Pixar rarely misses and they have another hit that I almost missed. Remember in the movie when they were trying to find a way to get back to headquarters and we ended up in the place where they made the dreams? “Dream Productions” is an extension of that scene, and I love when Pixar does something like this. It’s how I find my stories as a journalist and writer. I worked in production for six and a half years, so this series was just my job animated and I loved every second of it. Much like my breakdown for “Monsters at Work,” I want to dive into who each of the four main characters (the fourth is a stretch but work with me) are in your real life.
Paula Persimmon has been the belle of the ball for years. She’s been employee of the year repeatedly. She is also the old coworker who gets on your nerves but you can’t really say anything because they do a great job and the boss loves them because they get results. Think of a company you’ve worked for that has older employees who have been there since the company started or has been there for more than like 10 to 15 years. They have been the go-to person to get the job done and that has worked for years…until now. She is, what my friend Shelly likes to call, The Old Guard.
The New Blood, in this case Janelle Johnson, has studied under The Old Guard. She came in with this regime and has been the right hand man for some time, but has always had ambitions to branch out on their own. In addition, The New Blood can always see change coming and anticipates it. This is when they normally make their move and case to management to help with a problem either they see coming or a solve a problem already in progress. In this series, Janelle notices that Riley is getting older and the greatest hits that Paula has produced are not cutting it with her anymore. She has the vision for the future and wants to use what she’s learned from Paula as the foundation for her new vision for Riley. Naturally, The Old Guard hasn’t been thinking of the future because they have always been the “end all, be all.” They see themselves as whatever the future may be because, up until now, there has been no change. And if there was, they were always apart of that conversation. Now, it should be noted, The New Blood still wants to be part of the Old Guard. Their moves are not to undermine The Old Guard but to step into a new era with them. Paula, as we learn, doesn’t listen to Janelle because she sees her as her support and not an equal. This is part of why some New Bloods leave the Old Guard as Janelle did in this show.
“Xeni” (his real name is Kenny Dewberry) is tricky because he doesn’t belong to The Old Guard and doesn’t want to be apart of The New Blood. They want to be their own thing entirely and that never bodes well for either regime. Honestly, Xeni is The New Guy. The New Guy doesn’t really follow any previous rules. He came in with ambitions of his own that don’t really have anything to do with the company, or Riley in this case. He’s part New Blood, but not quite and that’s because he also sees that there needs to be change within the company. But he wants that change to be him and not a change for the betterment of Riley. Xeni is an ar-teest, as one would say, and so his art is what he wants to showcase. Janelle is trying to preserve what Paula started but just remix it in her own way while Paula wants to keep things the way they are. If things change, she loses her position and purpose, and if she loses those, who is she exactly when work has been her life.
Last but not least, there is Jean Dewberry: The Boss. Jean floats to anything that keeps the ball moving and her higher ups happy. In this case, her higher ups are the emotions themselves, Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust. As a side note, when that dream went wrong and Paula ended up in Jean’s office with Anger ripping into her for Riley sleepwalking, I lost it. We’ve all been in our bosses office after they’ve had a call like that. Whether you were in there because you were the subject of that call or because you are your boss’ friend, we’ve all experienced this before. Back to Jean. If you notice in the show, Jean was with Paula until her dreams were no longer a hit with Riley and the emotions. She then switched to Janelle because she was getting the results. Later, when it all became a mess, she stepped in and created locked scripts for the dreams. Jean is the boss that just wants results. She’s not really there to be nurturing like Fritz in “Monsters at Work.” She is there for the numbers and the pat on the back when other people’s work makes her look great. We all want a boss like Fritz but we get a Jean instead.
Does this sound like a boss you’ve had before? Have you been any one of these people in your work life?
