S06:E08 - A Hearth's Warming Tail

[OtakuBrony 349]

Howdy Folks!

 

Great episode!

 

Mike Vogel makes his MLP writing debut with a bang.

(Also wrote the songs as well)

 

Once again Daniel Ingram and his music team are fantastic.

 

Kelly Sheridan shines as Starlight Glimmer as she wasnt in the Heartwarming mood.

(Not to mention her range in her singing voice=WOW)

 

Thanks to Twilight she reads the story of Snowfall Frost.

 

Great to hear Shannon-Chan Kent sing as Pinkie

 

William Samples as Professor Flintheart sounded mean.

 

Aloma Steele sung as Luna and i was like

i thought Kazumi Evans (Rarity's Singing voice) did the singing but nope it was Aloma and she nailed it.

Ashleigh Ball (AJ & RD) did superb as well.

Same with Andrea Libman (Fluttershy)

And Rebecca Soichet too.

 

It was fun to hear another musical episode.

 

Hope theres another one later in the season.

[ChangelingLover657 2]

Old VS New: Mickey's Christmas Carol vs A Hearth's Warming Tale

 

Words almost can't describe how wonderful this adaption of the Charles Dickens classic is, the character's sounded their parts to the original story, the retelling was very creative, and it was all done in a half hour. But also this isn't the first time it was done great in just a half hour, the 1980s Disney adaption of the classic also did it great in just a half hour.

 

So this begs the question I have posted here today, which one did it better?

[cybershocker455 324]

I liked this episode... despite being just another retelling of a "Christmas Carol." I liked the songs, the cameos(especially Professor Snape and Sherlock Holmes and Watson), and the framing behind the story. I think Starlight Glimmer is getting a lot of good development, and despite this being way too early to celebrate the holidays, I found it a fun and festive episode. I give it a 8.5/10.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

 

 

Dunno for sure, but I think somebody needs a hug.  hugs

I have no problem with hugs; I just find this episode bland and forgettable

Applejack and Luna are the only real highlights. (though I DO love AJ in her role).

[Jonny Music 3,395]

Wow! I'm just blown away by how well they (the staff at Hasbro Studios and DHX) pulled this holiday-focused episode off!

 

 

The "Tail" that was shown reminded me a whole lot (and is obviously heavily based) on the good, ol' classic Charles Dickens novel: A Christmas Carol. I read the book and also had so much enjoyment for a specific animated adaptation that is very nostalgic to me right here:

Overall, it was great! I really like that they didn't lose their charm in keeping our interest in the show.

 

[Odd Ball 231]

I think I found Featherweight's twin sister, I'm gonna call her Twinkle Wish.

Edited May 15, 2016 by Da King

[Venomous 18,862]

I was actually pleasantly surprised with this episode. I felt that Starlight Glimmer was a great character to learn about the holiday spirit and all of the songs were pretty good! (I think that's what surprised me the most)

 

I can see myself going back and watching this episode around next Christmas for sure.

[Mentis Soliloquy 3,025]

Uh hem "Tis was the season for lazy plagiarism..." 

 

 

But no it was ok, but the poorest so far this season.

Edited May 15, 2016 by Mentis Soliloquy

[gamecubeguy214 2,512]

I'm watching the episode right now, and I admit I kind of dislike having to watch a Christmas episode in May.

[Brightbart 268]

I thought AJ and Pinkie Pie's songs were great. I however always love the Christmas themed episodes. 

[gamecubeguy214 2,512]

I finished the episode just now, and I'll have to say it's one of the worst episodes I've seen in any show. It had way too many songs, the only good one was the one sung by Luna, and all the other songs are either OK or cringey. There's a few cliches in the episode which makes it not different from other forms of this story or any type of media at all, and the time they released this episode was horrible. I am very disappointed that I had to stay up at 12:00 for this piece of s***. It was a little bit enjoyable at times, but the episode was just badly made, like Spykids is bad but alright to watch.

Edited May 15, 2016 by gamecubeguy214

[dekutree64 713]

Did we seriously need another Christmas episode? And one based on the most overused story of all time? DHX, I am disappoint. Such a waste of a musical episode.

 

I actually skipped the season 2 HWE episode on my first watch-through of the show, expecting that it would be like this one. But when I did finally watch it, I loved that it was an original story that expanded the lore of the show. But now here we are, with the overused story that doesn't expand the lore at all

 

It's quite ironic now that I think about it. Starlight was tired of hearing the founding of Equestria story over and over, so Twilight told her this one which was refreshing and new to her. Whereas I'm tired of this one, but the founding of Equestria story was refreshing and new to me

Edited May 15, 2016 by dekutree64

[Mesme Rize 15,683]

Did we seriously need another Christmas episode? And one based on the most overused story of all time? DHX, I am disappoint. Such a waste of a musical episode.

