Did you like The Muppets Christmas Carol but wish it had fewer puppets? Did you like Scrooged but wish it had more singing? Did you like 2009’s A Christmas Carol but wish it had less nightmare-inducing CGI renditions of Jim Carrey? Then Spirited is the film for you! The new musical movie Spirited is a take on Charles Dickens’ timeless Christmas classic that stars Will Ferrell, Octavia Spencer, and Ryan Reynolds and provides yet another modern twist on the story. Spirited dropped its first Apple TV+ trailer today.
In Spirited, Reynolds plays Clint Briggs, a curmudgeonly rich guy who is clearly well aware of the story of A Christmas Carol and seems to not so much want to be taken on a revelatory trip through Christmas by the Ghost of Christmas Present, played by Ferrell. In fact, it turns out the person who may need help is that very ghost, as Clint turns the tables on him and begins a Christmas-time examination of Present instead. See, the wealthy elite are actually a lot of really good guys who can even help save Christmas itself!
Of course, the real reason we’re all going to be tuning into Spirited is to see Reynolds and Ferrell riff with each other, which is what this trailer mostly focuses on anyway. There’s very little plot in here other than to show us that it is indeed a Christmas Carol riff and that at some point there will be singing and dancing, not to mention some appearances by the other Ghosts of Christmas. It isn’t quite clear just who Octavia Spencer will be playing, but she can hold her own in the witty repertoire department. The film also stars Sunita Mani, Patrick Page, Joe Tippett, Marlow Barkley, and Jen Tullock.
The film is directed by Sean Anders and co-written by Anders and John Morris, both of whom are mostly known for really dumb comedies, so that’s not that exciting. However, the music is from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who did La La Land, and that movie had Oscar-winning music. So at least we’ll get some solid Christmas jingles out of the film even if it ends up sucking.
Spirited releases in theaters on November 11 and on Apple TV+ on November 18.
