It is understandable to feel that there are too many superheroes this holiday season, for example, Spider-Man. Maybe it sounds crazy, but it’s worth considering to see not one, but six spidermen in the animated Spider-Man movie: Into the Spider-Verse

The film happily ends with the notion that there can only be one Spider-Man and not only that, it presents the exciting idea that it can be anyone. It can be a girl, it can be a middle-aged man with a belly or a cartoon pig.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse does something that comics and graphic novels have experienced for a long time, but this time it takes him to the big screen. It literally opens a universe of possibilities. “Anyone can put on the mask, you can put on the mask,” they tell us.

The result is a fantastically fresh film, both visually and in its narrative, psychedelic and postmodern at the same time and full of intriguing resources in storytelling, humor, empathy and action, but without ceasing to be true to its roots, as it continues presenting the story of a young man who accepts the responsibility to fight for what is fair.

Our hero comes from a story derived from the main comic of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, an adolescent of African-American and Puerto Rican descent from Brooklyn who has a Chance the Rapper poster on his wall. He does not look or act like any of the previous Peter Parkers (like Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland), and that’s great.

Hey, if Cate Blanchett can play Bob Dylan in a movie, why not offer us a Spidey with a different style?

Produced by Phillip Lord and Christopher Miller, the duo behind the acclaimed The Lego Movie, “this installment of Spider-Man stands out for its animation and constantly changes style. At times it can be hyperrealistic and then surreal. It includes animation in slow motion, color distortion, Pop Art, hand drawn elements, computer animation and even winks at its comic origin when adding dialogs in panels.

With 3D effect
The animators put their story in a wonderfully rough New York, with screeching subway cars full of graffiti and uninspired pedestrians, (one of which turns out to have the voice of Post Malone, who contributed to the soundtrack of the film). One key is the ability of the film to make things in front of them look like raised objects in focus while the background is blurred which gives the feeling of watching a 3D movie without those rare glasses.

Our hero Miles (Shameik Moore) tries to navigate through life between his police father (Brian Tyree Henry) and his most interesting uncle (Mahershala Ali). After being bitten by a radioactive spider, it witnesses the death of Spider-Man. But Miles soon realizes that there are more Spider people, freed from their realities by the huge Kingpin (Liev Schreiber), who builds a nuclear collider that allows access to alternative universes.

Many characters
New Girl” star Jake Johnson makes the voice of a fat and depressed Peter Parker wearing sports pants and is divorcing Mary Jane. There is also a Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage) with hat and in black and white, who is teleported from his fight against the Nazis. There’s a Spider-Gwen girl played by Hailee Steinfeld, and Kimiko Glenn plays the voice of an anime girl from the future. There is also a Spider-Ham (John Mulaney) based on children’s cartoons that include anvils falling from the sky.

This rare family joins to fight Kingpin and return to their universes, making constant winks between them and the viewer, a bit like Deadpool . Directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman – Rothman and Phil Lord wrote the story – also sustain the action with a great soundtrack that includes Elliphant, Run-DMC, The Notorious BIG, James Brown and Nicki Minaj.

The icon of Marvel Stan Lee makes his expected animated participation, but this time it is accompanied by sadness. He regrets the death of Spider-Man, “I’m going to miss him,” he tells Miles. Lee died on November 12 and we will miss him too, but somehow this film sums up a lot of what he tried to capture throughout his career: fun, action and sweetness in a story where we see these elements grow.

‘SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE’

Director : Bob Persichetti and Peter Ramsey

Protagonists : Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld and Nicolas Cage

Genre : Animation, action

Duration : 1 hour, 57 minutes