By George Haerle

For the Grays Harbor News Group

Rejoice, true believers. After the dark days of “Spider-Man 3” and whatever those movies were with Andrew Garfield, we are once again in an age of good Spider-Man movies, with “Into the Spider-Verse” being no exception. But Spidey fans will be overjoyed coming out of the theater after discovering what is probably the hero’s best movie since the original “Spider-Man 2,” and one of the best animated movies of the year.

This take on the character primarily follows the teenage Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) — a young Spider-Man just coming to grips with his powers as well as the existence of other Spider characters like himself, who have all entered Miles’ universe and must work together to get back to their own respective timelines and worlds.

Though after years of Spidey taking live-action form, “Spider-Verse” could prove that he might be at his best in an animated format. The visual aesthetic and animation style is nothing short of superb, a sort of computer-generated imagery hybrid of comic book visuals and an almost stop-motion-looking art style. This bold, vibrant, beautiful and expressive animation adds incredibly to a story that is not only light and fun but surprisingly heartfelt throughout.

Miles is given a fully fleshed out and deep origin story, exploring his family and his relationships with them, high school troubles, fears, doubts, joys and aspirations. Though his own version of the titular hero shares a common web with Peter Parker — being bitten by a genetically altered Spider — how it happens and surprising first act it (especially for what some might brush off at first as a kids’ movie) is fresh and exciting. Miles suffers his own tragedies, trials and tribulations and, thankfully, this is not another retelling of the ‘Uncle Ben getting shot’ trope. Miles becomes his own Spidey, and by the end of the movie, you feel that he has earned the suit entirely, the title, and an absolutely lovable take on the character and a great contribution to Marvel lore.

Fans of Peter Parker’s Spider-Man (Chris Pine’s voice at first, then Jake Johnson) won’t be disappointed either. He has a large part to play in the story, becoming a crash-course mentor for Miles in becoming the Spider-Man in his own universe. Johnson’s Parker/Spider-Man is approaching middle-age, and lived and lost more than the other Spider characters, and Johnson voices the jaded, wise-cracking Parker approaching middle age heart and humor to foil Miles’ youthful enthusiasm and self-doubt.

From their own universes and origins come the alternate versions of the character, including Spider-Woman/Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Man Noir (voiced perfectly by longtime comic book nerd Nicholas Cage), Peni Parker and her Spider robot (Kimiko Glenn), and Spider-Ham (comedian John Mulaney). Spider-Woman is the next best character of the group and is cool to see for the first time on screen with Steinfeld doing excellent voice work, and the character is fleshed out enough to be a more than worthy of a spin-off if Marvel and Sony wanted to keep printing money.

Overall, it pays great respect to the Spider-Man mythos as a whole, referencing all of the character’s history as a whole as an amalgam of his adventures across movies, comics, TV shows and even video games. It’s good enough for repeat viewings, from which fans will spot a ton of more references they didn’t spot the first time around.

It’s a great movie to see for the holidays with the family and a heck of a fun time. Though maybe not quite as good as “Incredibles 2,” without that competition “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” would be the best animated movie of the year and hopefully will be remembered as the classic that it is. Marvel and its devoted filmmakers have thankfully made sure that “Spider-Verse” is not just a cash-in on the expanded lore and not just an animated kids’ flick, but a truly worthy addition to their library of great superhero films.

“Into the Spider-Verse” is currently playing at the Riverside Cinemas, 1017 S. Boone St. in Aberdeen.

George Haerle writes movie reviews for Grays Harbor News Group.