Heart, in all the right places

Last night my partner and I watched "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" for the fourth time since we have begun dating, which was a little over a year ago. I personally have seen the film closer to twelve times and each time it gets better and better. If you have yet to see it, which would surprise me, do yourself a favor and do so. Definitely watch it before you read this though, as there will be spoilers. It is probably one of the greatest animated films of all time, let alone Spider-Man film.

The movie centers around Miles Morales, a brilliant high school student who is granted the abilities of Spider-Man after being bitten be a spider (I'm sure everyone is familiar with how Peter got his powers) when he is hanging out with his Uncle Aaron. He is the second person in this world to be given these powers, with Peter being the first. Much like in the comics, it seems as if Peter is going to mentor young Miles and train him to use these abilities for good. However, also much like the comics we see the Peter Parker pay the ultimate sacrifice and leave Miles on his own.

One big difference from the comics to this movie is that Miles never actually met Peter in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic series. Peter dies after facing off some of his greatest foes, on top of having been shot trying to save Captain America from the Punisher. Comics can get pretty out there sometimes, especially in the Ultimate Universe. Regardless, Miles gets bitten by the spider months after the death of Peter Parker. He has no one to mentor him until he meets Peter of the mainline of comics. This is where Spider-Verse comes in to play.

I think the decision to have Miles watch Spider-Man die is a really important one, that clearly comes up again later on in the film. His whole motivation is to stop Kingpin and make sure Peter's death wasn't meaningless. Miles feels partially responsible for not being able to do anything to help this worlds Peter, and for being there in the first place. This is shown in his relationship with Peter B Parker, the first Spider-Man he meets later on.

Miles and his Uncle Aaron have such a special bond in this movie as well, as Miles looks up to Aaron as more of a father figure than his own dad. And you can see the love that Aaron also has for his nephew as well. This comes to an interesting and heartbreaking moment where Aaron discovers the person he has been trying to kill throughout the movie is actually Miles. His reaction shows not only guilt and surprise, but also his fear that Miles now has to grow up in a dangerous world that he never wanted for him. Miles is now stuck in the world of heroes and villains, something he will never be able to walk away from. Props to the animators for how they handle all of this.

The animation team also does something incredible with Miles throughout this film. They purposefully animated him at a different frame rate than the other Spider-People to show how new and unrefined he is as a hero. He looks choppier than them on purpose, which is just a testament to the amount of thought and care that went into this film.

Perhaps one of my favorite parts about this movie is that every character learns something from one another. Even though they frame it as Peter having to mentor Miles, Peter learns a lot from Miles as well. Miles makes Peter realize and accept his own advice about taking a leap of faith. In his situation, its with his personal life outside of being Spider-Man. Gwen learns to open up herself to friends again, while helping Miles hone his abilities and realize he isn't alone in the universe (well, spider-verse).

What really makes this movie special is the amount of love involved. The love between Miles and his Uncle Aaron, the love between Peter (B. Parker) and Miles, the love between Miles and his father (in which there was obvious distance between) and clearly the love of the creators for this comic world.

The animation, the characters, the plot, and the pure heart of this film are what make it great. In my amateur opinion, it absolutely is one of the greatest animated films ever made, and I cannot wait to see the direction they go with for this franchise in the future.