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Spirited has released just in time to disappoint you for the holidays. If you are looking for a good holiday movie to add to the season’s list, look elsewhere. Spirited is a modern and mediocre adaptation of the holiday classic, A Christmas Carol. This movie proves that star power should never outweigh talent. For those of you wondering if there was an Elf reference, here you go:

Image is a screenshot from the movie

Spirited focuses on the agency of ghosts responsible for the hauntings of terrible people in the hopes of making them better. Will Ferrell is the ghost of Christmas Present and is at the point of his career where he feels like something is missing in his life. Ferrell finds hope as he takes on his most hopeless soul yet, Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds is a spin doctor who makes a living by causing disorder and chaos without regard for his fellow man. Can Ferrell change Reynolds in time for Christmas, or is Reynolds truly irredeemable? 

Spirited is a boring musical that I can’t recommend. For those of you interested in this movie, wait till someone with talent makes a better cover of the songs. While some of the songs are catchy, the singing and dancing by the leads are rough. The leads can barely hit their notes, and their choreography is stiff at best. If you are looking for your new favorite Christmas musical, Spirited isn’t it. 

As far as comedies go, this one isn’t funny. Spirited has taken its collection of funny and charismatic actors and placed them in roles where they are anything but. The jokes are bad and outdated, and this movie tries way too hard to be funny. As much as they shoved their meta jokes down my throat, I did not appreciate any of them. All this movie managed to do was have me sit here and contemplate my boredom.

It should come as no surprise that this story has been adapted better elsewhere. I suggest you choose your favorite adaptation and watch or read that instead. The characters in this movie are just generic renditions of their actors. Ferrell and Reynolds play themselves but are restricted by the writing and their singing. Ferrell’s singing would be fine for an internet short, but it isn’t for a whole movie and Reynolds can barely sing. To make matters worse, Reynolds pays himself yet again. This character has lost his charm a long time ago, and I hope that he can find roles where he can play anything else. There is no real reason to have these two as the leads for this movie because they don’t add value to it except to maybe trick people into wasting their time on this movie. 

My biggest problem with this Spirited is that it wastes the star power it didn’t need. This movie needs real singers who can dance. As disappointed as I am with this movie, I caught myself singing one of the songs. They aren’t all bad. I would have easily forgiven the boring plot and comedy if the singing was good. But it’s not, and I am left here with my growing disappointment.

You can stream this movie on Apple TV if you have a subscription, but I wouldn’t waste the data. I urge you to wait for better covers or to look up the songs on YouTube. There isn’t anything worth watching in between the singing, and I am sure there are better covers on their way if they aren’t already out.  

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Image By Apple TV+ – http://www.impawards.com/2022/posters/spirited_ver5_xxlg.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71831081