The Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Characters Helped To Inform Unique Parts Of The Soundtrack
As fans make their way to theaters to see "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," we're going to be hearing a lot about the film's animation. With multiple distinctive animation styles, images that pop and evolve shot to shot, and a colorful creative energy that feels more like a real comic book than any movie has before, the film's visuals are certainly worth celebrating. Part of what makes them so fantastic, though, is how well they work in tandem with the film's pulsing, dynamic score, which was composed by returning franchise composer Daniel Pemberton. Pemberton spoke with Rolling Stone ahead of the film's release about the sequel's most intriguing challenge: creating stylistically distinct themes for each universe featured in the film.
Pemberton told the outlet that he worked on themes for eight different characters' worlds, all of which you can listen to now via the original score album. Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) and Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) get their own themes, as do Spidey variations Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya), Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni), and Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac). Additionally, the villain Spot (Jason Schwartzman) gets his own dimension, and another villain who makes an appearance early in the film, the Renaissance sketch-inspired Vulture (Jorma Taccone), has what Pemberton called "a sound, which is kind of like f***ed up operatic medieval music." If you're only counting seven themes, that's because there's one Pemberton stayed tight-lipped about when speaking to Rolling Stone, saying, "There's another dimension I can't talk about." Fair enough!
Daniel Pemberton made eight different dimensional themes
When it came to creating the themes, Daniel Pemberton said he took inspiration from the visually disparate styles of each dimension. He recalled seeing a "presentation of all the different art-style approaches in the movie, which was phenomenal, talking about all the different techniques, from the sort of Syd Mead-inspired concept design that 2099's world is very inspired by, to the watercolor drips of Gwen's world." The movie includes at least six distinct art styles, and having seen it last night (and not yet recovered all the bits of my mind that were blown every which way), I can safely say that each one brings something phenomenal and unique to the film.
Pemberton does the same with the score, including with Gwen's world, which is a gorgeously emotive, ever-shifting watercolor portrait. He told Rolling Stone:
"For me doing the music, I'm also trying to approach each world with a different palette and a different technique and a different approach. In this film, I'm playing off the palette and textures of Gwen's world, which are a lot more dreamy. She's kind of influenced by a '90s, 2000s indie pop, synth-y, grungy kind of world, but with an art style that is incredibly dreamy, and slightly abstract."
From hip-hop to dreamy pop to 'f***ed up operatic medieval music'
While Daniel Pemberton said Miles' world "was very influenced by hip-hop culture" and had a "record scratching" element to it, Miguel's dimension sounded a lot different. "2099's world is incredibly technological, futuristic, and that's been a huge impact on how I approach it," he shared. "His character is very harsh and technological, and so his world and his theme is more in keeping with that." While the synth-y, triumphant track that accompanies Nueva York is certainly great, my favorite parts of the soundtrack come during the film's eerier moments, when Pemberton's music matches the off-putting, almost grotesque nature of The Spot and the jolt of surprising darkness that comes with that eighth world's introduction.
"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is a tremendous technical achievement, and Pemberton's score is a huge part of that. It'll be another year before the cliffhangers posed by the film are answered in the second part of its story, "Beyond the Spider-Verse," but in the meantime, I'm happy to put the new score on repeat and get lost in this sprawling, universe-hopping soundtrack.
"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is now in theaters.