Actor, Ryan Reynolds has teamed up with the hilarious Will Farrell in a new Christmas Movie titled Spirited. The duo is putting a fresh spin on ‘A Christmas Carol’ – with songs!
Apple has released the full trailer for their upcoming holiday musical Spirited which stars Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell, and Octavia Spencer.
The movie is inspired by the classic Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol. Of course, the classic tale is no stranger to many film renditions. In this version, Ferrell plays the Ghost of Christmas Present who handpicks a miserable high-ranking corporate executive named Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds) as his latest project.
However, in a new twist, Briggs turns the tables and takes the Ghost of Christmas Present on his own spiritual journey to visit his past, present, and future.
Director and co-writer, Sean Anders directs the film alongside John Morris. Anders is best known for directing Daddy’s Home and its sequel which both starred Ferrell.
Spirited is Ferrell’s first-holiday movie since a nearly twenty-year break following the incredible success of Elf which hit upon its release in 2003.
Spirited has full ensembles of dance numbers that have been choreographed by Chloe Arnold some of which include tap-dancing sequences.
The official plot synopsis as featured on Collider stated:
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.
Spirited premieres in theaters on November 11, and then hits Apple TV+ one week later on November 18. Check out the trailer below.
Critics are panning the show even though they admit it has appeal.
“It’s all very slickly packaged, even if at points such slickness becomes a little too synthetic, and will probably find a record audience for Apple, a company that’s struggled to find a homegrown blockbuster movie. But while it might be a hit this season, I doubt for many it will have that annual rewatchability factor, a film not for life but just this one Christmas,” wrote Guardian writer Benjamen Lee.
Other critics also panned the cheeky musical calling it childish.
Did Spritited have one too many musical numbers? Yes.
But it was right on par with all the other Christmas movies we watch every year. Of course, critics would pan a movie that is about a man finding redemption by thinking about others instead of himself.
These are the same critics that denounce Hallmark-style Christmas movies. However, ratings show that those movies are the most watched shows from October through January.