The Academic Blog Post 03
Analysis of Spider-Man- Into the Spider-Verse Through Medium Specificity and Gesamtkunstwerk
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a groundbreaking animated movie that articulated the trick of comic book styles into movie techniques perfectly by giving life to this superhero character. It is truly amazing as a transmedia object, being simultaneously the last representative of the tradition of animatics, the iteration of the tradition of comic art, and the progenitor of contemporary cinematic forms. This paper analyzes the film comprehensively in line with the argument of Gesamtkunstwerk and employs an evaluation of the medium specificity to understand the construction of the exceptional artistic aesthetic in a motion picture.
Figure 1: Spider-Man- Into the Spider-Verse
The pictorial element of the movie is an excellent example of Gesamtkunstwerk because it integrates other types of art into one artwork. Inspiring itself from elements of comic art, 3D animation, and music, it is a yielding, receptive, and sensational experience. Live action, bright colors, spectacular music, and a allegorical profound narrative engage the viewer in the Spider-Verse, reproducing these components in one artistic whole. The ‘moving-picture-in-moving-picture’ approach of the film and swift, dynamic change between the realities also adds to its total involvement feeling, which was something Wagner wanted from his artworks to marguinov 2019, p.296).
Figure 2: Miles Morales in Action
For instance, the halftone dots, the motion lines together with on-screen texts resemble to a great extent the traditional print comic making it easier to gauge where it belongs from. In contrast to the previous live-action Spiderman movies that this animated movie emulates, the opportunity for using hand drawing and digitally rendered effects is appealing and complements the animated feature spectacularly with choices like the multiple layered views during dimensional shifts.
Figure 3: The Multiverse in Spider-Verse
Lev Manovich claims that such hybridity epitomizes post-media, a situation in which none media emerges as dominant, and the formation exemplifies animation’s ability to transcend traditional medium paradigms. By exemplifying Gesamtkunstwerk and exploiting medium specificity, Spider-Man: Spider-Verse is unique in so many ways that it forces a new kind of thinking or perspective about what animated features can accomplish (Walulik, 2021).
References
Sony Pictures Animation. (2018). Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Official Website. Retrieved from https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/spidermanintothespidervers.
Walulik, A. (2021). Into the Spider-Verse is a masterclass in animation and storytelling. The Nerd Report. Retrieved from https://medium.com/the-nerd-report/into-the-spider-verse-is-a-masterclass-in-animation-and-storytelling-5b671e57d1e6.
