Mar 27, 2024

The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story," in which Spider-Man confronts his most familiar foe, is now available for free on Youtube.

With great power comes great responsibility, and Sony Pictures Animation is using its most powerful property in an extremely responsible way in its new short film, "The Spider Within": released today on YouTube.

Set in the world of the Academy Award-winning "Spider-Verse," the short eliminates the escapist crisis Miles Morales faces in his feature film and instead pits young Spider-Man against a more relatable enemy: anxiety.

Overwhelmed by his alter ego's duties, his studies at a prestigious private school, and his crush on a girl from another universe, Miles has a panic attack that manifests itself in a truly terrifying way.

The short film was developed and produced as part of SPA and Sony Pictures Imageworks' "Leading and Empowering New Storytellers" program, a nine-month leadership training event by LENS that provides socially LENS is a nine-month leadership training event that supports filmmakers from underrepresented groups.

The Spider Within was directed by Jarrell Dampier and written by Kayla Amazan. Clara Chan was the VFX supervisor and Joe Darko was the animation supervisor. The short was produced by LENS program creators Michel Raimo-Kuyate and David Schulenberg.

Like the franchise's feature films, "The Spider Within" breaks the barriers of traditional animation, utilizing common comic book tropes to tell its story in a dynamic way.

"The Spider Within" was created by Sony Pictures Animation with Kevin Love Huang as part of "The Heo Within," an extensive lesson plan focused on mental health for teenage students. Through this program, children are invited to share their own stories through an interactive curriculum that includes creative storyboarding activities.