Caught in a Ham

This animated short, released as part of the DVD release of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (2018), is a fun little treat that definitely manages to stage the absurd and cabaret Spider-Ham character better, more true to the original and with more stylistic confidence than the overly-praised film, for instance, whose name can be found on the DVD cover. For a four-minute short, the story is adequate, if not loaded with new ideas. By now, viewers know enough about breaking the fourth wall, and the wacky nature of what is shown can be found in almost every mediocre cartoon by now; but also in a lot of good ones. "Spider-Ham: Caught in a Ham" is at the lower end of the good cartoons with this gimmick. The voice acting, already known from the feature film to which this cartoon is a tie-in, is solid, though not outstanding. All in all, 4 minutes that you can definitely have a look at once. Time is not wasted with this one.

Spider-Ham was one of the multiverse version of Spider-Man who appeared in the main film, and I found this short film on YouTube. Unfortunately where the film captured the imagination by its creativity, control of tone, and swiftness, Caught in a Ham seems half-done and a bit obvious. The inspirations of the short are clear, and the character is not taken beyond the one-liners he has in the filme - one-liners that worked as such, but when they are the focus of the film they do not make the same impact. The short is in the style of Looney Tunes and modern cartoons, but it is always the copy, and doesn't manage to use them as reference points.

Jokes are mostly obvious, and the disconnected character of Spider-Ham is not as funny in context of his universe. A shame then, because the main film was so good and the character was a fun one, but this is uninspired stuff.

Peter(Mulaney, actually sounding like he belongs in this sort of thing) is swinging through the city, eating a hot dog(just... try not to think about it), when he's grabbed by a villain, and threatened with a laser...

This is featured on the DVD for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It's basically a Looney Tunes cartoon starring Spider-Ham, which makes perfect sense, considering the titular character here. You'll recognise many traits of those, if you're familiar with them. Lots of in-jokes, puns, meta stuff, etc. They even imitate the simple style of animation from those. It's so short, and moves so fast, always changing exactly what's going on, that you don't have time to get frustrated with the visual quality. That was my experience, anyway. The voice acting is quite good. I'd be happy to watch something like this that was substantially longer.

Other than the joke about the contents of the food Porker eats, there is nothing objectionable in this. The violence is silly, not upsetting. I recommend this to any fan of the movie itself. 7/10.

'Caught In A Ham (2019)' is clearly inspired by golden era animation, particularly the 'Looney Tunes' shorts. Its humour - and, to an extent, plot - come from either its sight-gags or its puns, both of which are fired fast and loose in a 'see what sticks' sort of way. Luckily, most of it sticks, especially when it comes to the visuals. The piece is vivid, energetic and enjoyable. It gets a little odd in its final movement, breaking the fourth wall in some immersion-reducing ways, but ultimately sticks the landing. It's a pretty fun time. 6/10.

In this weird drug trip, Spider-Pig (played by comedian John Mulaney) beats up baddies in a self-aware, Looney Tunes-esque style. Nothing much else to say.