The Shocking Detail You Missed In Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
When "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" was released in 2018, the film made a big impression on audiences through its unique art and animation style. Blending comic book graphics with 3D animation and employing numerous unconventional, captivating visual techniques, "Into the Spider-Verse" enraptured both everyday moviegoers and high-brow critics alike. Its quality was such that it swept up awards for Best Animated Feature at both the Oscars and the Golden Globes (via IMDb).
Famously, Sony Pictures Imageworks, the animation team behind "Into the Spider-Verse, animated the film's protagonist Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) at different frame rates according to his mood. An unsteady and unsure Miles might animate at only half the frame rate as when he's confident or in a tense situation. The team went through all of this trouble in order to give the Miles-centric film a unique identity among "Spider-Man" flicks. As director Peter Ramsey told the New York Times, in order to make viewers "feel like they're seeing Spider-Man for the first time," Sony "couldn't rest on the conventions of animated films as we've known them."
As such, there are a lot of little things in the movie's animation that go unnoticed by viewers — even to this day. One particularly interesting detail has gone unnoticed for some time, and it might shock you (pun intended).
Miles electrocuting Peter reveals Spidey's scientific influences
"Spider-Man" and science have always gone hand-in-hand. The web-slinger is even a product of science fiction himself. Radioactive spiders with DNA-altering venom don't just evolve out of nowhere — Oscorp (or some other company, it really depends on the universe) bioengineered that bad boy. On top of that, Peter Parker has always been a bit of an egghead. He formulated his web fluid himself, and had a teenage IQ equal to that of Reed Richards at the same age (via Fandom).
To reflect Peter's scientific roots, Sony Pictures Imageworks included a small but very telling detail in "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse." As pointed out by Film Facts on Twitter, Miles' bioelectric powers light up Peter B. Parker's (voiced by Jake Johnson) nervous system upon electrocution. Audiences are more used to seeing characters' skeletons light up when they're electrocuted, which isn't what happens in real-life electrocutions.
It's a subtle detail to the action that adds a layer of characterization to Peter Parker. As a scientist, he knows that the nervous system is responsible for conduction bioelectric signals through the body, making it the part of a human's anatomy most appropriate for cartoonish illumination. If it were a more absurd character like Spider-Ham (voiced by John Mulaney) being shocked, viewers might have seen a more traditional take on the gag. However, the folks at Sony's attention to detail and dedication to uniquely animating each character motivated them to go the extra step for this comparatively minor sequence.