With the holiday season taking the world by storm once again, it’s time to return to the beloved Christmas movie genre. While revisiting classics is always nice, there are still new movies being made that explore new and interesting aspects of Christmas lore. This year’s fresh new take on the Christmas season came in the form of a quite unexpected sequel to Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. The movie, Spirited, stars the comedic talents of Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. 

The story reveals that the ghosts who helped Scrooge find the Christmas Spirit are actually a part of a large-scale organization dedicated to redeeming the souls of people just like Ebenezer Scrooge. Led by Jacob Marley, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future seek to redeem the seemingly irredeemable soul of Clint Briggs, Ryan Reynolds’s character.

Will Ferrel plays the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the film largely follows his character as he feels he must prove that Clint Briggs is capable of being redeemed. As the two travel through the past and present of each other’s lives, we learn both the events that made Clint’s soul irredeemable as well as the hidden past of the Ghost of Christmas Present.

We find out that Present used to be Ebenezer Scrooge himself, and we also find out that he died shortly after having his soul redeemed in the events of A Christmas Carol. Because of this, he was never sure if his soul was actually redeemed or not, which is why he felt that he must prove that Clint’s life could be saved, no matter how impossible it seemed.

Not to mention the fact that the film is also a musical, featuring a variety of songs that communicate the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of the characters as well as the plot. The humor, music, and heart of this film culminates in an outstanding project that I look forward to revisiting next year and beyond.