Spirited (2022) review

Yet another "adaptation" of the timeless novella A Christmas Carol - in musical form! - has the supernatural team of Marley (Patrick Page), Scrooge (Will Ferrell) and the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Sunita Mani) and Yet-to-Come (voiced by Tracy Morgan) out there trying to "redeem souls" but running into a problem with "media consultant" Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds), who loves to promote hate and doesn't appear to have a conscience.  This is Apple's attempt to make something full of Holiday Cheer but failing miserably: they throw $75 million dollars at two bankable movie stars to lead, get Broadway darlings Benj Pasek and Justin Paul to write the songs (which are fine, but there are too many of them) and go overboard with the special effects ... and the result is artificial and it begs desperately for audience sympathy.  There's a decent message in there about how divided we are as a country and the need for us to come back together to find common ground, but that gets lost with all the excessive time-traveling and bopping around.  To put it more succinctly: bah, humbug.