"A Hearth's Warming Tail" Review by the HeroofBergen · 5:40pm May 14th, 2016
I apologize for not having a review for last week's episode. I just didn't have that much to say about it. Check out my post on the release of my latest story to see my rating of it. Anyway, the latest episode was basically Hearth's Warming Eve Part 2 with A Christmas Carol.
A Christmas Carol is one of the most famous Christmas stories ever, having had many adaptions over the years. Most famously being the Muppets, Disney, and the one with Jim Carrey, along with several others that can't come to mind right now. So it was only a matter of time until the show did it with their ponies. But I have to say, isn't anyone going to tell Hasbro that it is almost June. I mean I thought last season's Christmas episode was early by being in October, but damn in the middle of May, wow.
Anyway, the episode starts out with the ponies of Ponyville getting ready for Hearth's Warming Eve, and there's no denying it Hearth's Warming is Christmas. The episode starts off with a quick musical number by the town and it was alright, I guess. A small setup for a shotgun blast of musical numbers to come. Something I go into later. Nothing really special, just a quick song for exposition purposes. The beginning takes a turn when Starlight says that she would just rather skip the celebration of Hearth's Warming. Twilight and Spike are, of course, shocked at this statement. If I go off on a tangent, as someone who hasn't had the best experiences with Christmas I can understand Starlight's likeness of not treating Hearth's Warming as anything special.
The story continues with Twilight reading an old Hearth Warming story to Starlight. The scenery shifts to that of oldened Canterlot, even though I saw it more as Manehattan, with Starlight playing the role of the pony version of Ebenezer Scrooge. I noticed the adaption of the iconic tail, pun intended, the moment Twilight said the name of the story.
Starlight fit the role of Ebenezer perfectly, along with her loyal assistant the pony version of Bob Cratchit without Tiny Tim. The episode also removed Scrooge's nephew and Marley from the story, but that was probably due to the time limit. The rest of the character are as follows The Ghost of Hearth's Warming (Christmas) Past being played by Applejack, which I guess works. If the show was trying to go with the characters being cast by their Elements it works with Applejack being Honesty, and your past being an honest reason why you have become who you are.
We don't spend that much time in Starlight's past, again probably due to the 22-minute format, but it gets the message of Starlight's teacher convincing her to become a better wizard. A believable situation as mentors can be a powerful motivator for us to do things that we might not want to do.
The second ghost was great with Pinkie playing the role of Ghost of Hearth's Warming (Christmas) Presents (Present), she was great. Having the upbeat nature that is always associated with the Ghost of Christmas Past. Another problem with Pinkie is time. I wanted to see more of her.
The final spirit and my personal favorite being played by Luna, and she was awesome. I had original thought it was going to be Twilight playing the final spirit, but Luna worked so much better. Her song was probably my favorite of the entire episode, I love the darkness of it. It was just a great contrast from the happiness that was brought by Pinkie only a few minutes earlier. I loved her design, with her towering over Starlight in the same Grim Reaperish design of her dark blue cloak. Excuse me as I fangasm over Luna's awesomeness.
Ok, I'm good.
The various interruptions to the story for used to great effect and comedic relief. Spike going to refill his drink just befoe a commercial was a sight meta joke, humor that I always love to hear.
I really liked this episode, probably only the second musical episode that I would say was actually good. Magical Mystery Cure had great ideas, but was killed by the musical setup and being only a single episode. Pinkie Pride is probably the best so far but isn't one of the greatest ever. Crusaders of the Lost Mark is the worst episode of the series. A Hearth's Warming Tail was good, I just that it had more time.
This was a good episode, but similar to Magical Mystery Cure it would have been much better as a two-parter episode. I give A Hearth Warming Tail a score of 8 stars out of 10. As always, I am the HerofBergen signing off.
Yeah, the bit with Luna was amazing, I knew she sang in the Season 4 finale, but to hear her sing by herself was... Awe inspiring, I was completely shellshocked when I heard that song