MLP:FIM A Hearth's Warming Tale

This is the first episode written by Michael Vogal. Michael Vogal has been part of the production crew since the second season, but this is the first time he ever written an episode. This episode was storyboarded by Megan Willis (who started storyboarding earlier this season) and Sabrina Alberghetti (who has been boarding for the show since the first season).

This episode is a Christmas episode. This may be a weird time for a Christmas episode, but I never complain about getting more Christmas into my life. This episode is the obligatorily A Christmas Carol episode. Which is strange considering For Whom the Sweetie Bell Tolls was essentially A Christmas Carol episode as well. While I like that episode a bit more, I still quite enjoyed this episode.

Probably my favorite thing about this episode is the song numbers. This songs were written by Michael Vogal (lyrics) and Danny Ingram (music). These songs are excellent. Applejack's song is a country song. I mention this because whenever this show does a country song it is fantastic and this is no exception.

Also the humor in this episode is spot on. Pinkie as the Ghost of Hearths Warming Presents is very funny. The ponies setting up for the big day leads to some great visual humor, especially with Derpy.

The only real problem with this episode is that it seems quite rushed. To do A Christmas Carol with a framing story just could use more time. All the spirits seem to go as soon as they come. The reasons this is a problem are that the we have seen some many great cartoon versions of A Christmas Carol and that this episode was so entertaining we wish it could have spent more time with each little thing. However everything else is quite good so you can easily get over this fault.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hearths Warming.

-Michael J. Ruhland