Pixar Series Dream Productions and Win or Lose Get Disney+ Premiere Dates

Television

Pixar revealed when its upcoming Disney+ streaming shows, Win or Lose and the Inside Out spin-off Dream Productions, will air. All four episodes of Dream Productions will hit Disney+ on December 11th of this year, and Win or Lose will premiere on February 19th, 2025. Dream Productions follows the characters inside Riley’s mind who create her dreams, as seen in the first film, AKA the good one. Win or Lose is an original idea, a series exploring the points of view among a middle school baseball team. Here’s the official description for Win or Lose: 

“Win or Lose reveals what it actually feels like to be in the shoes of eight different characters in the week leading up to the big game—the insecure kids, their helicopter parents, even a lovesick umpire—with incredibly funny, very emotional and uniquely animated perspectives.”

And for Dream Productions:

(Dream Productions Explores) “the studio inside Riley’s mind where dreams really do come true—every night, on time and on budget. 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. 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.”

Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates wrote, directed, and executive produced Win or Lose, and David Lally produced it. Will Forte headlines the series as the team’s Coach Dan. Dream Productions is set in-between the events of Inside Out and Inside Out 2. Mike Jones wrote and directed Dream Productions, and Jaclyn Simon produced it. 

Here you can see a sneak peek at Win or Lose:

And finally, Dream Productions: 

The animation looks good, of course, and it’s cool that the original cast is returning for Inside Out, besides Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling, of course. I’m still salty about Disgust and Fear being recast for the sequel, and especially for the reason behind it: Disney’s greed. Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith were worth the money to them, but not Hader and Kaling. I don’t love Mindy Kaling or anything, but it’s the principle of the matter for me. I only like recasts if the new performer is an improvement over the original (which is unlikely and very uncommon) or there was a really good reason to replace them. Neither of those cases happened here; Disney is just evil. Tony Hale and Liza Lapira will return from Inside Out 2, and to be clear, I have no problem with them. It’s Disney’s budgeting I hate, when they can dump $180 million on The Acolyte but need to scrounge and scrimp on casting major releases. Regardless, though, the franchise-ification of Inside Out grates on my nerves in and of itself. I loved the first movie but never had high hopes for the sequel. And now, we’re getting a TV series that seems even more unnecessary; seriously, the dream scenes in the movie were cute, but who was curious enough about that aspect of Riley’s mind to justify a series order? Interestingly, Richard Ayoade, who plays Xeni in the series, has previously worked for Pixar, voicing Jerry in Soul. 

I have much higher hopes for Win or Lose, an original idea with its own characters and art style. I don’t like kids, baseball, or even the aforementioned visuals. But do you know what? I’m so sick of my formerly favorite studio crapping out sequels and spin-offs. I am PUMPED for Win or Lose because someone put some thought into it. I’m interested in the concept of following multiple points of view, something The Acolyte promised and immediately fumbled. I think Will Forte is pretty funny, and in my experience, if I like a story and characters, I get used to the visuals or don’t mind at all. What a show looks like is actually the least important thing to me, though it gets a lot of points when done well. 

But what do you think about Dream Productions and Win or Lose? Are you going to watch them? Do you wish they left Inside Out alone? Sound off in the comments!