A Musical Take on 'A Christmas Carol' with Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds Is Headed to Your Streaming Queue

"On a bitter, cold Christmas eve, one dark soul is selected for redemption by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and yet to come". So starts the narration for the trailer for new festive flick Spirited — and so starts another new take on A Christmas Carol, too. But this adaptation and updating of Charles Dickens' well-known tale has a few things that most others don't, plus a twist.

First, there's tunes, because this movie is a musical, complete with plenty of big song-and-dance scenes in the just-dropped sneak peek. Also, it features Will Ferrell (The Shrink Next Door) and Ryan Reynolds (The Adam Project) leading the show. (Yes, you now have another Ferrell movie to add to your Elf-led festive binge.)

Reynolds yet again plays 'ordinary guy that something unusual happens to'. Actually, he plays Clint Briggs — but thanks to films like Free Guy and The Change-Up, he has slipped into this kind of part before. Here, he's the "level-20 pain in the Dickens" who is selected by the Ghost of Christmas Present (Ferrell) to get a haunting visit, to hopefully spark him to reform his ways.

As brought to the screen and stage countless times, transforming from curmudgeonly to compassionate is the aim of this spirited intervention, which also features Octavia Spencer (The Witches) as Clint's boss — and someone that the Ghost of Christmas Present is quite fond of.

The twist with Spirited, other than the songs? The film unfurls A Christmas Carol's narrative from the perspective of the ghosts. Writer/director Sean Anders and his co-scribe John Morris say "bah humbug!" to the regular version of the story, clearly, with the pair reteaming after Instant Family, the Daddy's Home movies and Horrible Bosses 2 — and reuniting with Ferrell after Daddy's Home franchise as well.

Apple TV+ will stream the end result, releasing Spirited on Friday, November 18, and adding it to the 'films based on A Christmas Carol' subgenre alongside everything from Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Scrooged.

Check out the trailer for Spirited below:

Spirited will be available to stream via Apple TV+ from Friday, November 18.