Episode Re-Review: A Hearth's Warming Tail · 7:32pm May 19th, 2021
Because a Christmas episode in May is totally not out of place or anything like that. Yes, I know the episodes are not set in any particular order, but seriously why is that we only got one Christmas themed episode that aired in time for Christmas and the rest all aired far in advance? Well anyway, Season 6 really needed something to get it back on the right track after "Newbie Dash" bombed and even "No Second Prances" was hotly contested, almost like the opposite of the one two punch from Season 5 of "Brotherhooves Social" and "Crusaders of the Lost Mark". Stepping up to the plate was newcomer Michael Vogel who had previously served as vice president of Hasbro. Considering that he would go on to more or less become a show runner like Josh Haber and write many of the later seasons' most important episodes, he must've done something right in his debut here, right? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with a musical number, meaning that this is going to be the big musical episode for the season (and in fact it will be the last time in the show's history that we'd get more than one musical number per episode), in this case "Hearth's Warming Eve is Here Once Again". It's basically all about the holiday arriving once again and ponies getting ready to celebrate, complete with snow and a big old party being hosted at Twilight's castle. There's even a bit of a nod to Berry Punch's perceived alcoholism as she appears being served cider during the line "Making merry".
Twilight and Spike are excited about the holiday and ask Starlight if she's looking forward to it, meaning this is pretty much her episode. But Starlight Glimmer says she's probably going to skip it, which comes as a shock to both Twilight and Spike. Some complain about Twilight getting on Starlight's case for not liking the holiday, and yeah she is being a bit nosy here. If Starlight really doesn't want to celebrate the holiday of Hearth's Warming that's fine, the whole point of "Scare Master" (as poorly executed as it was) was that you can't force someone to enjoy something if they'd rather not be part of it. And much like Gremlins I feel like there's a point to be made about how not everyone celebrates Christmas, and not just because they celebrate other holidays or have some depressing story about something that happened around Christmas. For some, Christmas just doesn't interest them either because they live alone or because they're just not into it. It's not like Starlight is saying she thinks ponies are stupid for celebrating the holiday, at least not intentionally. It's not like Ebenezer Scrooge complaining that Christmas is for "fools" and vows to punish anyone who says "Merry Christmas" if it were up to him.
Still, Twilight decides that maybe Starlight just needs to hear a story. The right kind of holiday story. And Starlight willingly accepts when she's told that it's not going to be the story of Equestria's founding but the titular story of A Hearth's Warming Tail.
If the episode didn't already make it obvious, the story is very much an adaptation of A Christmas Carol. And this one might just be the adaption that takes the most creative liberties with the source material, even more so than Mickey's Christmas Carol which was adapted as a short film. The Ebenezer Scrooge expy is a unicorn named Snowfall Frost, portrayed by Starlight Glimmer in her old mane and tail style and wearing a period costume. As for the Bob Cratchet expy, we have Rainbow Dash playing Snow Dash. And we get to another criticism of this episode as some say that names like this make the episode too fanficy, as if Twilight is just making up the story to try to punish Starlight for not wanting to celebrate Hearth's Warming. There's nothing to suggest that this is at all intentional, I think it's just a sign of how sloppy the names are. Plus, as one reviewer pointed out, Rainbow Dash isn't really a good fit for Bob Cratchet. A big part of Bob's character is that he's too soft spoken to really fight back against Scrooge's claims, and yet he still finds it in his heart to propose a toast to him on Christmas Day even when his wife scoffs at the idea. Fluttershy would've been a better fit. Anyway, Snowfall Frost's apparent hatred of the holiday of Hearth's Warming has more to do with the noise and commercialism, how ponies seem to view it as a day for slacking off.
We also get frequent interruptions from Twilight, Spike and Starlight to remind us that this is a story, kind of like the interruptions from the Muppets' take. Anyway, Snowfall Frost decides that Equestria is better off if the holiday of Hearth's Warming were erased all together (Thanos before Thanos in a sense), and we get our villain song in the form of "Say Goodbye to the Holiday", combining A Christmas Carol with How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
There is a bit of a questionable detail when Snowfall steals a toy from a child, and this is never acknowledged in-universe. She also apparently doesn't notice windigos emerging from her cauldron as she prepares to create and cast a spell to get rid of the holiday. Kind of gives this a "Poor Unfortunate Souls" vibe on top of what was mentioned earlier.
