All signs point to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse being an absolute hit this holiday season

As if Sony wasn't already winning enough over the last couple months, their latest Spidey adventure appears to be a smashing success, if early reviews are to be believed, Across the board, from IGN to The Verge to The New York Post, early reviews suggest that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is primed for an Oscar run for Best Animated Film.

Announced just a few months, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse exists on a completely different plane than Marvel's Spider-Man: Homecoming; somewhat pun intended on that one. Spider-Verse is centered around Miles Morales, the Ultimate Spider-man that has become such a popular character that fans are almost begging Marvel to introduce him in to the MCU (his estranged uncle does appear so fingers crossed). Miles, through a similar bite of a modified spider, gains Spider-man powers including the ever-present Spider-sense. However, because why not, he also gains an electro-sonic like blast as well as a camouflaging ability. His comic adventures have received rave reviews prompting Sony to finally green-light his first adventure (although we could be seeing him in the Spider-man game sequel).

However, as fans of the comics know, there is more than just one universe in the Marvel world, and if one Spider-man is good, well, more Spider-"men" is great. Spider-verse, thanks to the big bad Kingpin, explores what happens when more than one Spidey ends up in the same universe and has to save the day. What we get with Spider-verse is a collection of a middle-aged, and out of shape, Peter Parker that takes Miles under his wing to teach him how to be a hero. Additionally, Sony throws in fan-favorite Spider-Gwen, Peni Parker, Spider-Man Noir, and the lovable Spider-ham (the superhero title of one Peter Porker).

As the screen quickly fills up with Spiders, the issue of character development always becomes an issue, but it seems Sony has finally figured out the formula (much too late for Spider-man 3). Spider-Verse appears to master the balancing act as each character gets a nice backstory, screen-time, and solid arc. In addition to the writing, the voice-acting is particularly praised thanks to solid performances by Shameik Moore (Miles), Jake Johnson (Peter), Hailee Steinfeld (Gwen) and the always eccentric Nicholas Cage (Noir).

Critics are also praising the animation style with its comic feel and far-from-Pixar flair. Sticking with a low frame rate, in addition to using thought bubbles, seems to give the film a jump-from-the-page feeling that hits all the right notes. While it certainly not be winning any visual Oscars, it feels right at home with the feel Sony was shooting for.

Will Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse be winning any awards for picture of the year? Of course not. But, it seems to be a fun, hilarious, adventure film that will pull in big numbers and rave reviews from its target audience. The combination of a solid story with some excellent voice-acting, along with some impressive visuals, appears to make this a new, refreshing take on Spidey that should help their image improve after the remarkably disliked Amazing Spider-man 2. General consensus: go see this movie.