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| This episode really is a feast for the eyes and ears |
S6E08: "A Hearth's Warming Tail"
My original rating: ★★★★★
IMDb score: 8.3
Thoughts: Michael Vogel wasn't new to MLP of course, but "A Hearth's Warming Tail" was his first FiM writing credit. This episode, perhaps surprisingly, really split opinion when we did the old UK of Equestria rankings. More people placed it either very high or very low than in the middle. Part of this is probably that some just aren't up for yet another version of A Christmas Carol. I, however, am. While this isn't quite up to the genius of the Muppets' take on Dickens, it is wonderful. It was the first show episode to make use of a live band (for "Pinkie's Present") and the songs in general are excellent, with a special word for "Luna's Future". Starlight works well as Snowfall Frost, this episode's Scrooge, and though Rainbow Dash may seem an odd choice for the Bob Cratchit role she doesn't do badly either. The episode looks absolutely wonderful, quite rightly for a festive episode – even if it did come out in May! Lots of fun references to spot as we go along, and an amusing little cameo for Derpy, too. Poignant and entertaining at the same time, just like its inspiration, this is one of those episodes which rises above its flaws, and yes they're there – the pacing hurtles along in the second half, and "Flutterholly" is a feeble name. But you know what? I. Don't. Care. It's all just too much fun. I love this episode to pieces, and to nopony's surprise I'm letting it keep its five-star rating.
Choice quote: Snow Dash: "*spit take* Boss?"
New rating: ★★★★★
Next
time, it'll be "The Saddle Row Review", another very popular episode. I went along with the herd on that one and really liked it.
The amount a person is burnt out on Christmas Carol redos seemed to guide opinion on this one. Me, I was and still am absolutely up for ponies doing something like this, and this remains a favorite.
ReplyDeleteAlso can we just stop to talk about how "Because of you, Snowfall Frost, now the future is a cold nightmare" is one of those lines that just strikes at the soul? Just thinking about Luna's Future gives me the shivers even today.
I don't think I'll ever be burnt out on it. As I said, yes I see the flaws (if not quite as many as IN below) but they just don't stop me having enormous fun with this. I'll watch it again when Christmas time comes around. :)
DeleteUnderstatedly put, I do not share the common opinion that this is a highlight of Season Six. I don't so much as consider it a good ep: little more than style over substance. And I say this as someone who doesn't mind Christmas Carol adaptations, so that's not the relevant factor here.
ReplyDeleteEven discounting my dislike-with-great-intensity of "reformed"-Starlight, (and thus the observation that this episode is basically a disguised redo of the Season Five finale), the in-universe logic is screwy as hell. Especially the part where you can apparently destroy a popular holiday with radical magic (rather than just be a miserly jerk about it to others), a variation which has zero applicability in the real world.
And another thing:
The implications are extremely unfortunate. Snowfall being effectively bullied into becoming a hard worker for the betterment of all (over frivolous partying, and even to the point of her irrational hatred of partying) doesn't make a lick of sense, especially when the specific partying being targeted actually does serve a purpose, and a survival one at that. So, if she'd known that ahead of time... it would have actually vindicated her worldview. All she'd have to do is not cast the spell, and she can basically behave little different from before. Oops.
Literally the sticking point relies on the in-universe confirmation of whether windigos are real or not, which weakens the "don't be a jerk on the holidays" message a tad if a chunk of it relies on a simple in-universe cryptid confirmation.
Anyway... is the episode demonizing hard work over the holidays? Everyone has to participate, apparently, or can Snowfall just let everyone have their fun while she works? Or is the message that, if you want to work for the betterment of all, you're a miserable hardass who'll magically take it away from everyone else... and cause the apocalypse? That's a nice message to throw at people who prefer to work during celebrations, or people who like to spend time alone.
When you throw a lot of vaguely pretty ingredients into the pot and don't think about the actual logical relations they have to each other, unfortunate implications start spilling out.
The Luna song is nice, though.
From memory, roughly what you said was the other reason (beyond "not another Dickens adaptation") why people who rated this episode poorly did so. You're not alone. It does seem to affect people quite personally though, both positively and negatively. I'm someone who is happy to be on my own most of the time myself, and that aspect didn't bother me one bit in this episode.