The story gets interrupted again as Starlight complains about Snowfall's motivations for erasing the holiday of Hearth's Warming, before Spike ribs her over her own petty motivations in the past. But Twilight shushes Spike and glares at him as if he caused the interruption before resuming the story. Anyway, Snowfall is ready to cast her spell when suddenly she's greeted by a spirit. The Spirit of Hearth's Warming Past to be precise, played by Applejack. She walks right through Snowfall and mentions that she and the other spirits have become aware of the spell due to its power, and they're more or less here to give their own opinions on the matter. It should be mentioned that it was revealed soon after this episode aired that Discord was planned to appear as the Jacob Marley expy, but was cut due to time constraints. No word on if he was meant to have a song or not though.
The Spirit of Hearth's Warming Past then opts to hogtie Snowfall and drag her back to the past as we get the song "Seeds of the Past". And filly Starlight (complete with her adorable pigtails) plays Snowfall Frost as a child as we get what I assume is the stand-in for the boarding school Scrooge attends as a child. And what substitute do they have for Scrooge's troubled childhood? A grouchy teacher named Professor Flintheart who looks a lot like Severus Snape.
Professor Flintheart dismisses the notion of Windigos and says that real magic is something that "takes time to learn", before shattering a toy ornament in front of Snowfall. This more or less causes her to shun her friends and throw herself into her studies, even repeating the mantra she recited earlier as it's basically implied that Professor Flintheart made her into what she is. This is a pretty abridged version of the enterity of Scrooge's past, which I blame on time constraints. We then cut back to the present as Pinkie Pie plays the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Present (or Presents as she calls herself), mentioning that gifts are important not because of what they are but because of what they mean. And then we get the song "Pinkie's Present" which seems to have a swingy, big band kind of feel to it.
As the song ends we get a meta joke about Twilight doing her Pinkie Pie voice, which is a nod to the fact that Tara Strong originally auditioned for the role of Pinkie Pie and intended to use a voice similar to what we hear here. Lauren Faust, however, insisted on casting Tara as Twilight and changing up the voice. Apparently, Andrea Libman was originally supposed to voice Twilight Sparkle before being moved to Pinkie Pie. And as cool as that might have sounded I can't imagine Twilight being anywhere near as memorable if she had Andrea's voice. Plus. I think Tara would've been a bit too typecasted if she were voicing Pinkie Pie. Twilight was a nice change of pace for her. It is too bad that as far as I know there's no recordings of any cast auditions to hear what could've been. We have only the test reel from 2009 that Lauren used as a pitch for an example of what the show was originally concevied as.
Then, in what's more or less a way to disguise a commercial break, Spike asks for an intermission to refill his mug of hot chocolate.
When Spike comes back the story resumes as we see a party being hosted at what I assume is Snow Dash's place, and we have Flutterholly and Merry played by Fluttershy and Rarity respectively, which are some even less creative names than Snow Dash. Yet they mention that Snowfall's vision of an ideal Hearth's Warming looks a lot like the party they're attending. But at no point do we get a Tiny Tim expy, not even as a sickly child which is kind of important. Tiny Tim's condition is indirectly a result of Scrooge's indifference to his fellow man, particularly Bob Cratchet since he is underpaying him. I mean, it probably would've been given to Scootaloo because bad things tend to happen to her in the fandom (hence the whole joke about her looking sad in pictures if she doesn't smile), but it could still be there. Instead, the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Present just fades away into a fog as we immediately get the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Yet to Come, played by Princess Luna. This is kind of a jarring change from mane six members to princesses. I'll bet they originally planned to make this role Twilight's, before deciding that it would be too confusing for her to have a role in a story she's supposed to be narrating. And in a radical departure from the usual interpretations, this Ghost of Christmas Future can speak. The only other one I know that could do that was when Pete played the role in Mickey's Christmas Carol.
