SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains minor spoilers for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed at your own risk!
There are all kind of mind-melting animation styles explored in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, but easily one of the most hilarious is the dip that the hit blockbuster film takes into Earth-13122: a universe that is constructed out of LEGO. It's a great moment because it feels like it is a nod to the work done by writer/producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller on The LEGO Movie – but what makes the moment in the film particularly special is the fact that the sequence was directed by a 14-year-old.
Said teenager is Preston, the creator of the YouTube channel LegoMe_TheOG and who posts on Twitter as @FG_Artist. The young Canaian filmmaker has been posting videos since the fall of 2021, and he has revealed via his Twitter account (and we have confirmed with Sony Pictures) that he directed the LEGO sequences in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse:
(yes) pic.twitter.com/gmo4S54kvlJune 4, 2023
The aforementioned Earth-13122 is introduced in the second act of Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse after The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) accidentally kicks himself into himself during a fight with Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). He starts ducking his head into different "spots," crossing into multiple universes, and one of them includes a world constructed out of LEGOs. Later, in a follow-up scene, LEGO Peter Parker (Nic Novicki) receives a notification from Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac) while he is at work at the Daily Bugle, and he changes into his Spidey costume before hoping into a multiverse portal.
Watching the scene, it feels like it has been constructed by similar experienced, professional hands that made features like The LEGO Movie, The LEGO Movie 2, LEGO Batman and The LEGO Ninjago Movie, and it's pretty mind-blowing that the talent behind it is just a teenager.
It's additionally worth nothing that the two scenes in the film aren't the only connection that the young filmmaker has to Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. In late May, he got a great deal of attention and made headlines for recreating the entire trailer for the new movie in LEGO. You can check out his remarkable work below and understand why the filmmakers behind the multi-million dollar blockbuster trusted him to create a sequence for the film:
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse arrived in theaters this past weekend following an immense wave of critical buzz, and it had one of the biggest theatrical debuts of 2023 so far at the box office. Audiences have been awed by the work done by the phenomenal, talented artists, and it's amazing that one of the gifted filmmakers involved is so young. Based on what we've already seen from him, he has an exciting future ahead of him.
