“Spirited” Movie

My wife wanted to see “Spirited” last night. I shrugged. Okay.

If you don’t know, Spirited is a movie streaming on Apple which was written by John Morris and Sean Anders, directed by the latter. It may be in theaters or streaming elsewhere. I don’t know.

It’s campy. Will Ferrell, Octavia Spencer, and Ryan Reynolds star, and it has a strong cast beyond them. Will Ferrell plays a meek, mild fellow while Reynolds is a PR barracuda and Spencer is Reynold’s assistant. Set in New York, the thing about the movie is that it’s a musical, kind of sort of sometimes, with an ongoing joke, “No, not another song, it’s not needed.” The second thing is that it’s a holiday offering based on the ideas presented by Dickens in A Christmas Carol that there are ghosts and supernatural beings out to change folks using some time-travel. Naturally, Spirited contains a modern twist or two.

It’s a neat and fun idea. I liked thinking about how the idea may have evolved, finding it a clever application of the basic premise. To understand more, you need to watch it or read actual, thorough reviews of it.

I did enjoy it, especially the take on the expression, “Good Afternoon”. Again, you’ll need to watch it. The singing and dancing was energetic and well-executed. Some of the songs had a sameness to songs from other musicals by the musical power behind Spirited, Pasek and Paul, sending my wife to google what other works they’d done.

Yeah, not much of a review, other to say it entertained and diverted me, but I prefer not to give more away. If you have a problem with that, well then, good afternoon to you.