STATEOF THEART

When Amy Pascal, then co-chairperson of Sony Pictures, approached Lord and Miller to make an animated Spider-Man movie in 2015, they agreed on two conditions: Miles Morales had to be the main character; and, as with 2014’s The Lego Movie, it had to break new ground visually. “We thought, because it’s called Spider-Man, it was a Trojan horse to try a bunch of crazy stuff,” says Lord, who also penned the screenplay. “And because it’s about the intersection of different dimensions we could combine different animation styles and make it really psychedelic.” Also key, according to Ramsey, was embracing the graphic nature of comic books: in both the ever-changing art styles, and the idiosyncrasies of the printed page itself. “We utilised comic-book printing techniques, which is where we get our half-tone dots from, and actual ink lines on the characters to accentuate expressions, and text on screen; all those things that we could have fun with and bring a level of self-awareness to our story.” The only rule? There are no rules. “Phil would always say, ‘The note I want to give is: OK, you went too far,’” laughs Ramsey.