Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash
Spirited superior to A Christmas Carol in telling the tale of Scrooge
By Batoul Achy & Seidet Segura
Columnists
This is the third installment of Movie Night with Batoul & Seidet, a monthly series in which Batoul Achy and Seidet Segura will collaborate on and taking turns writing classic movie reviews from a modern perspective.
The 1951 film A Christmas Carol and 2022 film Spirited are both films that share a handful of similarities, yet differences. A Christmas Carol is a take on the book A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Spirited is a modern retake with a plot twist of the 1951 film. Overall, Spirited is better since it feels more alive and the message is clearer than in A Christmas Carol.
A Christmas Carol is about a cold-hearted man, Ebenezer Scrooge, who lacks interest in Christmas and is haunted by four spirits. These spirits haunt Scrooge in order to warn him about his poor behavior. As for Spirited, a spirit, who is revealed to be Ebenezer Scrooge, is the main one who haunts Clint Briggs, a businessman with a bad attitude. Scrooge haunts Clint to make him a better person overall.
Spirited has the better storyline. A Christmas Carol is a straightforward tale of a seemingly unredeemable person being redeemed. But in Spirited, the once unredeemable person is the one helping another unredeemable person become redeemed. This is compelling, because it created a closer bond between Scrooge and Briggs. Scrooge was in Briggs’ spot before, so he knows how to help him. This unique take is more interesting for the audience.
The film A Christmas Carol was inspirational and showed hope for the unredeemable. The themes of the film were forgiveness, generosity and compassion. A Christmas Carol’s theme came across well, but Spirited showed the same theme more clearly. Spirited represented the theme better through the way it was put together and through its humor. A Christmas Carol came off very bland compared to Spirited. Where Spirited had funny, colorful musicals, A Christmas Carol’s frightening characters and black-and-white visuals made the film come off as a horror movie.
Spirited was lively and had the Christmas spirit more than A Christmas Carol. Even though it was called A Christmas Carol, it didn’t feel like a Christmas movie. Whereas Spirited left viewers with a warmer feeling, A Christmas Carol may leave viewers feeling like they have to go to therapy after that one.