Meet Lucas, An Adorable Spider Who May Just Cure Your Arachnophobia

I am not a spider person.  I don’t like them. Spiders rank right up there with rats, birds and snakes in my big book of fears. But there’s one spider who could change everything. He is ADORABLE. In fact, I want to hold him, squeeze him and put him in my pocket.

Meet Lucas the Spider. His big eyes and furry little body make him look like a Beanie Boo we all want to snuggle.

Lucas is the creation of animator Joshua Slice, who also happened to work on some blockbuster hits like “Epic” and “Zootopia.” For this short Slice asked his nephew, also named Lucas, to voice his happy spider. The video posted on Nov. 5 already has over 4.8 million views on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrS6akzR3sk

Looking at this too adorable animated spider, I had to know if spiders this cute exist in real life. So I called my sister, North Carolina State University entomologist, Dr. Holly Menninger, to find out.

“I think Lucas is pretty stinking cute and the animator was clearly inspired by jumping spiders who are hairy and have big eyes that they use to visually detect while hunting prey,” she said. However, she noted Slice might have over-exaggerated the main pair of eyes just a tad.

Slice shared his impossibly cute arachnid on YouTube as an animation test character he’s been working on. “I’m responsible for the design, modeling, rigging, animation, lighting, and rendering,” he wrote.

Well done, sir. If Lucas is a test, we think he passed, and so do a lot of Twitter users.

https://twitter.com/lifeofarlind/status/928657318803329025

Fans of the spider are demanding more Lucas.

As for Slice, he is grateful for the outpouring of love he has received for his friendly spider. The animator took to Facebook to thank his many fans.

What do you think? Would you watch a full-length feature of Lucas the spider?