East Bay animation studio makes its dream come true

BERKELEY, Calif. — As a student at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, writer and director Alex Woo’s goal was to make an animated feature film.

“Every film student and every aspiring filmmaker, what they want to do is they want to make a feature film on the biggest scale. That was always the dream,” Woo shares.

After partnering with fellow animators Stanley Moore and Tim Hahn, Woo started Kuku Studios in Berkeley, California. And now, nine years later, his dream has come true with his first feature film, “In Your Dreams.”

“We want to tell stories that make people cry tears of laughter because they’re laughing so hard and then tears of pathos because they’re so deeply moved by the characters in the story,” Woo said.

“In Your Dreams” follows two siblings, Stevie and Elliot, who discover a magical book that allows them to enter their dreams. While in the dream world, they try to find the Sandman, hoping he can help solve the troubles in their parents’ marriage.

“It feels like the movies that I grew up watching and loving and being really deeply impacted by. It’s just a really exciting opportunity to be a part of that, potentially for somebody watching today,” actor Simi Liu, the voice of “dad,” said.

Woo’s filmmaking career started with an impressive foundation.

“I spent ten years at Pixar, and I really think of my time there as a master class or a Ph.D. in storytelling. Almost everything I learned about storytelling, I learned from my time there. I got to work with such incredible filmmakers. I worked with Brad Bird on Ratatouille and Andrew Stanton on Wall-E. John Lasseter on Cars 2,” said Woo.

Woo spent countless hours perfecting his film, hoping to make a truly connect with his audience.

“The main goal, really, is to make something that touches people in so many ways. The Bay Area has given me so much as an artist and as a filmmaker. And so I just want to continue that legacy that the cinematic forefathers have sort of established for me,” Woo said.

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