Kuku Studios in Berkeley set to release 1st full movie, ‘In Your Dreams’

BERKELEY Just two miles or so from Pixar s -acre Wonderland-like campus in Emeryville a smaller but still-impressive animation studio has sprouted up and is starting to flower even more Launched in by former Pixar colleagues Alex Woo Stanley Moore and Tim Hahn Kuku Studios now commands one floor of the Zaentz Media Center in Berkeley and is seeing one of its biggest dreams materialize the debut of its first feature-length film In Your Dreams The PG film drops Nov on Netflix after a modern limited run in theaters It s an original work that features first-rate animation a talented voice cast that includes Marvel Shang-Chi star Simu Liu and a poignant but fantastical storyline about squabbling siblings Stevie and Elliott seeking the consul of the mythical Sandman so they can help save their parents troubled marriage The idea to set the studio s first film around dreams which include a breakfast land that turns extra creepy got tossed around early in the company s brainstorming process Dreams are such a universal experience reported Woo the CEO and the film s co-director and co-writer They transcend lifestyle They transcend time We also still don t know why we dream which is a great space for mythology and prediction But to make the story truly connect it required getting grounded in reality That s where Woo s background helped shape the story I sort of drew on my own personal experience when I was a six or seven years old the St Paul Minnesota native and San Francisco resident explained I woke up one morning and my mom was at the front door of our house with her bags packed and she had to gently explain to me and my brother that she was going away for a little bit to figure things out for herself and my family As a kid that s really scary I just remembered at the time watching my mom drive away All I sought in the whole world was to try and find a way to keep my family together That story inspired particular of what happens and is guaranteed to give viewers all the feels And that s exactly the studio s primary purpose seeking to be the go-to studio for making audiences laugh till they cry and to tear up with emotions Ku in fact translates in Chinese to cry In Your Dreams marks the next big step for the growing company We spent the first year just sort of dreaming up ideas for TV shows and movies that we sought to see that we felt no one else was making stated Woo who attended New York University Tisch School of the Arts and was a director of maturation at Lucasfilm before he went to Pixar where he became the lead story writer on Finding Dory and worked on Ratatouille Wall-E and The Good Dinosaur He left the studio about years ago Kuku Studios first burst on the scene with the sweet-natured and adorable Netflix series Go Go Cory Carson an energetic blast that follows the adventures of a small anthropomorphic car that s suffering from confidence issues The Emmy-winning series is on its sixth season and was inspired by the Go Go Smart Wheels line of toys But it s In Your Dreams that pours the foundation of what future studio offerings will be like and what Woo wants to bring to the table As an artist and a filmmaker I just want to tell the truth and that s what people gravitate towards he revealed So everything that we do we try to find the emotional truth of what the characters are going through what they experience We never want to sugarcoat anything We never want to present a contrived version of the story In Your Dreams a film about a young sister and brother going on an adventure hoping to save their parents' marriage is the debut full-length release from Kuku Studios and is available on Netflix on Nov Kuku Studios That approach appealed to the in-demand Liu who voices a dad and struggling musician who is also struggling to realize his own stalled dreams I m not a dad but I think I want to be someday and that was one of the big reasons that drew me to the project and when Alex first sent me the script I was just really moved by the family dynamic and really excited to step into the role of father for the first time albeit in a voice form he mentioned Woo is particularly happy about being part of the Bay Area film area A lot of the films that I grew up with that really inspired me were made by Bay Area filmmakers he announced singling out Star Wars Pixar s numerous titles and of class the Oscar-winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest which was produced by Saul Zaentz s Berkeley-based Fantasy Films I never got to work with Saul Zaentz but his movies have deeply impacted me Woo declared Amadeus is one of my favorite films One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest Our studio name is Kuku Studios So I was like it was just meant to be The universe is telling us we should be in this building There are so several Bay Area filmmakers that have deeply impacted me I just want to carry on that legacy of all those cinematic forefathers We re proud to be in the Bay Area and we re going to stay here as long as they let us Liu sees Kuku Studios bringing something special and vital to the industry I think there s something really historic about the fact that you re an Asian American storyteller and joining the ranks of and setting up shop and then putting your footprint on not only the S F scene but really all of animation