DeleteI doubt either of us are likely to budge from our current positions on this, so I'll watch it an extra time come Christmas so that you don't have to. ;)
The one with Chris' plushie
ReplyDeleteMiddlin' ★★★★ from me. I don't mind Christmas Carol remakes even though I am not fond of the mandatory and strictly prescribed merriment of the holiday, and this one was fine. The Muppets did it proud, but you can't beat the original black-and-white version with... Alistair Sims, I think?
Still in the top handful of episodes for this season.
The one with Chris' plushie
DeleteI can't say I get that reference, but I'll take your word for it! And yeah, the AS version is excellent -- but I'd honestly watch the Muppets' one even over his. Maybe helps that I saw it the other Christmas with a good friend when they put it on in a local(ish) cinema. Friendship is magic, you know. :)
Wow, I had actually forgotten the context.
DeleteBack in 2015, OMPR turned 5 years old and I decided to celebrate by crowd-funding a plushie based on Carrot Top's appearance in this episode for him.
That's actually it, the campaign worked good. :B
http://onemansponyramblings.blogspot.com/2017/04/hold-freaking-presses.html
DeleteI don't consider myself against Christmas Carol stories by any means, though outside of the Muppets' rendition, I've hardly ever felt the urge to rewatch any of them. Still, plenty have delighted me in my time, and that number includes a decent portion of cartoon episode retellings and inspirations. But it is the case that I've always, if not written off this episode, at least mostly just shrugged about it.
ReplyDeleteRewatching it for the first time in a while, I certainly appreciated a lot in it. The storyboarding, animation and effects are among the best the show's done to this point, give or takes a few weird facial expressions (though less than most of Season 6). The voice actors and singers are giving it their all. And while I don't personally consider any of the songs great, sans perhaps Luna's Future (though the longer version makes the in-episode one feel a little soft in comparison), there's no clinkers in the bunch – a bar most prior FiM musical episodes didn't clear. While I definitely don't find the style here remotely camouflages the rickety substance, it is very good style. However, I do find it suffers from a common flaw of Christmas Carol episodes, of the compression leaving it more of a highlights reel than anything, which certainly goes partly towards much of this being enjoyable but not really leaving an impression.
But yeah, the substance is pretty rickety. Not to the same degree as Impossible Numbers, but the internal logic is easy to pick apart, as are the icky implications (though I too, often happy with my own company, didn't feel affected by that aspect). I myself mostly zoned in on the lazy crutch of Snowfall's motivation as a filly, from some nameless grouch of a unicorn. Really, the motivation for why the Scrooge-analogue is the way they are is the most crucial part of any retelling (is not the pain and tragedy emphasised in the Alistair Sims version a key reason why it sticks beyond the many surface-level tellings?), and if this is only a mild irritant next to many other backstory justifications before and since in the show, it still leaves chunks of the episode cold. Among other parts. I too would have preferred a non-Starlight character in the lead role, though I don't think it would have improved it more than incrementally.
I am so grateful, at least, that this one never feel victim to the "every fictional story is real in this universe" issue that plagued just about everything else in FiM
I think it speaks to how solid the technical execution is that it earns a ★★★ from me. It's a flashy pizazz show that is weighed down, but not outright clipped, by rusty storytelling in the present box, but on the other hand I don't find enough of the style wows me on an instinctual level for it to go above pleasant diversion. Still, it's gripping enough, and while I still find it overrated, I do better understand now why a surplus of folks love it.
A tangential comment, but it's such a shame that recording technology didn't exist when Dickens was doing his own readings of A Christmas Carol. He was an absolute sensation by all accounts, and it would have been fascinating to know exactly how he performed the story. (We do have his annotated "stage copy" that he took along with him each time, but that's only a part of a whole we can sadly never know.)
DeleteThree stars? Interesting! That (or equivalent) may have been the least common rating on UK of E for this episode. Still a five for me and I doubt it will ever stop being a five, but it would have been a major surprise to me (and to you as well, I'll wager!) had you ended up joining me there.
I don't get the opportunity to watch this one much, so I might have only seen it twice before, but I really liked it. The adaptation of the plot was done well, I liked seeing the characters in an old-timey setting, and Starlight was a great one to have in that particular role. The only thing that rubbed me the wrong way is Derpy once again being treated as inept in all things to the point of others regretting her presence. The costumes and scenery were beautiful, and the songs were all good. Lots of fun and nicely heartwarming.
ReplyDelete