Pair that tumultuous energy with animation, and you have the perfect match.
Both mediums are drawn, one just happens to be actively moving.
Scenes are dominated by stock figure animation and characters' faces rarely demonstrate an expression beyond “stoic.”
Image by Jefferson Chacon
Episodes feel churned out without much thought to appease bored children.
(If you were a ’90s kid, this time period was heaven.
)Spider-Man: The Animated Seriesbenefited from a mature tone, developed characters, and smooth, detailed animation.
Image via Marvel Studios
And as the decades advanced, the medium truly became a comic come to life.
A ball of such kinetic energy demands an onscreen stamina to match the page.
What one television series episode can accomplish compared to a two-hour live-action film is astonishing.
Image via Marvel Studios
Almost everySpider-Manseries from the 1990s onward boasted remarkable set pieces.
There are intense, swooping chases through the sky involving multiple supervillains, their lackeys, and pursuing helicopters.
Buildings crash with meteoric detail, explosions devour entire city blocks, and massive machines terrorize New York residents.
Image via Sony Pictures Releasing
A live-action film, by contrast, needs a million-dollar budget and countless hours of CGI rendering.
What’s more, Spider-People have an irrevocably distinct fluidity of movement.
The propulsive motion picked up and slowed down before vaulting as high as a skyscraper.
The audience seemed to move alongside him.
There’s a poise and a lightness to Holland that resembles the buoyant, skittering dexterity of a spider.
Backed by acrew of at least 177 animators, inSpider-Verse,comic panels truly move.
They slice and slide across the screen, bisecting it into thirds.
The color palette is rich and atmospheric backgrounds are meticulously constructed.
Any panoramic shot is as breathtaking as the best comic spread.
Movement is visceral in a way that’s physically impossible for a camera to mimic.
The image represents an internal instinct better than a live-action actor reacting to something offscreen.
Audiences know when things are fake, but animation never breaks the suspension of disbelief bubble.
An animated world allows for organic originality in character concepts, background design, and scenarios.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verseswings into theaters on June 2.
