Why you need to buy Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse on DVD, Blu-ray or 4K UHD!

One of the biggest cultural phenomena in recent years has been the 2018 Sony Animation Studios collaboration with Marvel, ‘Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse’. The film broke new ground, re-inventing modern animation. There has been a sameness to animation for years, but Into the Spiderverse made the animation feel like a comic book has come to life, with a level of detail that could not be explored in any other format. After this monumental success, it was only a matter of time until we got a sequel, and in 2023 we did with Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse.

The film picks up shortly after the events of Into the Spiderverse, with Mile Morales now in the swing of things (no pun intended) as Spider-man. He is doing his best to balance being spider-man, with family life, school and everything else that comes with being a teenager. Across the Spiderverse somehow manages to eclipse the amazing Into the Spiderverse, with even better visuals, an incredible story and emotional depth I wasn’t expecting from the film. It was a box office smash hit, grossing over double of what Into the Spiderverse did, with a massive $690 million worldwide, and an impressive 95% certified fresh critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Like the first film, I loved this film its wonderful from start to finish, making me excited for the third instalment, Beyond the Spiderverse due in 2024. To celebrate the films, release on DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K UHD, I will be breaking down why you need to have Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse in your collection. So, without further ado, let’s go!

“I didn’t want to join a band, so I started my own” – the characters and their design –

The real strength of Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse is the fantastic characters and their wonderful designs, that feel wholly unique and original. We are dealing with hundreds of characters here that are all spider-man, but it’s the way in which each character is performed and the way they are designed that makes them feel different and individualistic. Miles has a very distinct suit, trading in the traditional red and blue for black and red, with an almost neon flare. Spider-punk is also vastly different, with his design, looking like a hair metal character from the 80s, but with a more traditional hand-drawn look to his animation. Spider-Gwen has the blend of pink, black and white, giving her a very distinct style, Spider-man 2099 also has a very distinct style, with a navy suit. All of these characters are also bought to life beautifully by their respective voice actors. Hailey Steinfeld’s turn as Spider-Gwen is by far my favourite character in the film. She has many layers and provides a lot of the emotional heft to the film. Steinfeld does a magnificent job of bringing her to life.  I was very impressed with the emotional stakes presented in the film and the fun; colourful cast of characters just amplified my enjoyment of the film. There are so many sections of the film I am looking forward to freezing so I can just take it all in and admire the efforts of bringing all these characters to the big screen.

“Spider-verse… That sounds dumb” – the plot and the spider-verse as a whole –

The multiverse has become Hollywood’s new favourite plot device to bring back characters from previous films and franchises and so they all can interact with one another. The concept has seen some great films and some truly exciting moments of fan service, including Spider-man: No Way Home, The Flash and of course the Spider-verse films. Across the Spider-verse has a lot more fun with this concept than it did in its predecessor. We get to see so many different incarnations of the web slinger, with fun fan nods including Childish Gambino as the Prowler, who appeared as the live action version of Miles’s uncle in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ back in 2017. The spider-verse story however isn’t just a gimmick, it’s very much the entire purpose of the film, which is why the film works on the multiple levels it does. The film deals with the idea that every spider-man has a canon event, this event is what defines who they are. For many it’s the death of Uncle Ben, for Gwen it’s the death of her best friend, but as Miles finds out for him, it’s the death of his parents. In true hero like fashion, Miles decides that he will be doing things differently, and wants to prove that this event can indeed be stopped but going against the grain results in Miles getting stuck in an alternate dimension, with fans eagerly awaiting the next instalment. It's all incredibly thorough, fun and well-done, with its larger-than-life action set-pieces never overstaying their welcome. It’s the perfect balance of spidey action, mixed with an emotional and satisfying narrative.

“Nah, I’m going to do my own thing” – the gorgeous animation –

The staying power of the Spiderverse films is of course its stunning animation. The animation style popularised in 2018s Into the Spiderverse has since been used in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and The Bad Guys was brought back again this year with Across the Spiderverse. It's simply stunning to look at with every frame having immense attention to detail that you don’t see in a lot of modern animated films. The characters have a distinct cartoonish feel to them, but that is a big part of why they work for me. The ultra realistic backgrounds and characters can almost be distracting and in a multiversal, larger-than-life, comic book story, this type of animation works in spades as it provides a unique feel to the overall film. The colour pallets and vastly different animation styles, with Gwen’s opening being almost a pastel style of animation, that is different to the rest of the film.

Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse is a modern animation masterpiece. Every gorgeous frame of the film could be its own piece of art. Its wonderfully put together, with the animators doing a marvellous job of bringing each of these wonderful characters to life, in spectacular fashion. If you’re a spider-man fan, this is a love letter to the character and a must watch for fans of comic book films. Pick-up your copy of Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse today on DVD, Blu-Ray or 4K UHD. You will not want to miss it and whilst you’re at it, shop all things Spider-man, right here at Sanity!

Long live physical media!

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Buy all Spider-Man movies including Spider-man: Across The Spider-verse on DVD, Blu-ray or 4K UHD here

Christopher Pattison wrote this blog post for Sanity. See more from Chris here