‘Spider-Verse’ is 2018’s best animated film
The animated superhero extravaganza “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” swings into our lives at just the perfect Spider-time.
In the wake of comic-book legend (and Spidey creator) Stan Lee’s death, the film ( ★★★g; rated PG; in theaters nationwide Dec. 14) acts as a loving tribute to his life lesson that there’s a little hero in all of us. And it’s a slightly insane, hilariously daring and often touching mashup of everything that makes super-flicks so darn popular with the introduction of a Spider-Man who’s ready-made for today’s generation of kids.
The original Spidey, Peter Parker, is a legend and role model for young Brook- lyn teen Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), the newest student at Visions Academy boarding school for gifted kids – although he’d rather be living at home with his African American cop dad (Brian Tyree Henry) and Puerto Rican mom (Luna Lauren Velez).
While hanging with his cool Uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali), Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider that gives him superpowers – like Peter’s situation, with a twist – and although he’d like Peter to be his mentor, Peter is killed by evil crime boss Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) after the bad guy sets off a high-tech dimension-opening device.
Miles is in mourning when he accidentally runs into an alternate-universe Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), an older, paunchier fellow who’d rather eat burgers than take down supervillains. On the way to getting his mojo back, he becomes a reluctant mentor for Miles, and their team-up grows when they meet other Spider-folks from other dimensions trying to get home: punk-rock girl Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), 1930sera Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage, channeling classic Bogey), futuristic youngster Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) and her Spider-bot, and the spectacular Spider-Ham, a pig named Peter Porker (John Mulaney).
Yes, that’s a lot of Spider-people – not to mention a plethora of other characters, from neat flips on classic villains to voice roles with A-list stunt casting. The two-hour run time and non-stop flashback stories for pretty much every main player might test the patience of the littlest young ’uns, but “SpiderVerse” does so much more right on the way to being this year’s best animated movie.
Pop culture-savvy producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller bring a similarly winning sense of humor and selfawareness from their work on “The Lego Movie” and more specifically “Lego Batman.” “Spider-Verse” pays homage to everything from the 1960s “SpiderMan” cartoon show to the 2000s Tobey Maguire movies, with a style all its own.
The animation melds influences as diverse as pop art and psychedelia in the background as Miles wondrously swings through New York and is chased by such baddies as the mysterious Prowler. And once the new kid gets his abilities, “Spider-Verse” borrows the old comic concept of thought balloons and captions to convey Miles’ not-so-inner dialogue.
There are enough action-packed scenes and surprises to keep the “Avengers” movie crowd wowed, yet what makes “Spider-Verse” an essential entry in the superhero canon is the richness of its good guys.