If the original From the inside out prepared children for the world of adult emotional complexity, Disney+ Dream Productions is intended to prepare children for the world of adult entertainment clichés.

Basically HBOs The franchise For children, the animated series is a completely harmless spin-off, pointlessly sandwiched between the two From the inside out Films in a way that adds almost nothing to the Pixar universe, but doesn’t take anything away either. It’s not bad, just dull, memorable and strangely lacking in the psychological insight that made the first film so great and helped the second film ultimately succeed on a sentimental level as well.

Created by Mike Jones (Soul, Luca), the show takes place in the dream production studio introduced in the first film. The Studio, in case you’ve forgotten, is a Hollywood backyard in our brains, filled with colorful Minion-like blobs/artisans who work together on cinematic night visions that help people process unprocessed memories, traumas and desires.

Paula Pell voices Paula Persimmon, the celebrated dream director of Riley (Kensington Tallman). The latter is portrayed here as a 12-year-old – about a year younger than the Riley from the second film, who is essentially a different person, but not for any reason portrayed in Dream productions. It is very strange that this was conceived as an “interquel” but does not answer any questions about the two texts it stands between.

Sure, it’s convenient that you can watch Dream productions without having seen both From the inside out or Inside Out 2but it’s really, really disjointed. Yes, Amy Poehler’s Joy and some of her colleagues from headquarters make fleeting appearances, but they add so little to the plot that every time a personified emotion made a cameo, I found myself screaming, “Go away!” This is not your story!” on my television.

This is Paula’s story, and it’s not particularly interesting. The kicker is that Paula was once the best director of Riley’s dreams, spinning bizarre stories that fascinated the girl when she was two or three years old. Dreams like Farewell, my Paciwhich allowed Riley to break away from her beloved pacifier, were such huge successes that Paula was able to get away with it for a decade.

But now that Riley is hitting puberty, Jean Dewberry (Maya Rudolph), studio head of Dream Productions, has finally reached the point: “What have you done for me lately?” The problem: Paula doesn’t understand much of it Person Riley has become and her reliance on childhood and childhood icons like Riley’s mermaid unicorn toy has brought Paula and her dreams to the brink of insignificance.

Another problem is that Paula’s long-time assistant director Janelle (Ally Maki) – who is probably the second lead in the series but has no personality other than “Paula’s long-time assistant director” – is ready to strike out on her own as a director. That leaves Paula with the insufferably artistic Xeni (Richard Ayoade), who has only worked as a daydream director but is Jean’s nephew or something.

The race is on to see which dream director can help Riley deal with her neuroses about an upcoming school dance and associated concerns like “What dress should I wear?” and “Since the second movie convinced everyone that Riley might be gay, how much time can we spend on Riley’s crushes on imaginary boys so that her boring heteronormativity can be safely confirmed?”

There are a variety of possible approaches if you’re doing a TV spin-off that isn’t a spin-off but you really want to associate with a very popular IP. Two easy options are to make a show that reflects the arc of the original IP across the season, or to make a show where every single chapter reflects the arc of the original IP in a very compressed space.

An example of the latter would be James Gunns Creature Commandsin which each part is meant to play off Gunn’s “disreputable character who isn’t such a freak if you understand his traumatic backstory” structure Guardians of the Galaxy And The Suicide Squad. So every episode is full of chaos and melodrama, with very mixed results.

Jones goes the other way. Dream productions is an 80-minute film spread over four parts: Silly Episode, Silly Episode, Silly Episode, Unearned Attempt to Bring It All Together Emotionally Episode.

The series begins with three consecutive chapters in which there is almost no effort to convey even a limited feeling. Part of this is obviously an attempt to differentiate yourself from others From the inside out. But when it comes to differentiation strategies: “It’s like From the inside outjust that you don’t care about anyone or anything” sounds completely flawed to me. Paula isn’t really a character. She has a dog named Melatonin who puts people to sleep, and that will immediately evoke some sympathy, but I find it hard to imagine anyone rooting for Paula’s success and not particularly caring if Riley does something like that does or doesn’t dance.

Instead, Dream productions offers young viewers two of their favorite things: mockumentary aesthetics (kids love a twist on a genre that means nothing to them) and behind-the-scenes behind-the-scenes insider third-league baseball in Hollywood (kids love tongue-in-cheek references to how lazy Teamsters are).

Jokes like characters reading the trade magazines Sleepy And The Rileywood Reporter I’m getting to the point where I’m meaningless to anyone under the age of five (seven year olds and older love). The Hollywood Reporter) and doesn’t reach a very high standard of wordplay for more knowledgeable viewers. I suspect this will apply to almost all of the industry’s “satire.” Peak Pixar – and From the inside out is Peak Pixar – a perfect mix of charming animation and extensive gags for children and boundary-pushing, ambitious animation and intelligent dialogue for adults. This means that most of these values ​​simply cannot be achieved.

Dream productions is undeniably cute, although the Blob characters bear some resemblance behind the scenes. Weirdness occasionally ensues, but what that has to do with the decision to format the series as a mockumentary is a mystery to me. The talking head segments and nervous perspective tricks that make the style work The office are applied inconsistently.

Mostly it feels like they decided to make the series as a mockumentary because mockumentaries are intimate. I suppose that in some ways excuses there being no meaning to any of it, none of the eye-opening wonder that both provide From the inside out Films conveyed through complex concepts visualized in amazing ways. In the short term, if not the long term, these films recontextualize things we think we understand—the construction of the “self,” the compartmentalization of emotions, or even the production of dreams—in new ways that are colorful, vivid, and immediately alive .

Whether Dream Productions When it comes to exploring dreams, nightmares, or daydreams, I never thought about how what was on the screen related to my own dreaming process—let alone thought about more provocative questions about the missing interface between feelings and dreams , since joy and company… as I said, present only as sporadic intruders.

These cameos are from the original voices from the films, but the roles are so sparse that it could be almost anyone. This is also probably the least demanding job that Pell, and especially Rudolph, has ever had with a vocal assignment. Of the new additions to the cast, only Ayoade does anything funny, but Xeni’s pretentious banter could have used a written attack from someone like Richard Ayoade.

With only four episodes, each less than 20 minutes before the credits, Dream Productions is far too short and lighthearted to be deeply disappointing. To be deeply disappointing, it would need depth. File this under “It’s Fine” in the Pixar cabinet of faint praise.