When reflecting on recent animated films, having a 9-yr old daughter has kept me something of an expert in the field (Brave, Sing and Zootropolis being some of my personal ‘faves’). However, nothing prepared me for the release of the animated Spiderman film (Into the Spiderverse). This film (and now the sequal - ‘Across the Spiderverse’), have pushed the boundaries of animated film to new exciting highs! Growing up falling in love with comic book art, I’ve loved the very obvious nods to those beautiful line-work illustrations, even the coarse halftone printing and dramatic comic-strip visual storytelling. Less obvious, but every bit as clever, is the mixing of frame-rates to aid character development and seniority, another nostalgic nod to the origins of animated films of yesterday which all the animated at 12fps (frames per second) to make animating on a cell-by-cell basis achievable for those artists of yesteryear. The film actively explores scenes that would still be impossible to recreate using cgi, leaving every frame an amazing work of art in its own right. For a much more comprehensive exploration of this extraordinary film I very much recommend checking out the ‘What went wrong’ episode devoted to this film:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spider-man-into-the-spider-verse/id1512847066?i=1000747668726
