Why does SPIDER-MAN + MULTIVERSE work so well?

If I had a nickel every time hailee steinfeld voiced a cool girl from a masterclass piece of animated media, I’d have 2 nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice.

So glad Spiderverse is getting the schnee treatment. Something i picked up elsewhere: dark Spot resembles the dark Miles silhouette in his no expectations painting. It really draws a connection between Spot and Miles' inner conflict and thematically cements him as his nemisis. My prediction is in the conclusion of the last movie that hole will be filled in.

The observation you had about Pavitr and Miles both doing department of redundancy department jokes ('ATM Machine' and 'Chai Tea') was great, it really emphasises that they are 'alike' in the way you laid out in the video.

On the subject of communication, another cool tiny detail that someone else pointed out that Miles’s dad misunderstood the word “salvage” for a moment when the councilor was saying that they could salvage Miles’s future. (Apparently salvage is a police code word for execution)

Spoiler Warning: The Score is also another form of lingo (like he mentioned). For me, the most obvious example of this is how the movie starts and ends. It starts with Gwen playing drums with the band that she doesn't really fit in with. By the end of the song, she is out of control and out of sync with her bandmates, so much so that they have already stopped playing and have to call out to her by the time she realizes. This contrasts with the final minute of the movie where she finally gets a band (i.e. group of people) that she can be in sync with and is comfortable around. Here, the score still has her drums playing but this time it matches more with the rest of the instruments and the drums end on time.

So fun detail: the thing with referring to adults by first names versus last names is actually a cultural/regional difference. I never referred to parents of friends or friends of parents by "Mr./Mrs./Ms. Last Name", it was always "Mr./Ms. First Name". That was standard where I live, and it's not considered a sign of disrespect, it's just how people are referred to. It might be a sign of closeness but the only people I ever called by their last names were teachers. It's interesting to think about.

I think doing a video breaking down Hobies role in the story could make a great video too! For a character with very little screen time, who's hyped up as an opposite to miles ends up being his only real ally and helps gwen self actualized. I loved his big brother role throughout the movie, and think theres a lot to explore in that.

I interpret Miles' graffiti piece from the first film a little differently: While his essay is titled "great expectations", his piece says "no expectations". I interpret it as him wanting to be seen as himself, rather than the many expectations that surround him, and other people use to try to tie him down. And he spray paints his suit black after Aaron tells him to keep on his own path, and his dad tells him that he's free to use his "spark" for whatever he wants. I think the black suit represents his acceptance of his own path as Spider-Man being his own, rather than the kind of hero all the other spider-people want him to be. Bonus round, The Spot actually mirrors the image of this piece, taking the exact same pose after becoming a literal black silhouette with white lining. Not only is this an image showing that Miles "created" The Spot, but it shows that he's what happens when someone is truly subjected to no expectations, just like Miles wished for in his piece. Spot is treated as a background character, a joke, even when travelling the multi-verse no one really takes him seriously or expects anything of him. And this is in stark contrast to Miles claiming that it's his parents and their raising of him that have made him strong.

You may notice the spot's motivation is to fight annihilation too. He says he's significant that he's Miles's Nemesis, but Miles calls him a week. He thinks he's significant, but he's told he's not. So from then on his motivation is to be stronger to ruin Miles's life so he's not just a villain of the week anymore. There's even that parent-child dynamic there with the spot saying Miles created him. Another interesting thing is how when he finds he can travel the multiverse. He thinks this proves he's significant but when he goes to the venom dimension the person he finds is completely unimpressed by him. This prompts him to think he needs more holes, more power.

Spider punk was a real one and I hope he gets more shout outs cause he deserves it

The animation and story is outstanding. Still surprised how it doesn't take years to create since we're already getting a part 2.

