Everyone who has seen a Marvel movie probably knows Stan Lee. He appeared in practically every movie for years, including in the Spider-Man animated movie. But you definitely didn’t spot him every time unless you paused at the right moment.
What is Spider-Man: A New Universe? The film was released in 2018 and was the first major animated Spider-Man movie. However, this time the protagonist wasn’t Peter Parker, but Miles Morales, who must learn to be a superhero with his new abilities.
The film was not only a financial success but also well-received by audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 97% from critics and 94% from users. Typical for films based on Marvel comics, there is again a cameo by Stan Lee. Besides the obvious, there are also hidden cameos.
The sequel to the film was also a big success: You can watch one of the best superhero movies of the last few years on Netflix next week.
You can find a trailer for the movie here:
Stan Lee is everywhere in the movie
Where is Stan Lee hiding? The obvious cameo appearance occurs in a costume shop where Stan Lee is the shopkeeper. But Stan Lee doesn’t just appear there; he shows up multiple times in the film. To see him, you need to pause at the perfect spots.
As the lead animator of the films shows on X, it’s worth watching the individual frames of the movie. In his clip, he demonstrates that if you pause at the right moment during a train scene, you can see Stan Lee on the train. There, he makes Spider-Man’s iconic hand gesture.
You can see the clip here:
The user @chrizmillr shows that this is not the only hidden cameo and that you can discover Stan Lee multiple times in the movie. This is thanks to the detailed animation process.
How was the movie made? As The New York Times reports, the creators valued Stan Lee’s philosophy. Screenwriter Phil Lord explained:
When telling stories in sequential art, it’s primarily about the key pose and moving from pose to pose and frame to frame. Stan Lee laid this out in
Phil Lord on the work philosophy behind Spider-Man: A New Universe. (Source: New York Times)How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way.
Thus, the creators valued not only a film structure but also a comic philosophy. Accordingly, the film is also a love letter to Stan Lee, who passed away shortly before the film’s release.
The movie is a mix of 3D and 2D and was incredibly complicated to make. They combined hand-drawn 2D illustrations with 3D elements. To make the comic look stand out even more, they also used elements like sound words.
This resulted in the unique look and great animations. Such detailed work allows for hiding little Easter eggs. If you are interested in good animations, you should take a look at this episode of One Piece: One Piece: The current arc has one of the best fights of all time – but only in the anime
