I have been really looking forward to the Ryan Reynolds/Will Ferrell movie Spirited ever since it was announced. When I heard it was a musical, it made me want to watch it even more. It was finally released on AppleTV and select theaters on November 18. Let’s go!
Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds) runs a company that specializes in running marketing campaigns based on hate and misinformation. When the Christmas spirits try to pick this year’s person for redemption, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Will Ferrell) wants to save Clint. However, Clint is considered unredeemable. Present manages to convince the others to try to save him in order to make the world a better place. Or did Present have a different, selfish reason to save Clint?
It is going to be so difficult to talk about Spirited because I don’t want to spoil anything. Yes, it is the plot of A Christmas Carol but there is a twist that makes it so much better. So instead of talking about the plot or the characters or the acting because they are all good, I’m going to talk about my favorite part - the music and dancing.
I’m not sure if I’ve said it before on the blog but I was a dancer when I was younger (and a bit as an adult but now I’m having difficulty finding good adult classes in my area) and my daughter was a competitive dancer in high school (and she still dances in college). So I can get a bit judgy when movies heavily feature dance. The dancing in Spirited is stunning. Emmy nominated Chloe Arnold, an absolutely amazing professional tap dancer, choreographed the dances and her sister, Maud, was one of the dancers. All of the dance scenes are just breath-taking. And they don’t even end when the movie does! There is an entirely extra performance that runs during the credits. While I understand why that song was cut (there was a better way to get the point across), the performance from both Will Ferrell and all of the dancers is spectacular. I want both a behind the scenes of the making of all of the routines and a downloadable video of every song’s performance in the movie. They are all…chef’s kiss.
Yes, definitely, go watch this movie. I hope that it is going to be released outside of AppleTV because I’m sure there are a lot of people that don’t subscribe to it. But, seriously, go sign up for the free trial just to watch Spirited. It is absolutely worth it.