This is an interesting review because, as you probably already know, there was no two-parter this season, but two standalone episodes.A Hearth's Warming Tail review · 8:45am May 15th, 2016
Another week, Another episode. Today, is our annual musical episode. We've had these episodes as far back as the season 2 finale and while some have been good (like Crusaders of the Lost Mark and Magical Mystery Cure) there are others that have been not so much (Pinkie Pride). I've enjoyed all the songs in the show so far and think Daniel Ingram is a phenomenal songwriter but a couple of these songs just aren't quite my favorite. This is now the third Hearth's Warming episode and it calls back to the first one we had all the way back in season 2. We got to hear a story that sounds very similar to two of our own Christmas stories ( How the Grinch stole Christmas and Christmas Carol). So, without further ado my thoughts on A Winter's Tale Hearth's Warming Tail below:
Like I said above, I've always enjoyed the songs in the show and think most of the songs from this episode were all really great. The ones I wasn't as big a fan of were Applejack's and Pinkie's. I liked Starlight's, Luna's, and the ensemble song at the beginning and end but those two just didn't seem quite as up to the standard as some others in the show. A particular shout out to Luna's singing (which we haven't heard since the season 4 finale).
I thought the overall story was an entertaining twist/blend of two Christmas stories. I enjoyed all the little character cameos (such as Octavia and DJ Pon3). I thought all the characters used in the story were pretty entertaining, such as Rainbow Dash being the Crachit character. There is just one problem I personally have with the character choices they made for the spirits, and I fully admit it was they went the better route. I think it would have been hilarious if Pinkie had been the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Future just for the change in the characters feel. The Spirit of ____ future has always been a creepy or downright scary (looking at you, Mickey's Christmas Carol) persona and I think to have it start out that way only to reveal Pinkie in all her craziness would have been pretty funny. Other than what I consider a missed opportunity, I thought all the other jokes were pretty funny. In particular, I loved Twilight's commercial break buildup (if they hadn't done a commercial break there, it would have been another missed opportunity) and Twilight's use of her Pinkie singing voice as Starlight called it. Also, I wish someone would give me Dragon Toenail, that sounds awesome.
This story has been done several times and so there was nothing surprising about the overall story but it was nice to see it cut down to just 30 minutes when most adaptations take up to two hours. It was an interesting look into Starlight's character as we saw more of the effects her past had on why she felt she had to do what she did in season 5. Hopefully this is an indicator of Twilight/Starlight relations to come. That being an exploration of different facets of Starlight's history through the application of reading and story telling. Well, that's about all for A Hearth's Warming Tail. Next week, we'll be back in the saddle again.
