Review Detail

Had to rewatch the excellent Into the Spider-verse before the new film came out.

The film is wonderful, relatable, and insane. It really leans into its comic book roots and doesn’t take itself too seriously, in both art direction, story, and characters. Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen are both stars in the making. Once the other three multiverse Spider-people (Noir, Spider-Ham, Peni Parker SP//dr) make their appearance, the animators get to play even more as each character has a distinct art style. While this is Mile’s film, acting as an origin film and being the lead protagonist throughout.

But I think emotionally, I think it’s original creation (to my knowledge) for this film, Peter B. Parker which ties everything together. A Peter Parker from another dimension, a down on his luck, depressed, adult Peter, whose life just didn’t turn out to be fine, who’s buckled under the weight of the pressure of being Spider-man and it’s destroyed his personal life. Peter B.’s arc is the one that’s the most heartfelt for me, as through the film he learns from Miles about acting on the leap of faith just as much as Miles learns from his Spider-compadres about how to use the skills and be a Spider-man.

There’s all sorts of zany superheroic action throughout, but it’s the human moments that make this picture, like Peter B. constantly trying to lose Miles because he doesn’t want him to end up like him, or Miles trying to use a pick-up line on Gwen, or best yet, the interaction between father and son as Miles and his father embrace grateful for the relationship they both have.

So what’s up with the fanedit version.

A fanedit that reincorporates deleted scenes into the completed film. In other fanedits, particularly ones that are live action and don’t rely heavily on Special Effects, it’s a lot less intrusive. In animated films, the animation tends to be unfinished causing a brain adjustment. Bobson Dugnutt is an expert faneditor and if it weren’t for the fact that this was an animated film that made its extended scenes obvious, I probably wouldn’t have even been able to notice, that’s how good Bobson’s technical prowess is.

Nonetheless, it’s mostly the same film, just a little longer. Even unfinished some of these extended scenes are fun, like the extended fight at Aunt May’s house, or Peter B. additional lines at the restaurant explaining the multiverse using fries. Where it deviates is the very significant discussion between Peter B. and Miles on the billboard, there’s extra lines here, and because some of the scene is now unfinished it takes away the power of that scene and those lines entirely, for me. It’s far too distracting to get over. So I won’t rewatch it this way again, but I enjoyed the experiment.

Film rating: 4
Fanedit rating: 4