Review: Spirited

Synopsis:

Each Christmas Eve, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Will Ferrell) selects one dark soul to be reformed by a visit from three spirits. But this season, he picked the wrong Scrooge. Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds) turns the tables on his ghostly host until Present finds himself reexamining his own past, present and future. For the first time, ‘A Christmas Carol’ is told from the perspective of the ghosts in this hilarious musical twist on the classic Dickens tale.

What We Thought:

It’s pretty crazy to me that a Christmas movie starring Will Ferrell (Elf) and Canadian national treasure Ryan Reynolds isn’t packing movie theaters right now. You might not even know of its existence. Sure it’s not as family friendly as Elf, but those who like Scrooged and other adult based holiday movies would totally be all over Spirited if it got the proper push and wasn’t on Apple TV+. I understand streaming services want exclusive content to drive customers to their product, but Will Ferrell doing another Christmas movie along with Deadpool is something people should be buzzing about.

As for the film itself, Spirited is pretty gosh darn delightful. It is yet another retelling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but this time it’s from a different perspective. Yes Ryan Reynolds’ character is visited by all three ghosts, but we get an inside look at their operation and how they do their research to convert a Bah Humbug to Merry Christmas everyone.

Plus there is tons of singing and dancing. Big over the top singing and dancing with dozens of characters busting out into song and doing big ol’ dance numbers that would make Broadway proud. Reynolds and Ferrell might not have classically trained singing voices, but they are good enough for a Christmas farce. The dance routines, especially one in a time period scene, are very good with strong choreography that doesn’t feel out of place for the film. Even if you aren’t a song and dance fan (I’m not the biggest musical guy) you will still like Spirited. It’s too catchy and charming not to enjoy.

It’s hard to figure out what will happen with Spirited. It’s getting a limited theatrical release and I’m not sure if anyone knows enough about it to care. You have two of the best comedic actors going and do you even know about it? Add in Octavia Spencer who is great in the film and it should be an instant holiday hit. It’s a bit too long, but overall it’s a film I personally would watch again and could become a yearly Christmas season watch. I genuinely laughed out loud multiple times and it also has a ton of heart. I quite liked it so if you have Apple TV+ or it’s playing your local cinema give it a watch.

RECOMMENDED!