This might be hard for Marvel fans to digest, but not every film that comes from the company is a great mix of entertainment and intelligence. In fact, only a few can lay claim to aforementioned attributes. The 2018 release Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, helmed by debutante directors Bob Persichetti and Peter Ramsey along with Rodney Rothman, is another matter altogether. Produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Marvel Entertainment, it earned millions at the box office apart from bagging the rightly deserving Oscar for Best Animated Feature that year.
There are so many things that happen in this film, which could have been messed up had Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse been a live-action film. Here, we get a tasty bite of the multiverse which introduces us to various Spider-People, one of whom is a young woman voiced by the talented actor-singer Hailee Steinfeld. There is a plethora of skilful performers who voice other important characters like Mahershala Ali, Jake Johnson, and of course Shameik Moore, who did a stand-up job of giving voice to our hero Miles Morales.
The interplay and chemistry of the cast remains unmatchable, and this is remarkable considering that in most animation films, actors play off on what plays on screen and most don’t even meet each other until they have to finally promote the movie. Shameik and Jake really bring the humour of the well-written script alive, and the incredible animation done largely through computer and inspired by Miles Morales’ co-creator Sara Pichelli definitely helped. The comic book style art was one of the highlights of the movie. “A lot of things that you see in most CG films, we didn’t want. We wanted a look that was going to make you feel like…walking into a comic book,” co-director Peter Ramsey had once said while speaking with Variety.
And it was exactly that, you felt like you had walked into some kind of a 3-D comic book where you could reach out and almost touch that part of the universe yourself. A sequence when Miles finally comes into his own as Spider-Man comes to mind — such an exhilarating scene coupled with a cool song (“What’s Up Danger” by Blackway and Black Caviar).
Hollywood Rewind: Free Willy | Carrie | Crash | Persepolis | The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants | Philadelphia | Mrs Doubtfire | Easy A | Romeo + Juliet | Coraline | Gone Girl | Starship Troopers | Bridget Jones’s Diary | Almost Famous | Inglourious Basterds | Beginners | Girl With a Pearl Earring | Juno | Nightcrawler | Little Miss Sunshine | Moana | The Sound of Music | Benny and Joon | Crimson Peak | The Holiday | My Blueberry Nights | The Help | Mission Impossible | Chef | Revolutionary Road | I’m Not There | Donnie Brasco | Sicario | Edge of Tomorrow | Spy Kids | 1998’s Godzilla | The Others | Phone Booth | Wild | Scream | The Godfather Part II | One Fine Day | True Romance | Little Women | Face-off | Pulp Fiction | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | The Age of Innocence | Mean Girls | Die Hard | Never Been Kissed | Citizen Kane | Kill Bill Volume I | Terminator 2 Judgment Day | Titanic | Heat | Home Alone | Jerry Maguire | Brief Encounter | The Truman Show | The Deer Hunter | The Shining | Clueless | Ferris Bueller’s Day Off | Blue Velvet | Taxi Driver | The Lord of the Rings I | Zero Dark Thirty | The Godfather | Say Anything | Warm Bodies | Bright Star | Malcolm X | Stardust | Red Eye | Notting Hill | Fargo | The Virgin Suicides | The Breakfast Club | Enchanted | Walk the Line | Blood Diamond | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Mortal Kombat | Bridges of Madison County | Edward Scissorhands | Breakfast at Tiffany’s | She’s Gotta Have It | Ever After | The Devil Wears Prada | The Matrix | Creed | Mulan | Ratatouille | Shutter Island | Her | Dead Poets Society | Sleepless in Seattle | Waitress | Pride and Prejudice | The Dark Knight | Before Sunset | School of Rock | About a Boy | A Few Good Men | 50/50 | Begin Again | Brooklyn | Drive | Chocolat | Batman Begins | 10 Things I Hate About You | The Departed | Freedom Writers | Pretty Woman | Dan in Real Life | Jurassic Park | Tangled | Meet Joe Black | Monster’s Ball | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | You’ve Got Mail | Half Nelson | Fight Club | Doubt | American Psycho | Julie and Julia | Forrest Gump | The Silence of the Lambs | Finding Neverland | Roman Holiday| American History X | Tropic Thunder | Before Sunrise | Scent of a Woman | Finding Forrester | Sixteen Candles
Also, while we are at it, let us talk about the hilarious post-credits scene featuring Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Haha, the apparent successor to Peter Parker’s Spider-Man. Again the makers introduced something new to the mix to make it more fun — meme-ing. The act just featured two Spider-Men bantering over who pointed first at the other. Issac, as he does with most of his performances, nailed this bit too. This of course gives us a tiny taste of what lies ahead for fans in Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse (Part One) — more inventiveness, making the familiar unfamiliar and fun.
You can watch Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse on YouTube.
