Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

The 2023 animation directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson follows Miles as he collides with an organisation of Spider-Men from other universes. Switching styles here is not decoration but the argument made visible. Each of the six universes was designed to look as though a different artist drew it, Gwen’s world is built in watercolour, and its palette shifts with her feeling like a three dimensional mood ring. When Miles enters another universe his line refuses to match its surroundings, so not belonging is shown rather than stated. That came at a production cost. With a crew of roughly a thousand it is the largest animated film ever staffed, and workers who spoke to Vulture in June 2023 described more than a hundred artists leaving before completion, three to six idle months in 2021, then weeks above seventy hours. Sony executive Michelle Grady replied that four voices did not represent the crew. A third warning concerns length: at 140 minutes this is the longest American animated feature, and the story simply stops, because the sequel was announced in December 2021 as two parts. Worth it if a mismatch in line weight reads as the point, not a glitch. Avoid it if you need an ending after 140 minutes; it was deferred to a sequel.