Spirited
Spirited
A musical version of the classic Christmas story by Charles Dickens. A miserly man who treats everyone around him with terrible selfishness finds himself on a fantastical adventure into the three phases of time: past, present, and future, in order to discover how he ended up so miserable and alone.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 6, 2025
I thought this was super cute. A musical twist on the classic Christmas Carol. It’s not a direct adaptation of Dickens’ work, though. New characters, new setting, new story inject some freshness and help prevent this from being a tired retread. Some of the jokes were really funny. There are plenty that completely miss. Regarding the musical numbers, on the plus side, the songs are pleasantly catchy and the choral arrangements are as good other popular musicals. On the downside, Ferrell is just not a strong singer. He can carry a tune perfectly fine, but his vocal performance is noticeably weaker than virtually everyone around him. Ryan Reynolds actually impressed me with his abilities though, but that kind of made Ferrell stand out even more.
This being a musical comes with some other drawbacks. The pacing feels unnatural when you have some lengthy musical numbers spread throughout the film. I felt like there was a 30 or 40 minute stretch where the musical numbers were totally absent. Had me wondering if the musical aspect had been abandoned. But then it came back in full force. Lastly, the film went on way too long.
All that being said, I had a really enjoyable time. Sunita Mani and Tracy Morgan were probably my favorites. I know musicals aren’t for everyone, though, so making this a Regal Mystery Movie probably wasn’t the best idea. I was 99% sure that Spirited was the movie I was seeing. My wife even came along anticipating it. But our theater had about 10 walkouts within the first 10 minutes. And I don’t really blame them. This would be really tough to sit through if musicals aren’t your thing, but I thought this was a fun early holiday watch.