‘Dream Productions’ Trailer: Paula Pell Has to Make the Next Hit Dream in ‘Inside Out’ Series Spin-off

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If anyone could be trusted to run your dreams, it’s Paula Pell.

And that’s just what she’s doing for “Inside Out” teen Riley in Pixar‘s new four-episode limited series, “Dream Productions,” premiering on Disney+ December 11.

That’s right, mere months after “Inside Out 2” set box office records, Riley and her Core Emotions (led by Amy Poehler as Joy) are back onscreen in another story about managing a healthy relationship with your emotions.

Per the official logline: “Riley is growing up and when her memories need some extra processing, Joy and the rest of the Core Emotions send them to Dream Productions. Acclaimed director Paula Persimmon (voice of Paula Pell) faces a nightmare of her own: Trying to create the next hit dream after being paired up with Xeni (voice of Richard Ayoade), a smug daydream director looking to step up into the big leagues of night dreams.”

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In addition to Pell and Ayoade, the voice cast includes Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Ally Maki, Kensington Tallman, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, and Phyllis Smith. Written and directed by Mike Jones and produced by Jaclyn Smith, the limited series features a score by composer Nami Melumad.

“Inside Out 2” tackled Riley’s burgeoning adolescent Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke). “We got really excited about going to new places in this world, specific to Riley’s age as a teenager, starting to develop her own sense of self, who you are as an individual,” the film’s director Kelsey Mann told IndieWire. “You’re being raised by other people and taking on their beliefs about the world and about yourself. And, suddenly, you go: Wait. What do I believe?”

Now, Jones will take us into another aspect of Riley’s world, describing “Dream Productions” as essentially an 82-minute movie told in four episodes but with a much smaller budget than the typical Pixar film.

“We were kind of a weird little indie movie, almost inside Pixar,” he told the audience at IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking Summit, adding that it took three and a half years to put the series together, during which time some of his team left to work on “Inside Out 2” and “Elemental” before returning. “That happened a bunch of times,” he said. “And so we would let all of our people go on some other films that were in trouble and just pray and hope that we would get them back. And we would eventually, and then we quickly scramble and try to produce.”

Watch the trailer below.