I was a little skeptical of it being a musical, but I'm going to say after watching "Spirited" (and I thought that required watching it with spirits, so in full disclosure, I obliged), Will Ferrell is the king of Christmas movies. I dare say I wouldn't need the alcohol to enjoy it, the best thing about the movie is that it knows what it is and actively makes fun of it. Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds are both very charismatic and have the ability to carry a movie on its own, and together their magic is additive. And while I expected this to simply be a retelling of "A Christmas Carol", it's actually much more, more of an extension of the story. Is it perfect or without flaws? Of course not, it could have been half an hour shorter, easily, as most movies these days. But it's an enjoyable watch.

Spirited is literally everything I wanted from a Christmas musical and so much more, it is so, so good, I truly adored this Apple TV+ original and anyone who is a fan of musicals should check it out, you'll be treating yourself to an amazing time.

Wow, Ryan Reynolds, I truly cannot get enough of that man, I will watch anything and everything he is in, he puts on a truly brilliant performance in this and his chemistry with Will Ferrell is absolutely unmatched, this film truly takes the viewer on a beautiful journey about redeeming yourself that made me cry inside.

The musical numbers were absolutely spectacular, they were both marvelously choreographed and truly brilliantly hilarious, even though this movie was 2+ hours it somehow managed to just keep me wanting more the entire time.

Spirited gets an A.

Christmas movies are already upon us, and major streamer Apple TV hopes they have a new holiday classic in "Spirited," a big-hearted-but-clumsy riff on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with two of the most likable movie stars alive. "Spirited" is like a big goofy puppy in how much it wants you to like it, and that eagerness to entertain can be its greatest strength and biggest weakness at the same time. It's overstuffed, cluttered, way too long, and ignores some basic tech elements like coherent editing and production design. The team thinks they have a perfect choice in a Vancouver hotel manager who yells at janitors, but the Ghost of Christmas Present (Will Ferrell) runs into a speaker at the hotel named Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds), realizing he is the white whale. Briggs is a social media manipulator, introduced singing a song-oh yeah, this is a full-throated musical-about weaponizing the war on Christmas for profit. Ferrell's ghost becomes obsessed with redeeming Clint, even as the other spirits (Sunita Mani plays Past and Tracy Morgan voices Yet to Come) get sidelined. Surprisingly, "Spirited" becomes as much The Ghost of Christmas Present's tale as it is Clint's, as Ferrell's character wants to leave it all behind and become human again, especially after finding an unexpected reason to rejoin the mortal coil. Despite all of those flaws, "Spirited" is a hard movie to slam. There's a "let's put on a show" energy in the performances of Reynolds, Ferrell, and Spencer that's easy to like. No one is phoning this thing in (even if Ferrell might have been served by another singing lesson or two) and that kind of energy can be infectious. Holiday movies don't have to be perfect. We kind of like them when they're a little rough around the edges, something that can boost the mood of an entire family over winter break as they've turned off their critical weapons and just want something that goes down easy. In that "spirit," this one works. All of this is told through the hyperactive energy of what feels at times like a draft for a stage musical both in function and form. Musical numbers explode with choruses of backup singers/dancers playing to one side of a set as if they're on a stage. The sense that you're watching a filmed stage musical extends to the production design, which often looks like cheap sets or green screen backgrounds instead of actual physical spaces. And the writing has that Broadway tendency to hit a few of the same beats over and over again, especially in the final acts of the film, which push this overlong musical to over two hours.