Over the next few weeks, you'll no doubt have the three best Christmas movies of all time (Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Snowman, in that order) on your watch list. But what comes next?
Well, Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell (an instantly pleasing comedy duo) are stepping up with Spirited, which is essentially 'the ghosts from A Christmas Carol do Christmas Eve'.
What’s the big idea?
Just like a miniature cup of mulled wine you somehow paid £12 for at the Christmas market, the film is described as “a sweet and spicy holiday treat” and according to the official synopsis, the storyline is a musical twist on the traditional festive Dickens tale: “Each Christmas Eve, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Ferrell) selects one dark soul to be reformed by a visit from three spirits. But this season, he picked the wrong Scrooge. Clint Briggs (Reynolds) turns the tables on his ghostly host until Present finds himself reexamining his own past, present and future.”
It’s the first Christmas movie Ferrell has made since Elf in 2003. He told People that Spirited was equally long in the making: “It was… you know what? The timing of things like that just happened when they happened. I mean, we had actually talked about this movie five years ago. It was just a wonderful idea that I had responded to. I thought it was a really brilliant way to redo Christmas Carol, kind of from the ghost of Christmas present perspective and to also be in a musical for the first time where I really had to kind of do it for real.”
How to watch Spirited for free
If it all sounds up your street, you can catch Spirited on the big screen on 19 November. However, if you want to save all your money for luxury advent calendars, it’s released on Apple TV+ on the same date.
Apple TV+ are still running their seven-day free trial to the service, so if you sign up on or around 19 November, then you’ll be able to watch it for a full week. Or, if you sign up on Christmas Eve for a festive family viewing, you’ll get to enjoy the film until almost New Year’s Eve.
If you’re due for an upgrade on an iPhone or any other Apple device – or have bought one in the last 90 days – you’re actually eligible for free Apple TV+ for three months, which is even better for watching even more Christmas-based classics over the holiday season.
