Spirited

Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds team up for a hammy song-and-dance spectacular that's a clever rethink of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

Will Ferrell will forever be associated with “Elf,” which has climbed the ranks to be regarded as one of the all-time favorite Christmas movies, and clearly is trying to recapture a little of that old yule magic with “Spirited,” a tongue-in-cheek musical takeoff on Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

He gets to do a lot of singing and even plenty of dancing, and in these mirthful endeavors is joined by Ryan Reynolds, who’s not really associated with that sort of thing but makes an energetic go of it, along with doing his usual fast-talking-jerk-but-not-really routine.

Octavia Spencer, another thespian not known for their vocal talents, gets a couple of songs too, as does Sunita Mani (“G.L.O.W.”), who additionally hoofs impressively. Tracy Morgan, who does the voice of the grim reaper Ghost of Yet to Come, gets a few bars, and Judi Dench and Jimmy Fallon make tuneful cameos.

Directed by Sean Anders, who co-wrote the screenplay with John Morris, “Spirited” is a colorful and splashy musical that has lot of old-school “let’s put on a show” feeling, with tons of dancers and extras arrayed around the stars in huge set piece numbers. The costumes, backdrops and other production values are out of this world.

It also has a puckish sense of humor and clever imaginings about the inner world of holiday redemption, much in the way “Monsters, Inc.” showed us the sausage factory behind dreams and “Inside Out” suggested a hidden emotions workforce.

Will it knock “Elf” off its shelf as a holiday chestnut?

Personally, I like Ferrell’s earlier effort but think it’s overrated, so this one lands on about the same level for me. It’s a fun, forgettable movie that you can enjoy with the whole family.

The setup is that the haunting of Ebenezer Scrooge in “The Christmas Carol” wasn’t just a one-off, but part of an ongoing, ancient tradition. There’s a whole crew of undead spirits who put on a massive production each Christmas to redeem one twisted soul. There are people doing sets, others cueing up the visions like TV producers, even a peppery H.R. lady.

Ferrell plays the Ghost of Christmas Present, who’s been laboring amiably in the job for a couple of centuries and is facing the prospect of a long-overdue retirement. Jacob Marley (Patrick Page), who was Scrooge’s partner in life and acts as sort of the ghost emcee in the after, seems to be running the show.

As soon as they finish a redemption, the troupe starts planning for next year’s by picking another crotchety soul in need of help. Marley wants to do a domineering hotel manager, but Present spies Clint Braggs (Reynolds), the head of a mercenary PR firm, and insists he be the target. Turns out he’s been deemed an Unredeemable, the worst of the worst. Present offers to tender his retirement if he can choose Briggs, so he’s looking to go out with a bang.

Things quickly go south. The Ghost of Christmas Past (Mani) makes a muck of her segment, getting charmed by Briggs, so Present has to jump in. Briggs is constantly back-talking, running away from the visions and twisting the rules around. Soon Present is wrestling with his own vulnerabilities and issues, acting more as Briggs’ partner/enabler than watchful guide.

He also takes quite a shine to Briggs’ #2, Kimberly (Spencer), who’s a natural at digging up dirt on virtually anyone. For some reason, she can see Present, even though he’s an invisible ghost to everyone else. She’s having serious qualms about what she does for a living, especially as her latest assignment is to help win the class president election for Briggs’ niece by finding some old video of her opponent. They’re 13-year-olds.

You can surely guess where everything winds up. “Spirited” may fiddle with the format, but it’s still a heartwarming holiday flick meant to reassure and entertain.

The songs, of course, make or break the show and for the most part they’re pretty good. (Music by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Dominic Lewis.) The best of the bunch, by far, is a ribald drinking tune called “Good Afternoon,” the joke being that in Present’s human day in the 19th century that saying was considered the equivalent of an F-you.

Ferrell’s got legitimately good pipes and hits his notes proudly and solidly. Reynolds isn’t a singer, but they do a good job of not stretching his vocal abilities beyond his ability to deliver. They also do a few fairly impressive dance numbers, though it’s the sort of thing where they put the professionals behind them and cut away for the really intricate tapping and other stuff.

I liked “Spirited” more than I thought I would. It’s corny and schmaltzy, but knows what it is and leans into it rather than trying to be all slick about it. It doesn’t scream “instant Christmas classic” to me, but it’ll get toes a-tappin’ and smiles splitting.

“Spirited” will have a theatrical run followed by its debut on Apple TV+.