Review of A Hearth's Warming Tail

So this was a fairly good episode overall. It's biggest problem isn't in the episode itself, but with it's air time. When I heard that we were getting an episode about Hearth's Warming in May, I didn't think it was going to be a problem, considering that "Hearth Breakers" aired two months before Christmas. But "Hearth Breakers" works even if you take away the Holiday elements thanks to good jokes, introducing Pinkie's family, and having a moral about traditions that can apply to many different situations, not just Christmas ones. This is a Christmas episode through and through, taking on the super original moral of "Christmas isn't about candy and gifts, its about your friends and family."

In it's defense, it reconstructs the concept of gift giving in a great way. Most Christmas specials just say "it's not about presents, it's about family" and leave it at that. I like how Pinkie, playing the role of the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Present, instead teaches "This holiday is about showing your friends and family you care, which is why we give gifts, since gift-giving is an expression of love." Speaking of Pinkie, her Dixieland Jazz song was really, really good. I also really enjoyed Starlight's/Snowfall's villain song. Easily the best songs of season six so far. Unfortunately, all the other songs were only....ok. None of the songs were bad by any stretch, but nothing about them (The melodies, instrumentation, lyrics) were memorable. It's a shame, especially since the last few musical episodes ("Pinkie Pride", "Crusaders of the Lost Mark") were jam packed with several top-notch songs.

This is a decent take on "A Christmas Carol." It's a story that's been done to death, so you need to find creative ways to bring something different to the story if you want to do it. And I do like how here Snowfall is actively trying to destroy Hearth's Warming Eve, which I think is a good twist that raises the stakes of the conflict. I mean, if Scrooge didn't change his ways, a few bad things would've happened, but ultimately, life would go on. Here, if Snowfall succeeded, the Windigos would have frozen over all of Equestria. I just wish that got more focus. Unfortunately, this episode had the misfortune of coming after a superior episode that did a much better twist on the Christmas Carol Story, "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils". While this episode does mix things up a little, it's ultimately a more typical adaptation of A Christmas Carol, which can make it feel like it's not especially worth watching. I don't think that's the case, but it does feel like it could've been a stronger episode.

Perhaps they should've cut the framing device. There were some nice gags (Twilight's Pinkie impression, the meta-joke with Spike taking a break from the story right before commercial) but it ultimately feels pointless. There's no real interesting conflict. Starlight doesn't want to celebrate Christmas Hearth's Warming Eve, Twilight reads her a story, and Starlight decides to celebrate Hearth's Warming Eve. The End. Nothing of true interest happens in the framing device, so I think this episode should've entirely been the ponies reenacting a Christmas Carol. That would've given them more time to develop the characters, more time to add new twists to the familiar story, and just slow down the pace a tad. A Christmas Carol is an emotional story, so you need time to just have the characters experience things, process and digest what's going on, and that doesn't happen here. Snowfall is brought to the past, present and future, and while she does get to briefly react to her sad past, her friendless present, and the end of Equestria that she would've brought, I feel like they could've been a lot more emotional.

Although not as good of an episode as "Hearth Breakers", "A Hearth's Warming Tail" ends up as the most Christmasy Hearth's Warming Eve episode yet. It has plenty of good jokes, fun characters, two amazing songs, and a great moral. Although not the strongest of the season, it was a good watch. I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10.