SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

★★★★★

ONE web-slinging saviour is evidently insufficient because this dazzling computer-animated adventure introduces a menagerie of gifted spider-folks.

Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) enrols in a boarding school. He spends time with his uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali), who indulges Miles’s passion for street art by venturing into the sewers beneath New York City to spray paint a mural.

A radioactive spider bites Miles’s hand, imbuing him with incredible powers. Miles discovers he has inherited the same abilities as Spider-man (Chris Pine), who died at the hands of crime lord Wilson Fisk

(Liev Schreiber).

The kingpin is conducting experiments, which disrupt the space-time continuum.

Consequently, a washed-up Peter B Parker (Jake Johnson), Spidergwen (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-ham (John Mulaney), brooding Spider-noir (Nicolas Cage) and inventor schoolgirl

Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) materialise in Miles’ bedroom.

They join forces to take on villains including Green Goblin (Jorma Taccone) and Doctor Octopus (Kathryn Hahn).

This is an imaginative and frequently exhilarating expansion of familiar mythology with limitless possibilities for future spin-offs. Jocularity is balanced with moments of anguished soul-searching, all calibrated to inspire audiences to swing to the same dizzy heights as Miles.

It just requires a leap of faith. Tight-fitting spandex optional.