You may be wondering how something like this was able to happen. It all started in 2014, when Christopher Millar, the mind behind The Lego Movie, Clone High and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, approached the heads at sony with the idea of an animated spider-man film following Miles Morales and his adventures in the Spider-Verse. Sony jumped at the idea to make the film, giving the team a budget of 90 million dollars and 4 years to develop a feature length title.
The team spent the majority of their time working on the films art style and aesthetic. The main goal the team wanted to make sure they passed was recreating the comic book aesthetic to give it a nostalgic yet modern and sleek look. The team also wanted to make sure they encapsulated the look and feel of each character they put in. They wanted to use different art styles as well as to animate the different characters, which is most apparent in the trailer where you see Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man noir, Spider-Ham and Peni Parker all together in the same shot.
While looking at the finished product you can really see all the love and soul they put into the film. Everything from the animation, the writing and message of the film, and the score were all incredible. When going to see this film I had many doubts, believing the film would be too preachy, believing that the writing wouldn’t be up to par with the standards set by Spider-man Homecoming.
However, as soon as the film started with Post Malone’s Sunflower ft. Swae Lee I knew that this film was going to be amazing, and as I expected, it was. As I want to be animator, I was wide eyed when viewing the film. The movie’s soundtrack was amazing and fit it’s theme of anyone being able to wear the mask. The artists chosen for the film also hit their mark, the only song that I feel didn’t really fit the mood was Scared of the dark by lil wayne (with guest appearances of XxxTentacion and Ty dolla $ign) when put side by side with the rest of the songs and when put with the film it just does not work.
The characters from Into the Spider-Verse are probably some of the most interesting and relatable versions of the characters to be seen outside of the comics. This was a result of Miles Morales being the poster boy for the film, as well as the focus in the film. Furthermore, it was a good discussion on the writers part to make Miles himself very different from Peter Parker, from his skin to the costume and using him instead of telling another Peter Parker origin story was an outstanding move! The best dynamic they have in the film is the team’s main focus.
The A team, which is made up of Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker. The B team is Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham, and Peni Parker. The main problem with the film many people seem to address is the lack of time spent on team B. When looking back on the film I can agree, but because the abundance of characters in the film, I believe that they had no real alternative. I also believe they can work on sequels where these characters can be explored more and be represented better in their own worlds with their own characters. The villains of this film have a similar problem with being given 10 minutes maximum for their backstories.
In all this film is incredible despite the lack of characterization for the villains and B team, though with so much going on in the film I believe that there couldn’t have been anything done for it. In all I thought this movie was really good and had great pacing and characters. For a score, I would give this movie a 10/10 .
