Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has been named the best animated film of 2018 by the New York Film Critics Circle. It's already been a landmark year for the Spider-Man movie brand, between Tom Holland's celebrated return as Peter Parker in Avengers: Infinity War and Sony's Venom becoming a global box office success. However, the best of the web-slinger has yet to come in 2018, if the initial word of mouth surrounding Sony's animated superhero adventure, Into the Spider-Verse, is anything to judge by.

Into the Spider-Verse is an origin story for not only Miles Morales aka. Ultimate Spider-Man (voiced by Shameik Moore), but also an entire, well, Spider-Verse of heroes like Spider-Gwen and even Spider-Ham, in addition to Miles. Early reviews for Into the Spider-Verse have been extremely positive and heaped praised on its innovative animation, heartfelt drama, and layered narrative. Moreover the film has (so far) gotten the most universally enthusiastic critical response out of any studio animated movie released in 2018 - and it's already been named the best animated feature of the year by one major critic organization, to boot.

Related: Read SR's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review

The NYFCC has formally dubbed Into the Spider-Verse the best animated movie of 2018, with directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman sharing the honor for their efforts. Sony's animated Spider-Man adventure beat out the likes of the Disney sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet, Pixar's followup Incredibles 2, and Wes Anderson's stop-motion feature Isle of Dogs (all of which were widely praised by critics) for the award, and is the first Sony Animation project to be recognized by the NYFCC in modern times... or ever, really.

Spider-Man swinging through the streets in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

It's not too difficult to discern how Into the Spider-Verse ended up winning the NYFCC's favor over 2018's other major animated films. While the Incredibles and Wreck-It Ralph sequels were well-received, neither film was generally regraded as being a big step forward for their respective franchises from an artistic perspective. Isle of Dogs, on the other hand, earned much in the way of applause of critics for its story and creative animation, but was also criticized for being problematic in the way it portrays its Japanese characters and their culture. By comparison, Into the Spider-Verse is already being celebrated for its inclusiveness and bold attempt to truly capture the splashy visuals and panache of a superhero story in comic book form on the big screen.

Sony, for its part, is no doubt happy to hear that critics love Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The studio is also banking on that positive word of mouth doing its job to elevate the film's opening weekend box office take and give it long legs over the winter holiday and new year frames, after it launches in December. It's even been reported that Sony has set to work on both a Spider-Verse sequel and all-female character spinoff, in anticipation of the movie becoming a financial success. The Spider-Verse, it seems, is just getting started.

MORE: Spider-Verse Producers Tease Donald Glover Cameo

Source: NYFCC

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