Back when it was first revealed that we’d be getting an animated Spider-Man film, I was not excited. I looked at Sony’s track record and saw this as another opportunity for them to just milk the character for all it was worth. When all said and done, I expected it to look like every other standard CG-animated film out there — with little emphasis on the overall aesthetic. I’m happy to say I was wrong.

Upon witnessing that very first trailer for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it was clear there was a real vision behind it all. In place of typical CG, we had a look that was a clever blend between CG, a stop-motion feel, and the looks of comic books in general. It’s one I couldn’t have predicted Sony would have taken, as it would have been too damn risky. Speaking at a press conference last April, producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller discussed the decision to go with this unique look.

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Here’s what Miller said:

“Well, absolutely. I think obviously the style of it, we wanted to make something that looks like nothing you’ve ever seen before on screen. Part of the idea is that people go to the movies to see something new and uniqueness drives the marketplace and what’s the point of making something that just feels like everything else that came before it? So this seemed like an opportunity to push the boundaries as far as we possibly could and crazily, they haven’t stopped us yet.”

“And so the fact that it’s gorgeous and the comic book is really the inspiration for the look and having to create this new pipeline of having to make something look like you’re in a hand drawn, hand painted world that is still a fully three-dimensional universe. It’s been the amazing people at ImageWorks who have been able to put that together and make that look as amazing as they have. It’s been really cool and I’m really excited about doing something that feels groundbreaking.”

But Lord then went on to discuss the idea of actually taking a risk with a known property:

“You can take the fact that this is really well-known thing, you can take that as a thing that can really scare you and make you want to be really protective and conservative about it. Like, oh, it’s ours to lose and we don’t want to mess it up, right? And some people handle their franchises that way, but when you’ve got something, this is for us, same with Lego, this is an opportunity. People already love Spider-Man. Here’s a chance to take it somewhere new and do something bold. It gives us cover at this facility to indulge our dreams of what an animated movie can be, right?”

“Bold” is definitely the word I would choose to describe what we have there, and that’s not even including the idea of incorporating a handful of different Spider-Heroes into the mix. Without a doubt, this is a Spider-Man story we haven’t seen on the big screen before — and even more exciting, it’s one I never expected we’d get, so it’s worth celebrating.

What do you think of these comments from Lord and Miller? Did they take the right gamble? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: LRM Online