The Dazzling Spider-Man!

Rating: 9/10 (9 January 2019)

"True, a lot of animation is insipid, and insulting even to the children it is made for. But great animation can make the mind sing."

Excerpt from Roger Ebert's review for Princess Mononoke (1998)

Such is true for, of all things, a silly Spider-man film.
The story follows a very relatable Miles Morales as our soon to be new Spider-Man and his struggles with school, family, and his own self-inadequacies. Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider from another universe caused by a science machine used by the villain Kingpin for his own personal reasons.
The use of the machine causes several different versions of Spider-Man/Woman/Pig to end up in the same universe. All the different Spider-people need to make it back to their respective universe while simultaneously stopping Kingpin from inadvertently destroying the multi-verse.
Pretty standard comic book stuff. However, the opportunity taken to present this basic premise with such flair helps it to easily rise above it's peers.
I felt true ecstasy while viewing this film. I saw a canvas that almost could not contain all the creativity that threatened to spill from the screen onto the audience.
The joy of taking every opportunity to build the film into an explosion of style, colour, and entertainment is felt throughout the entire runtime. I love that the silhouette rule was paid attention to. While there are 6 different versions of Spider-Man in the film, you could easily distinguish one from another if you only saw their silhouette.
Even all of the villains (outside of Kingpin) that appear in the film are different interpretations of those characters.
While the film shows love, or at least winks and nods to the various incarnations and interpretations of Spider-Man through the decades it's really not required knowledge for those who are less familiar with the character.
The themes are kept simple (rightfully so), but they feel genuine and are wonderfully woven and executed throughout the entire narrative rather than tagged on impotently at the end.
I cannot recommend this film enough, it's fresh and full of passion and joy. So much so that I felt something after watching it, and I hope you do too.