Spider-Man : Into The Spider-Verse

SPIDER-MAN : INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

Directors : Bob Perschietti, Peter Ramsay and Rodney Rothman

Year : 2018

Genre : Superhero

Rating : ****

Imagination and inspiration run (or swing) riot with kaleidoscopic aplomb in this utterly delightful superhero cartoon courtesy of Sony Pictures Animation and Marvel Entertainment. Conceived by 'The LEGO Movie' and 'Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs' helmsmen Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and directed by the filmmaking trio of Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsay and Rodney Rothman, 'Into The Spider-Verse' is a wonderfully creative and visually stunning adventure that sees multiple iterations of the wall-climbing hero joining forces to defeat the vengeful Kingpin (Liev Schrieber), a hilariously oversized supervillain who plans to bring his lost wife and daughter back from the dead by combining numerous parallel universes, thus bringing our unlikely band of webheads together. These include plucky teen Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a washed-up Peter Parker (Jake Johnson doing his best Deadpool impression), the dark and brooding Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), the fearless Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld) and even the Chuck Jones-inspired Spider-Ham/Peter Porker (John Mulvaney).

Like the very best superhero movies, 'Into The Spider-Verse' completely satisfies when it comes to the action and never has action looked quite as remarkable as this, with each enthralling set piece animated with  an almost pathological precision and care to perfectly replicate the aesthetics of a classic comic book frame - complete with motion lines, split screen effects and even the sparse yet effective use of onomatopaeic text. Every single second of the film, whether a character is walking nonchalantly down the street or swinging through the skies of Manhattan, is filled with clear and defined motion and not since Genndy Tartakovsky's 'Hotel Transylvania' series (also made by Sony) has such fast-paced yet fluid movement been seen in a mainstream animated feature. 

However, while it looks and sounds as amazing as any cartoon that has come before it,  where 'Into The Spider-Verse' truly shines is in its surprisingly high emotional value, particularly when it comes to the well-realised relationship between Miles and his estranged father (Bryan Tyree Henry) which effortlessly adds an extra layer of likeability to an already very likeable film. Vibrant, funny, touching, thrilling and relentlessly entertaining, 'Into The Spider-Verse' may not be my absolute favourite  movie to feature the webslinger - that honour still belongs to Sam Raimi's peerless 2004 sequel 'Spider-Man 2' - but it is nonetheless one of the best animated movies of this or any other year.  See Sony? You can do Spidey justice when you put proper effort into it.