Rip's Dream is based on two stories: the original "Rip Van Winkle" story by Washington Irving, and the 1882 operetta version of Rip Van Winkle (with music by Robert Planquette and libretto by Henri Meilhac, Philippe Gille, and Henry Brougham Farnie) [REF].
Like many of Méliès's films made around 1905, Rip's Dream revels in theatricality.