Ok, I'm back in Texas so here we go, spoiler free but I will mention a character or two we already know about.

I was out in LA at an animation conference called CTNx this past weekend, lots of panels from folks at Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks, Blue Sky, and Sony Animation, and Sony had an Into the Spider-Verse panel scheduled that I made sure to get a pass for. The panelists listed were the directors, an art director, and interestingly enough Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Directors aren't uncommon at these talks (and most animated film directors aren't huge names) but seeing names as big as the two of them listed was unusual. I was very glad I had a pass because the theater was packed, and they had us lock up our phones as we entered which was also an interesting sign.

Everyone gets seated and they thank us for coming, and then Phil and Chris proceed to be as charming and funny as you'd hope they would be. They said when Sony approached them about the film they told them wouldn't do it unless it was a Miles Morales story. They then go into some concept art, talk about developing the character designs for Miles and for Prowler, discuss how they approached the design of the world, and them most interestingly went into how they're creating the unique look of the film.

The movie is animated on 2s (one "drawing" every 2 frames instead of a drawing on every frame as is typical for CG) which helps give it that sort of hand drawn look. They designed the characters to be a bit flatter with strong silhouettes and also created a more graphic treatment for the renders, and the entire film is rendered without motion blur.

The really cool thing is that the animators had tools that allowed them to actually draw and add graphic elements on top of the animation, so all the extra lines, halftone or crosshatch shading, etc, was added to those shots by hand.

They then ask if we want to see a clip and show a scene with Miles and Prowler that was great, really intense and very well animated.

They start joking around with "Do you guys want to see more? I've got something on my phone, can we Airdrop it?" and then one of them says "or we can show them the whole first act?" Crowd goes nuts and they say "Yeah, let's do that!" and just drop the lights and the Sony logo comes up.

I will keep this totally spoiler free but will talk about the tone so take this as your warning...

As soon as this film starts you know it's different just from the logo treatments (which, speaking as a designer are REALLY cool) and then they dig in and go big.

This movie is VERY self aware. I want to tell you so badly how it starts but want you all to enjoy it as much as I did, so I'll just say it's hilarious and if you're at all a fan of the character or films you'll love it.

It's surprisingly heartfelt. Miles is awkward and lovable in the best way, you like him almost instantly and he's really relatable while seeming like a real modern day teenager.

The action sequences are a blast, they push a bit cartoony but the action feels great and they definitely let Spidey be Spidey. The set up for the multiverse premise works for me, wasn't overwrought and I totally bought in and went with the rest of the story.

And it is hilarious. Granted we watched it with an audience that's perfect for this sort of film, full of animation and comic geeks, but it is seriously laugh out loud funny. There's lots of genuinely funny moments along with some great Spidey/Marvel in jokes.

They cut at the beginning of the graveyard sequence that showed after Venom to raucous applause, and then one of the directors thanked us for reminding him why they made this film and how much they love seeing an audience like ours enjoy it.

They then close out with one more sequence from later on that was...just awesome.

I saw a few folks from Sony around later in the day and I mentioned how much I enjoyed it, one guy asked how much was shown and then said "Ooh, you haven't even seen the really good stuff yet."

So I apologize for pushing this movie into the unrealistic expectations category but I believe it's really that good, easily the most purely entertaining thing I've seen in a long time. And it's going to kill at the box office.

T-minus 4 weeks and counting...

Thanks for taking the time to write all this out. Sounds like an awesome experience, and you've got me that much more excited for when this finally hits.