BY RICARDO LUJAN
This week’s marathon will be focusing on animated movies. I have chosen three distinctly different styles of animation to show just how different these movies can look from each other. Let’s jump right into the final Tri-Movie Marathon
Starting off the marathon, we have DC’s Batman: Under the Red Hood. This is more of an adult-theme animated movie mainly due to its violence. The action is quite good and all the fights between the heroes and villains have good choreography and even have parts of the storytelling integrated into the fights.
The overall story of this film is quite good as well. If you are a fan of DC and Batman in general, you will know right away what story is being told. For those who are unfamiliar with any of the Batman stories from the comics, the movie does a decent job of explaining each character and how they relate to each other.
The movie nails the ending perfectly as that easily is the best part of the entire story. The animation and art style of the movie is good as well. There was never anything that made me marvel at how amazing it was, but there was never anything that looks poorly drawn or animated either.
I’ve watched many Batman-related shows and movies and Batman: Under The Red Hood ranks near the top of my list. You can find it currently streaming on HBO Max.
For the second film of the marathon, we have the Pixar film Wall-E. Wall-E is a 3D animated film rather than a hand-drawn one. Wall-E is a beautiful film in my opinion.
The story takes our characters through so many different settings which allow there to be a vast difference between each sequence of the film. A majority of the cast of this film does not speak either. All of their characterization/personality comes through their actions and how they interact with one another. The main character himself, Wall-E, is one of the most likable protagonists in all of film, despite never truly speaking in the story due to how much personality was injected into his movements.
For being a movie released in 2008, it still looks good for industry standards today. Wall-E is a truly enjoyable feel-good movie that is needed after watching a dark movie such as Batman: Under The Red Hood. You can currently find Wall-E streaming on Disney+.
For the final film in the marathon this week, we have Spiderman: Into the SpiderVerse. This animated movie has a unique art style that is vastly different from the previous two movies in the marathon. The art style is inspired by comic books as can be seen by the constant use of text bubbles, comic panels, and how the world is shaded.
The reason that Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse is the final movie in the marathon is that it is a nice blend of the two previous films in the marathon. It has a hand-drawn animation style like Batman: Under The Red Hood while being much more child-friendly like Wall-E. The story of Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse is quite good. The story is simple enough for kids to follow, but the themes within the story are rather mature and deliver a good message.
The art style of this film is truly the most amazing thing about it which is saying something as most aspects of this film are great. This film has a very distinctive look and it animates very well too. All the movements of the characters are smooth and look natural. There was a lot of detail put into the look of the movie. There are even moments where characters are moving at different framerates to show the difference in experience between them.
Amazing visuals, a great story, fun action scenes, and a great soundtrack that fits the movie perfectly is what Spiderman: Into The SpiderVerse brings to the table. You can find Spiderman: Into The SpiderVerse streaming on Netflix or the FHSU Movie channel.
Thank you all for tuning in to the final Tri-Movie Marathon for this semester. I hope you all enjoyed each and every marathon that was published.