So instead of showing Snowfall Tiny Tim's grave and then her own, the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Yet to Come shows that by erasing Hearth's Warming she has allowed the windigos to return and reduce the entire world to a frozen wasteland. And all this is shown during "Luna's Future", in which her singing voice is provided courtesy of Aloma Steele who would become Luna's singing double for the rest of the show. However, while she does a good job here I think she's kind of off putting as Princess Luna, sounding more like Zecora. I feel like she might have originally been intended as the singing double for someone else, and it was changed to Princess Luna last minute. She improved greatly for "Lotta Little Things To Do" in Season 9.
However, I kind of think this future is more effective at the whole "Scare 'Em Straight" routine than what Scrooge is normally shown. Yes, he does have to live with the guilt of knowing that he will cause Tiny Tim to die, but aside from that and likely driving Bob Cratchet to an early grave from grief and depression, the only other one who will be negatively affected by what happens if he doesn't change his ways is himself. Here, however, Snowfall is not just dooming herself and maybe a few close associates but all of Equestria. And not necessarily by choice either but by ignorance. Not of a malicious kind but out of a naive belief that she's doing Equestria a public service, which is probably more of a shock. After all, a lot of Disney princesses nowadays are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve what they think is right, and they normally get rewarded for their behavior even if they might unintentionally be hurting others.
So Snowfall insists on being sent back, claiming that it's not too late because she hasn't cast the spell yet and leaning briefly into It's A Wonderful Life where the protagonist makes a similar plea with a greater power.
Snowfall's prayer is answered, she goes back in time and opts not to cast the spell. Then she shows up to Snow Dash's party and even brings along a little gift in the form of what I assume is a potion called Dragon Toenail. It's not much, but Snow Dash realizes that it's the thought that counts and lets her boss come join her in the festivities as the story ends. Twilight then tells Starlight that she's welcome to join the party downstairs if she wants to. And in a reprise of "Hearth's Warming Eve is Here Once Again", Starlight does so as the episode ends, an ending that "The Best Gift Ever" would more or less do as well.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, it's kind of odd that they would use the "Yet Another Christmas Carol" plot as their one big musical episode of the season, but the songs are so good that I don't really mind. Even "Hearth's Warming Eve is Here Once Again", the weakest song of the whole bunch, is enjoyable and catchy, though the true standouts are "Say Goodbye to the Holiday", "Pinkie's Present" and "Luna's Future". Can it be too fanficy? Maybe at times, largely in the naming department. But the thing is, aside from Twilight getting on Starlight's case without much reason, she's not really being nosy or manipulative (at least not by intention). Starlight isn't being told that she has to join the party, not even by the ending of the titular story. I mean, how many people do you know who hear various adaptations of A Christmas Carol and yet they still believe they're not the Scrooge of their own stories (or other people's lives)? If anything, this seems like it's "The Cutie Re-Mark" done better because Starlight (or at least a character she plays) is made aware of the consequences of her behavior and actually shows a willingness to change. Maybe this was done to salvage stuff originally planned for that two parter, much like the invasion of the Everfree Forest in "Princess Twilight Sparkle" was originally meant for "Magical Mystery Cure"? Or maybe that's just a coincidence. Well, either way, I think the biggest strength and the biggest weakness of this episode lies in it being "Yet Another Christmas Carol". The strength comes from putting a fresh spin on it, breathing new life into a story that seemed like it had been done to death. And the weakness comes from lacking a Jacob Marley expy, a Tiny Tim expy and having a very abridged past for the Scrooge expy. I think the strengths outweigh what flaws there may be, ultimately giving this episode a borderline A/A+. Now if only they let episodes besides premieres and finales be two parters, an episode like this could've done so much more with a second part.
Now, although it got bumped way back in airdate the next episode in production order is the second CMC episode of the season in "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks", a rather interesting episode by nature of what it probably replaced, but more on that when we cover the episode tomorrow.
Kinda contradicting yourself here, don't you think?
This is definitely a pretty great episode, and easily my third favorite of the season.