About the color motif, people pointed out that during the first SpiderVerse, when Miles and his original Peter meet, Miles's background changes from green/purple (Prowler's colors) to blue/red (Spider-Man's colors) symbolizing the change of his path. I wonder how much of all that was planned vs. a fun Easter egg they built upon to expand the narrative :)

The chai-tea joke, I think, is for Indian (or more likely Indian American) viewers and some relatively universal thing they’ve explained to their non-Desj friends. They probably wanted to give Indians representation, but India is such a big country that you can’t make a joke that’s too specific to a certain religion, language, or region bc other Indians wouldn’t get it. It’s like Miles ATM machine joke, but with personal connections for South Asians. I assume NYC commonalities that can be referenced in film can be more specific since NYC is geographically much smaller even though it may be more diverse than India.

Fun detail? The idea of Spiderman not being able to "do both things" is hinted at earlier in the film, but with Miles' going against that rule! When Miles is getting the cake with a written message on it that's too long? He buys two cakes instead of making the message shorter; he's having his cake and eating it too!

I'm pretty sure the first name joke was more of a cultural thing than a sign of miles' parents not viewing teens as equals/as adults. In a lot of cultures, including Black and Latin cultures, it's seen as disrespectful to call someone's parents by their first names. It's usually only ok when the parents themselves say "oh please, just call me (first name)", but otherwise it's inappropriate. Gwen is white and grew up in a white (and i think Irish?) family, where calling parents/guardians by their first name is seen as normal, so that's probably why she made that mistake with miles' parents.

SPOILER WARNING!! You are a god send for making an analysis on Spider-verse. I completely did not expect that I would be Arcaned/Infinity War-ed again because I avoided every possible social media hint or spoiler about Across the Spider-verse and the only feedback I chose to look for was whether it was good/worth watching. I filled the cliff-hanger void Arcane left with your analysis and now I'm so happy to find one of yours on ATSV 😂 Side note: I hope you could do an analysis that touches the dilemma Miles is facing. I feel like some people miss out on the how devastatingly crippling it can be to constantly get slapped with how you are a mistake/not supposed to happen and the betrayal that comes with the people significant to you knowing all of it without telling you.

I’ve felt this whole “caring about ur potential, not u” for the longest time and have written myself some stuff about it So when you talked about that my jaw dropped and I was so glad someone out there gets it and has shared it to the world

i think when talking about the friendship and mentorship part, hobie is a really interesting aspect to dig into a little deeper. cuz hes a Very good antithesis to miguel and resisting the forces that want to push miles into a specific role that he fights against in "Everyone keeps telling me how MY story is supposed to go! Nah... Imma do my own thing." and hobie's "here we go" at miles getting frustrated and angry at being told to just let his dad die. Hobie almost gives off the impression of a potential for who miles could become but like all of the movie, miles is his own person. all the different choices and different experiences hes had lead him to where he is and hobie is just one possible future that he couldve turned into. I also 110% agree with the color discussion but i think a major thing with this is also the way they handle backgrounds, especially during gwen's super emotional scenes (her dad pulling a gun on her and when they have the discussion where he finally understands and accepts her). in the first one where her dad pulls a gun on her, the backgrounds are very sharp, overbearing, and almost dominating because they are just giant blocks of color that are dichotomous. light and dark, warm and cold, etc. but when she and her dad are talking after she gets sent back home, the background colors start to literally drip and muddle and melt away. the objects become abstract lines and impressions and they fade into pastels and light colors to force your attention onto gwen and her dad. the world around them literally melts away because all that matters is that they're relationship is repaired and gwen has her home back. also the joke about vi and gwen was funny lmao hailee steinfield did an amazing job with both roles

Anyone can be spiderman, that’s why it’s so easy to have a multiverse with this character.

My personal theory on why Spider-Man works so well is because it’s always a guy, it can be anyone and the mask and premise is so broad that it can be worked around any type of person and still work. The ability to relate is the biggest strength of spidermen, there’s an average guy behind the mask and that allows kids especially to be able to think that they can be that to. That applies to people who maybe aren’t exactly a Peter Parker, a cis straight white male. A lot of people see themselves in the mask. Not sure how to communicate my entire thought process but that’s my two cents (this is just an answer to the rhetorical question at the beginning)