“Spider-Man: Crossing the Multiverse,” movies, movies, movies, more movies, please

Already in 2018. Spider-Man: The New Universe — which also won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature — showcased an original visual and aesthetic approach that gave the superhero format a real shake-up and showed that freshness could be injected into the mid-movie Marvel universe. Five years later, that discovery was confirmed and consolidated to the point of indicating a sequel –Spider-Man: Crossing the Multiverse— as a masterpiece destined to be remembered, paving the way for yet another way of showing and telling stories, even in the highly competitive field of animation. Such is the multiplicity of styles, such an intelligent use of visual sources, that the tape leaves the viewer with the feeling that better seems impossible.

For this critic, the adventures of Miles Morales and his journey through the multiverse, even supported by a very elaborate script, are almost less important than the exuberant amalgamation of used techniques that go from comics to painting, various formal textures and also agile use of music, taking advantage of a wide range of songs that even they are not even painted to support the plot.

The old debate that never dies: How you say to me is almost more important than what you say to me, because after all, we’ve known young Morales for five years. And, without the need for an introduction, it’s about following him in his adventures as Spider-Man, catapulted from Brooklyn into the multiverse, against everything bad and against almost all the villains, in that set of different universes — which genre-wise, by the way, he’s starting to annihilate from sheer exhaustion, but that’s something else.

Drama and comedy

Combining drama with comedy, the plot — without losing sight of the beat — doesn’t laminate the remaining characters, many of whom are other Spider-Mans to the delight of their fans and the general bewilderment of laymen. Returning to form, while the vivid storytelling doesn’t wane (which isn’t to run over everything), the film Spider-Man: Crossing the Multiverse It is an authentic visual pleasure of a hitherto unknown caliber, which also far surpasses the previous sequel. The colors, the environments, the planning, everything coordinated to the point of ecstasy. More than a month after its premiere, it continues to generate box office and almost no one dares to deny it the next Oscar.

“SPIDER-MAN: THROUGH THE SPIDER-VERSE”

USA, 2023.

Directed by: Joaquim dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson.

Screenplay: Christopher Miller, Phil Lord and Dave Callaham (based on characters by Stan Lee).

Music: Daniel Pemberton.

Animation.

140 minutes.