How Curtin student helped make Spider-Man a box office smash

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is officially a global box office smash, taking an astonishing $315 million in its opening weekend, and a former Curtin University student helped make that possible.

Thomas Thistlethwaite is one of six Australians who were part of the global team of animators working on the film, which has also attracted rave reviews and is already garnering Oscars buzz.

“It’s just blown me away,” the Vancouver-based animator tells TODAY.

“All the animators always share with each other reviews … because, when you’re working on it, we think it’s great, but you don’t really know until the public comes out and critiques it.”

When Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was released in 2018, and went on to win the Academy Award for best animated feature, Thistlethwaite was just a fan, like everyone else.

But he was a fan with a mission.

“I was, like, ‘I have to work on this next one’, so, that was my goal for the next few years,” he admits.

To achieve that goal, the animator took the lessons he learned in WA and set out to crack the big leagues of animation in Hollywood.

“It’s pretty much the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do since I was a kid (watching Toy Story and Ren & Stimpy), so I did a multimedia design course at Curtin,” he says.

“It was great, but it wasn’t quite the hands-on animation training that I wanted, so, after I graduated … I found the Vancouver Film School … and was taught by industry professionals, who gave me a gateway to the industry.”

Like the original, the sequel revolves around Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), a teen from another version of Brooklyn, who became Spider-Man and opened a portal to the Multiverse.

Through said portal this time around he encounters an infinite number of alternate Spider-peeps, including Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya), Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac), and, of course, is reunited with Ghost-Spider, aka Gwen Stacy, who is voiced by Hailee Steinfeld.

Pin Thistlethwaite down to name a favourite, and he admits being partial to the new Spider-Man his team helped animate, Spider-Man India, voiced by Deadpool star Karan Soni, and his visually bonkers home world.

“Developing his character, the first time he’s ever seen by the world, was exciting,” the animator agrees.

The Perth product has high hopes for the film, and, if the early results are anything to go on, those hopes are well founded.

“I just hope that people that maybe aren’t big animation fans walk out and are blown away, and say, ‘It’s my favourite Spider-Man movie ever, or superhero movie ever,” he says.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is in cinemas now.