Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse begins with Peter Parker’s continued heroism as he battles his most memorable antagonists in New York. Unfortunately, he doesn’t make it very long into the film as he is quickly killed by Kingpin and his posse of classic Spider-Man villains. Luckily, for the citizens of New York, there is a new hero in town, and his name is Miles Morales, but without any leadership or understanding of his new spider-bite-caused powers, Miles must forge the path to victory alone, or so he thinks. It is soon revealed that Kingpin has built a supercollider, capable of bringing objects and people from other dimensions into the current world, which has accidentally brought multiple Spider-Men from alternate universes into the streets of Manhattan, where they will soon unite. Together, all these versions of Spider-Man will help Miles learn about and harness his powers and hopefully, take down Kingpin once and for all. 

Firstly, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse builds the perfect foundation for cinematic excellence through its worldbuilding, or better yet, multiverse-building. The creators of this movie take the regular setting of Spider-Man in New York and build it to the infinite level that is the multiverse. Not only that, but each of these dimensions is characterized differently from the last, ensuring that no two are the same. At first watch, Miles’ universe may look similar to the primary world, as some remote changes may not catch the audience’s eye, but as more dimensions are introduced into the film, it becomes clearer that they all have distinct characteristics that separate them from the primary world and each other.  For example, in Miles’ Times Square, there are ads posted around for Kola-Soda instead of the familiar Coca-Cola. Miles’ dad is a police officer for PDNY instead of NYPD. Other realities have more obvious differences, as one universe only exists in black and white, and another is made entirely out of Legos. Together, all of these small, distinctive worlds come together to build the multiverse where this story takes place. For the artists behind this film, this opens entirely new possibilities when it comes to animation and the designs of the different dimensions.

When it comes to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the animation is full of emotion and creativity, standing out in the new world of numb characters and movements. This one film took nearly four years to animate, with artists pouring their all into every single second of this film. Some minute-long sequences required weeks or even months of work. As previously mentioned, there are many different dimensions in this movie, and each has a completely different animation style. Along with that comes characters that are also animated differently. Some of the Spider-Men are 3-D, like Miles Morales, but others are styled like Japanese anime, and more are designed in classic 2-D animation. The animators of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse even went as far as to animate the characters and dimensions at different frame rates. At the beginning of the film, Miles is animated on twos, where he gains a new pose once every two frames. This makes him appear a little slower and sloppier than his spider peers, but by the end of the film, as he grows to master his powers, he too becomes animated on ones making his character look much quicker, confident, and sleek. Overall, through these different settings, styles, and speeds, the animation of this movie is clearly a delicacy in a world of rushed and sloppy animated films. The artists who worked on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse noticeably took the time and effort to ensure that this film delivers beautiful, thoughtful animation in a world characterized by rushed Disney and Pixar works.

As if this film could not get any better, to top everything off, the soundtrack and film score wrap everything together with absolute perfection. Firstly, to further illustrate each of the Spider-Men and villains, they are given individual film scores that plays during their introductions and impactful scenes. These scores even merge together to create entirely new sounds when the characters interact with each other. The even more impressive side of the sounds of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse comes from the soundtrack. Swae Lee, Juice WRLD, Lil Wayne, and Nicki Minaj are only a handful of the popular artists that contributed to the music for this film. The songs follow along with Miles and are representative of his journey of self-discovery and growth. When we are first introduced to Miles, he has his headphones on and is listening to “Sunflower” by Post Malone, which is currently the fifth most-streamed song of all time. Throughout the duration of the film, in intense moments of stress, Miles is seen singing “Sunflower” to calm down. After Peter Parker is killed, “Scared of the Dark” begins to play, representative of how fearful Miles is for the future now that the responsibility of heroism has been placed upon his shoulders. This then contrasts the scene in the film where Miles makes his leap of faith, jumping off the rooftop of the tallest building in Manhattan, to prove to himself that he can harness his powers, especially in moments of stress, where “What’s Up Danger” begins to serenade the moment. Now that Miles has his confidence, he’s no longer fearful of what the future may hold for him; instead, he greets it and all of its potential danger. Now, after all of his prior doubts, it seems that Miles has finally learned the true message of this film.

Widely regarded as one of the best movie scenes of all time, Miles' leap of faith illustrates his newfound confidence while "What's Up Danger" plays in the background, representative of how Miles no longer fears his new role and embraces the dangers of being a hero with open arms.

This, of course, leads into the theme of the film: In a world of infinite possibilities, it is up to you to decide who you want to be. At the beginning of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Miles struggles in isolation with his new powers. He fears telling his family about his new powers due to his father’s hatred for Spider-Man. He is stuck in a new environment at school without friends to rely on, and his only mentor, Peter Parker, is now dead. It is only with the help of his new spider peers that Miles learns there are infinite ways he can express his power and impact the world around him. Miles’ growth is symbolized by the creation of his new suit, which he makes by taking the classic, red and blue Spider-Man suit and spraypainting it to become his own. This is representative of Miles’ taking on the responsibility of being Spider-Man, but portraying the role with his own style and identity, similarly to all the other characters we meet throughout the film. In the Spider-Verse, there is an infinite number of Spider-Men, and yet no two are the same. They all look, act, and save the city differently, and yet they are all great representations of the friendly neighborhood character. That’s why Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the best representation of the superhero we currently have because it proves that the character of Spider-Man isn’t simply a teenage boy named Peter Parker. Instead, Spider-Man is a mindset of lightness, perseverance, and most importantly, great responsibility.