Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Each Christmas Eve, the Ghost of Christmas Present selects one dark soul to be reformed by a visit from three spirits. But this season, he picked the wrong Scrooge. Clint Briggs turns the tables on his ghostly host until Present finds himself reexamining his own past, present and future.
Spirited offers a fun meta-twist on the A Christmas Carol formula by making the Ghost of Christmas Present the emotional center of the story, which gives it a fresher angle than a straight adaptation. Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell have decent comedic chemistry and the musical numbers are competently staged if unremarkable. However, the cinematography is workmanlike TV-movie level with little visual imagination, and the ending leans heavily into sentimental resolution without earning its emotional beats. The script's satirical edge gets soft-pedaled in the third act, undercutting the cleverness of the premise with a conventional wrap-up.