The setting of Nemo's life with her dad in a lighthouse in the opening scenes of Slumberland is pretty idyllic. But as soon as I recognized the lilting melody in the background as the Irish tune, "The Parting Glass," I knew the joyous scene wouldn't last. Nice use of subtle foreshadowing!

Nemo (Marlow Barkley) is a young girl, and her father Peter (Kyle Chandler) is a hands-on single dad who fills her days with sea and lighthouse lore, and fills her head with stories of his long-ago adventures with his partner in crime, the impish madcap Flip. Then duty calls, and her father dies, and Nemo is sent to live with her only surviving relative, her estranged uncle Philip (Chris O'Dowd), in a big city that is far from anything Nemo has ever known.

The film is loosely based on the Sunday comic strip series Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay, which ran for more than 20 years in the early 20th century. In the movie, Nemo doesn't connect with her uncle and feels out of place at school; she escapes from her new reality through her dreams, which turn oddly real. First her stuffed pig, named Pig, comes to life, and then she meets Flip (Jason Mamoa), a horn-headed half man who, it turns out, is kind of/sort of real. Together, they go on adventures through the dream realm, intruding into other people's dreams and dodging nightmares in search of a map and a treasure.

Those are just a means to an end for Nemo, however; she seeks to reunite with her father on the other side of dreams.

This made-for-Netflix movie is silly at times and oddly paced, but it packs a surprising amount of heart into its story. The connection that exists between Nemo and Peter, as well as the one that builds between Nemo and Philip, is deeply touching, and Nemo's interactions with Flip are fun and thrilling, with a nice use of CGI to make the dreamworld feel real(ish).

Although Mamoa is the headliner among the cast, Barkley carried the film firmly on her young shoulders, and her interactions with Chandler and O'Dowd, more than Mamoa, really sold me on the story's strengths. Mamoa's antics, on the other hand, kept my young children enthralled.

The frenetic style of the film as it crosses boundaries between realities reminded me a great deal of Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits. If you know, you know.