How Is 'Dream Productions' Connected to 'Inside Out'?

Dream Productions features several returning characters from the franchise. Kensington Tallman, who voiced Riley in Inside Out 2, reprises her role as the now-teenaged Riley, while Kyle MacLachlan and Diane Lane return as Riley's parents. Along for the ride are Riley's best friends, Grace and Bree, played respectively by Grace Lu and Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green. Dream Productions is presented in a mockumentary format, so Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), and other emotions appear in talking head interviews.

Does Dream Productions Studio Appear in ‘Inside Out’?

Dream Productions studio is seen in Inside Out when Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong (Richard Kind) are trying to find their way back to headquarters. The "train of thought" doesn't run while Riley is asleep, so they need a way to wake Riley up. Joy leads them to Dream Productions, which looks like a Hollywood movie studio. Joy tries to create a dream so exciting that it will wake Riley, but eventually realizes that only a scary dream will awake the teenager. She and Sadness create a terrifying nightmare using Jangles, a clown from Riley’s subconscious.

This sequence establishes that most of the people who work on dreams are monochromatic blobs, but dream directors use a "reality distortion filter" to make them look like people from Riley's life. The sequence also introduces the character of "Dream Director," played by Pell. She’s the one who gets angry at Joy and Sadness for crashing her set and trying to wake Riley up.

Who Are the Main Characters in ‘Dream Productions’?

In Dream Productions, the previously unnamed dream director played by Pell is developed into Paula Persimmon. Paula is a once successful dream director who now finds that her career is in jeopardy. Her former assistant Janelle (Ally Maki), her new assistant Xeni (Richard Ayoade), and the studio head Jean Dewberry (Maya Rudolph) push Paula to create more mature dreams. These three are all original characters for the series, who don't appear in the Inside Out movies.

Before Xeni becomes Paula's assistant, he's a daydream director. The idea of daydreams comes up in Inside Out when the emotions look through various wild visions of what Riley's new home in San Francisco will be like. But, Inside Out didn't get into how daydreams are made. Dream Productions introduced the idea that daydreams are like indie films, while actual sleeping dreams are big studio movies.

Like Inside Out 2, Dream Productions centers on how things are changing now that Riley is growing up. In Inside Out 2, Joy reckons with Anxiety (Maya Hawke) and the other new emotions, telling her that she can't be in charge anymore and Riley needs more sophisticated emotions. Similarly, in Dream Productions, Paula has been creating hit dreams since Riley was a toddler, starting with the one that convinced her to stop using a pacifier. Now that Riley is a tween, Paula is faced with the challenge of creating more mature dreams.

In the past, Paula directed dreams that heavily relied on Rainbow Unicorn, a dream actress who appeared in Inside Out, when Joy approaches her on the studio lot to tell her what a fan she is of her work. In the series, Paula discovers she can no longer rely on Rainbow Unicorn now that Riley is maturing. Paula decides to lean into Riley's newfound tween interest in boys. She begins to utilize Imaginary Boyfriend, also known as the Canadian Boyfriend, introduced in the first movie. The Imaginary Boyfriend Paula uses in her dreams is the same character that Joy used in the film when she created dozens of copies of him to stack on top of each other and attempt to climb them.

Dream Productions is available to stream in the U.S. on Disney+.

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