We, the people, do not give proper credit to production design animators (not sure if this is the correct nomenclature)… the people who make sure the background setting part is appropriately balanced and fluid.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the animation style–it appears, upon initial view, like you’re watching a 3-D film without the appropriate eyewear, but it’s totally intentional! The animators innovated a new style that truly brought “a comic book to life.” There was a foreground element where it appeared like substances used in the scene (sloppy eating/food splashes or spray paint leakages) spilled over the frame, adding extra immersion into Miles and company’s world, and sometimes breaking the fourth wall. Gorgeous animation, and I hope they patented it!
Also appreciated the “Easter eggs” sprinkled in for the comic book and cultural fanboys/fangirls. You can tell the creators are fans of the Miles Morales iteration of the comic and handled the story and characters with care.
Fantastic ensemble voice cast too! Jake Johnson and Shameik Moore were a great duo throughout. I loved their chemistry, and how their relationship blossomed. They shared tender moments where I caught myself “ahhh”-ing internally. 😊😊😊 My favorite voice castings were Nicolas Cage as “Spider-Man Noir,” and John Mulaney as “Spider-Ham/Peter Porker.” Nice blasts of humor without le fromage 🧀.
I felt immersed in New York not like I’d felt with other recent films, except maybe “Spider-Man: Homecoming”– different boroughs for our two Spider-Men. Miles’ relationship with his family was identifiable and beautifully portrayed. I appreciated the choice not to translate the pieces of dialogue spoken en Español. Wise choice, à la Francis Ford Coppola in “The Godfather.” Context clues, bruh-bruh!
I knew this was a different Spider-Man film when they used classic Biggie to introduce Uncle Aaron, and introduced Miles singing “Sunflower” by Post Malone and Swae Lee. Effing brilliant! UGH, the meticulousness! The detail with this one! It could have gone so left, but it’s fresh and exciting, and I can’t wait to dress up as Miles for Halloween.
My only complaint–I really wanted more Spider-Ham, Peni Parker and Spider-Man Noir. I enjoyed their scenes with Miles, Peter and Gwen, but I wish we could’ve seen them more. Also, kudos to the animators for seamlessly mixing four distinctive animation styles, including anime and old-school MGM-styled animation, between the six “Spider-Gang” characters. 👌🏾👌🏾👌🏾
The post credits scene was perfect (no spoilers!) and now I’m counting down the years until we see the next chapter of this story.
A bit about ‘representation:’
I don’t want this to go understated–seeing a beautifully animated character projected on screen who looks like my family members is truly remarkable. Chadwick Boseman, with a cosign from Mahershala Ali, gave a poignant response to a question posed by an interviewer from the 2018 Hollywood Reporter’s Actor’s Roundtable series about why he needed to get “Black Panther” right:
Interviewer: “What’s the toughest thing about doing “Black Panther” for you?
Boseman: “For me, it was it was the fact that as a person of African descent this searching for what my real culture is living that and believing that space and showing that on screen and and you know just being able to give that to an audience to say that I I know so much about my past I know so much about my history which I you know… as an African-American I’ve searched for that my entire life but but to be a person that didn’t have to search for it…
Interviewer: “What do you mean to me what do you research without your whole life?
Ali: “…meaning you believe in able to go through so far back yeah we’re aware so far where people say in El Salvador or you name a country you know exactly what you’re saying Texas as far back as we can go you know…
Boseman: “…having that is something that you’re like oh not only…do we don’t do I know but I value it like there’s a certain patriotism to something that is never been lost. It’s ancient and being able to hold onto that it was something that throughout the movie I was like ‘wow!’ the weight of that it’s something that I have to convey to the world…
…Because you could do that movie and it’s a parody of that idea and and that is insulting and so I think for me was constantly wanting to convey that this is real because it is, you know, for me it was just one of those things where I was like ‘we want to make a superhero movie, but that’s not the most important thing here,’ and people will love the superhero movie if this other thing if they get this other thing for me. I never thought I would see a studio say ‘yeah, we’re gonna put the money behind this movie with all weather,’ basically you know mostly a black cast sometimes we have, we as African-Americans, we have “the black version” and it’s not, it’s never as good. It’s never… they never put as much into it.”
It would be unfair and a downright lie for me to say that I cannot connect to a story just because the main character isn’t a black person or a person of color, or a woman, or a cis-gendered person. It’s not true. BUT, people need to understand why we celebrate feats like “Black Panther” and FX’s “Pose” and “Atlanta,” and “…Spider-verse” for showcasing the diversity of our identities. Black people exist on each continent on this Earth. Black people are not monolithic— we identify with multiple religions, or none. We range in hue and hair texture. We speak different languages, natively and otherwise. We occupy many gender identities and sexual orientations, or none at all. It’s been hard for US to get opportunities to change our narratives to ones that are truly reflect our humanity because usually people in positions of power who control mass visual media do not create spaces for us to occupy and narrate our own shit. This is changing.
Understand, the celebration of amazing works like this film, like “Black Panther,” like “Moonlight,” like “Crazy Rich Asians,” like “The Big Sick” was not to create a big soirée with the plan to shut out folks who do not identify with specific phenotypic features or accents or understanding of colloquialisms, but to showcase the greater nuances of our identities and to shed light on how damaging stereotypes and tropes previously perpetuated in motion pictures, and other forms of media, negatively warped our humanity.