3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse felt like a miracle, something that succeeded but should have never been attempted again. And yet, Across the Spider-Verse went even bigger and pulled it off again… mostly. New directing team Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson bring in new Spider-people, adapt new visual styles, and new avenues to explore with Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy, without ever losing the emotional stakes.
Even though Across the Spider-Verse begins and ends with Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), it remains a movie about Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), whose imposter syndrome intensifies when he learns about a multiversal team led by Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac). Worse, a loser called the Spot (Jason Schwartzman) is gaining power to become the arch-enemy he wants to be, and Miles cannot stop him while stranded in another universe. Unfortunately, Across the Spider-Verse doesn’t show us how Miles deals with those problems, as the movie just kind of stops and makes us wait for a (still forthcoming) conclusion.
2. KPop Demon Hunters (2025)
For a few days after KPop Demon Hunters hit Netflix in June 2025, various users took to social media to complain about substandard movies being shoved down our throats. Yet, as anyone who has found themselves mindlessly humming “Golden” or “Breakdown” can attest, KPop Demon Hunters doesn’t need to use artificial methods to stick with the audience. It’s good enough to stand on its own. Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, working from a screenplay they wrote with Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan, somehow manage to maintain the emotional stakes of their story without sacrificing any of the spectacular pop star sequences or the mystical fight scenes.
Their success stems from the decision to focus on Huntrix frontwoman Rumi (Arden Cho), who also hunts demons with her bandmates Mira (May Hong) and Zooey (Ji-young Yoo). As she struggles to hide from her friends that fact that she is in fact half-demon, Rumi must also deal with romantic feelings for Jinu (Ahn Hyo-seop), a human-turned-demon who leads rival group, the Saja Boys. Rumi’s struggle grounds the over-the-top drama and action KPop Demon Hunters, as do the genuinely funny gags. The extremely catchy songs don’t hurt either.
1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Everybody knows who Spider-Man is. Everyone knows that he’s a kid named Peter Parker, that he loves Aunt May and Mary Jane, and that he’s a street-level hero who exists in just one universe. But Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse asks, “What if Spider-Man was a kid named Miles Morales, who has two loving parents, and meets a bunch of other Spider-people from alternate realities? And one of them was a pig?”
That premise should have been a disaster, yet directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman, working from a screenplay by Rothman and Phil Lord, dodge all the problems with an elegance that matches Spider-Man himself. In fact, Into the Spider-Verse uses the audience’s knowledge of Spider-lore to show how themes of great power and great responsibility can apply to different people, enriching the central concepts. That alone would be enough to make for a great movie, but the fact that it also features incredible visuals and cutting-edge animation makes Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse not just the best film from Sony Pictures Animation, but one of the greatest animated movies of all time.
