Spider-Man just won an Oscar. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 2019 Oscars, beating out distant Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet and Pixar’s Incredibles 2 for the coveted trophy.
On Sunday evening, the award for Best Animated Feature was given to Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the critically-acclaimed CGI animated Spider-Man movie released last December. Directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, and lead star Shameik Moore accepted the award.
In an echo of the movie’s message that anyone can wear the mask of a hero, Rothman thanked the young fans of Spider-Verse in his brief acceptance speech.
“To our audience, thank you so much. We love you,” he said. “We want you all to know, we see you. You’re powerful. This world needs you. Please, we’re all counting on you.”
Spider-Verse’s victory is notable for combo-breaking Pixar and Disney’s dominance in the category. Since its introduction in 2001, Disney and Pixar (owned by Disney) have a combined total of 12 wins out of 18 awards ever given. This year, Spider-Verse beat out Pixar’sIncredibles 2, directed by Brad Bird, and Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet, directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston. Both films are sequels to previously existing Disney movies.
Two other non-Disney films nominated in the category were Isle of Dogs, directed by Wes Anderson, and Mirai, directed by Mamoru Hosoda.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a Marvel film produced and distributed by Sony, is a standalone Spider-Man film set outside the interconnected Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. In a change from most Spider-Man films, the movie features Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) as its main protagonist instead of Peter Parker (Jake Johnston). Set in a parallel universe, Miles must use his newfound powers to team up with other webbed superheroes in order to prevent reality from collapsing.
'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' (2018).
The character of Miles Morales, known as the “Ultimate” Spider-Man, was created by Sara Pichelli and Brian Michael Bendis for the Marvel comic book series Ultimate Spider-Man in 2011.
“It’s genuinely scary to put out something in the world that’s brand new,” Bendis told Inverse in a recent interview. “The extra added fear with Miles was that we were trying to be additive to Spider-Man. No one was asking for that. No one was going, ‘I wish Spider-Man was just a little bit something else.’ So changing something so drastic in the franchise is daunting. But we really believed in what we were doing. Anyone could wear the mask.”
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 19.
