Spirited

Last week the long-awaited Spirited movie was released on Apple TV. Starring Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell, this comedy is a remake of the classic A Christmas Carol set in the present 2022. Will Ferrell plays the role of the Ghost of Christmas Present and is in charge of deciding which person all of the Christmas ghosts should haunt each Christmas like the ghosts haunted Ebenezer Scrooge. While he is deciding which person the ghosts should haunt for this year, he comes across Clint Briggs - a bitter and very persuasive media consultant played by Ryan Reynolds. Convinced that Clint is the ultimate “Scrooge” of the year, The Ghost of Christmas Present chooses him for the haunt. So, on Christmas Eve, after a year of preparation, the Ghosts are ready. However, as the night goes on, the carefully laid plans of the Ghosts are unravelled - especially of the Ghost of Christmas Present.

This film is very music-forward with 13 different musical numbers all performed by the cast. The music performed during this film was excellent and was very well chosen for each scene. Also, all of the dancers were very well choreographed, giving the scores a very well-polished feel. The special effects in the movie were excellent, especially with scene transitions which felt very smooth. I also liked the scenes where time appears to stop, as I have not seen a lot of movies use this effect. The plot of the movie is interesting, as we skip in and out of Clint’s dreams and the real world, a bit like the movie Inception. This is an interesting method of filming a movie because it is not widely used, however, in this case, slowing down the transitions between the dreams and the real world could help the viewer recognize more easily which world they were looking at. Furthermore, the movie offers a unique twist on the classic story we know so well by giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the story. This was very cool to watch, as the methods the Ghosts used to choose and prepare for their haunt were very well thought out and unexpected. Overall, I would give this movie a 7.5/10 rating, as the majority of the movie was excellent, if not for the very numerous musical numbers, and the quick, sometimes mildly confusing transitions.