The character Spider-Man has been adapted into many films and some T.V. shows, but in the most popular films featuring this superhero, he is portrayed by Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland. Each of their movies is widely popular for multiple generations, and in the 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, many more fan-favorite Spider-Men were added. This movie added six new variations of Spider-Man with the main one being named Miles Morales. The fully animated movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, explores Miles’ journey of becoming Spider-Man while he fights multiple villains throughout. This movie got its sequel in 2023, which is named Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. In the sequel, hundreds of Spider-Men were featured, and it is a total of over two hours long. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is expecting a part two, possibly in 2025, which is expected to include all of the new beloved Spider-Man characters. These two almost fully animated films, with the exception of some stop motion and one traditionally filmed character, were very complicated to animate because of the animators’ big risks regarding what techniques they would use. These animation elements make the two films more unique and give the character Spider-Man more depth.
The many animators of these two Spider-Man films had a very difficult task, fully animating multiple movies that incorporate multiple animation styles that are in both 2D and 3D. According to an article called “‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ defies boundaries of animation,” from Axios, written by Marina E. Franco on Jun 1, 2023, this film featured “six different animation styles,” and the animators created “new technology that allowed them to mix 2D and 3D and to combine hand-drawn and computer-generated images, then add details like speech bubbles or colors that bleed into each other purposefully.” One of these animation styles is the Marvel comic book style fans have loved for decades. All of the animation styles make this film more unique because most animated films only feature one animation style throughout the entire film, films like Toy Story or Beauty and the Beast. Although the exact number of animators working on these films is widely debated, many assume that the number working on them was in the 800-1,000 range. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse took around four years each to complete, but what really stands out is the quality of the animations. The animations in these two films, along with the story, keep the audience well entertained, but the main thing that makes this film stand out from other animated films is the usage of different animation styles and techniques to show each character’s personality.
It is obvious from just watching both films that there are significantly more Spider-Man characters featured in the sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, than there is in the first film. As mentioned, the animators changed the animation style used to fit the personality of the character, and with the significant amount of Spider-Men in the second film there was also a significant amount of animation styles. While some styles were very simple and easy to animate, others were very difficult because they have a lot of different elements to fit the personality of the character. This is true for one of the new main characters in the film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, who is named Spider-Punk.
Spider-Punk, or Hobie, is a new fan-favorite Spider-Man character that was introduced in the second film. He was the most difficult character to animate because “different parts of Hobie’s body are animated at a different frame rate, a complicated process that breaks with traditional animation rules,” according to an article called “How Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk became the coolest character in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” from Entertainment Weekly, written by Devan Coggan on August 24, 2023. In addition to the different frame rates, Spider-Punk was animated in a unique style that differed from all other Spider-Man characters. His animation style was different from others because he was animated in both black and white, and in color. All of these elements of animation for just one character made it a long and complicated process for the animators, but it was worth all the effort for this beloved character. Spider-Punk along with many other Spider-Man characters featured in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse made the film more enjoyable, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the many animators that helped make this film.
In all, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its sequel feature beautiful animations that have inspired not only the fans, but also other animators. These animations are unique in that there are multiple different styles featured in the films. These films also include animations done in 2D and 3D, which was a difficult challenge for the animators. Another thing that made these particular animated films difficult to make was the usage of different frame rates for one character, specifically the character Spider-Punk. These films featured many new and different Spider-Men that have quickly become fan-favorites, but the movies successes in both the animation and storyline, wouldn’t have been possible without the movies that feature the character Spider-Man played by Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland.
