s never clear if he’s being promoted beyond his abilities or if he’s truly misunderstood by an older director who’s obviously out of touch. He’s both a villain and a victim, undermining Paula’s lame plans and being undermined by Paula as she scrambles to keep her job. Janelle is basically the same character as Xeni, only slightly more experienced and much closer to Paula. She’s eager to prove herself (same as Xeni) but does she still need Paula’s guidance, or does she just need her old boss’ support?

Paula, meanwhile, has the same arc as the protagonist in the first “Inside Out.” Just as Joy didn’t know how to deal with Riley’s evolving emotions, embodied by the arrival of Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Paula doesn’t know how to deal with Riley’s evolving emotions, embodied by all these youths telling her she just doesn’t get it. You could argue that Xeni or Janelle embody the change Paula fears, but they don’t seem to understand Riley any better than Paula, and the story doesn’t bother to support its own metaphor. Instead, their characters descend into a competitive power struggle where the reasoning behind each learned lesson is muddied — despite the majority of “Dream Productions” being told direct-to-camera via a didactic mockumentary style. (A rushed finale pivots on a desperate overstep, which sends “Inside Out’s” wonky world-building straight off a cliff.)

Inattention to characters, structure, and setting? You can’t get away with that in a TV show, even when it’s evident “Dream Productions” had no interest in embracing TV — or no option to do so. Hemmed in by the constraints of its creation, the series always feels like it’s serving a purpose outside itself. Characters aren’t distinguished enough to make you care about their haphazard arcs half as much as the recurring cameos you get from Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness (all with the “Inside Out 2” voice team). Episodes don’t feel like episodes, so much as chunks of one long blob-like thing meant to congeal around the edges of each movie. Even the concept of daydreams illustrates a maddening blind spot toward the show’s chosen medium: Why would daydreams equate to avant-garde films, when daytime TV is right there? Daydreams are typically exaggerated versions of reality, when your mind isn’t stimulated enough by what’s happening in reality and starts playing out a routine scenario to ridiculous extremes — like, I don’t know, a daytime soap?!

Just as naming a phosphorescent protagonist after the feeling of happiness doesn’t guarantee those watching will experience it for themselves, calling “Dream Productions” a TV show doesn’t make it one. Even limited series tend to last longer than the minimum length of a feature film and, more importantly, most TV shows aren’t forced to live in the shadow of their big-screen brothers, existing only in the forsaken corners of pre-established I.P., never allowed to dream a dream all their own.

Grade: D

“Dream Productions” premieres Wednesday, December 11 on Disney+. All four episodes will be released at once.