 

I actually skipped the season 2 HWE episode on my first watch-through of the show, expecting that it would be like this one. But when I did finally watch it, I loved that it was an original story that expanded the lore of the show. But now here we are, with the overused story that doesn't expand the lore at all

 

It's quite ironic now that I think about it. Starlight was tired of hearing the founding of Equestria story over and over, so Twilight told her this one which was refreshing and new to her. Whereas I'm tired of this one, but the founding of Equestria story was refreshing and new to me

 

Well, buh humbug to you too.

[Truffles 2,033]

Gotta agree with you about WWU it you want to do a comparison. To be fair WWU is on a level all its own in many ways. Also, that last paragraph was a fair assessment.

 

Thanks! Though I have top admit, after sleeping on it I'm not sure it was even fair to compare this episode to "Winter Wrap Up" since "WWU" only tangentially had anything to do with Hearthswarming Eve, even though I imagine "WWU" was the go-to holiday episode before season 2's "Hearth's Warming Eve" aired.

 

Speaking of which, I totally goofed and forgot to include it in the list. (I got too wrapped up in "Winter Wrap Up" as it were and forgot, lol.) I think as a holiday episode, the original S2 ep scores big points for expanding the lore and basically allowing for the following two holiday episodes to build upon it, and it has a good moral. But as a warm wrap-yourself-in-blanket-by-the-fire feel-good episode, I think "A Hearthswarming Tail" supersedes in in that department, just for the catchy musical numbers alone.

 

As it is, I'm hard-pressed to pick a favorite among those two episodes. I like "HWE" for its lore and story, but I like this new episode for it's holiday cheer.

 

While I'm here expanding my list of comparisons, all of the MLP holiday episodes have a ways to go before they eclipse my favorite holiday special, "The Night Before Christmas."

 

 

Upon thinking about it again, it's funny that I see so much early Twilight in Albert the mouse who thinks too much with his head and not enough with his heart.

[Leere 8,290]

10/10 - Great episode with great musics

[Thaliel 116]

all that wonderful music! Starlight's singing voice is simply fantastic, and Luna...don't even get me started on her. And with the temperatures over here being even lower than last year at actual christmas, it did feel kind of fitting even for not being in winter season

Edited May 15, 2016 by Thaliel

[Riganthor 484]

It might not be the best story wise but the songs, the characters and just the animation overal made me really enjoy this episode. Amazing songs a good moral and something nice lighthearted with some darker tone. 9/10 for me

[Betelnut 13]

As to the timing of the episode, I imagine by December Season 6 will have wrapped up as that is more than 26 weeks away. I would rather have new episodes now than draw out the season just so that this one "Christmas" episode can be aired sort of close to that holiday. YMMV

[Luigi 7,869]

Undoubtedly this was the best episode so far this season as far as I'm concerned. I think they handled the "Christmas Carol" stereotypes really well. (But where was the Tiny Tim stereotype?)

[Jeric 46,850]

(But where was the Tiny Tim stereotype?)

They used Featherweight as an analog for Tiny Tim during Pinkie Present's song. I was hoping they would play off of Scootaloo's flightlessness and have her be the Tiny Tim character, but I'll take it.

[Jangocoolguy 433]

While I'm not happy with it being the billionth take on A Christmas Carol--including the 100,000th time it's been done with characters from a cartoon show filling the parts--the music, animation, and cameos more than make up for it

 

I especially got a kick out of seeing Vinyl working a phonograph and wearing early shades.

 

And go figure Snape would be reincarnated as a Unicorn and STILL be a total dick

[cuteycindyhoney 13,306]

I found the episode to be a delight. You just don't have a series until you do a take on "A Christmas Carol". I loved how they added a touch of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and just a smattering of "it's a Wonderful Life" to the mix. Luna's appearance as the spirit of Hearths Warming yet to come (There aren't any more!) was wonderful! My first thought was "OMG, it's the Death of Ponies" (I miss Terry Pratchett)

This episode erased my disappointment in last week's Newbie Dash completely!  Oh, and I think Starlight looks great in a tophat!

[Glike 487]

Starlight spent a Hearth's Warming with Twilight and friends.. it doesn't get much more adorable and happy than that. It's also nice to see that she could relate to Snowfall Frost, it's like when we find a character we can really relate to in a show or story and it helps us grow attached.

 

To some this may seem like a filler episode, but I see it as another great step in Starlight's reformation arc. If you haven't done so already, I implore you to listen to all of the songs from the episode again and just picture all of the lyrics directly regarding Starlight. I think AJ's song was especially pertinent. "Some hurts never go away," the line about defenses and walls, the point of view line.. it all really has a close correlation to Starlight. I know that's the point but I personally thought it was done wonderfully. It didn't feel forced at all and it was a good reflection.

 

Fantastic episode!

[Slashy 101]

On /mlp/ there is a vocal minority that believes that the episode was pretty boring. It was a pretty noticiable divide between AMAZING and Meh.

[cider float 2,537]

The episodes have gotten so bland that I don't even know if we had new episodes and I'm already forgetting what episodes were in Season 6.