This is your friendly film Phantom of Stories here with another review.
And today, I'll be reviewing MLP: FiM's "The Best Gift Ever".
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Here's the summary of it:
In the wake of all the hustle and bustle of Hearth's Warming Eve, the Main Six and Spike are having trouble keeping up with finding each other the perfect gift. Unable to keep themselves organized, the seven friends decide to each draw cards and get a present for the one friend that their card has the name of.
Will the friends find the perfect gift before Hearth's Warming Eve's over? Or not?
I'd like to start this review off by saying this:
Some may think that this holiday special isn't much because of the Main Six not going on a big and epic adventure like in the 2017 film. Or a villain being present. But...I for one think it's one of the most fun MLP installments I've ever seen.
The only thing I couldn't help but question regarding this episode was why writer Michael Vogel decided to have Spike unwittingly draw Rainbow's card from AJ's hat instead of Rarity's and get Fluttershy to trade cards with him. It's mainly because, like Godslittleprincess said in her review of this special on FiMFiction.net, it seemed rather out of place.
Other than that, though, Vogel's writing for this special was very excellent. I love the astounding amount of passion he put into working with the characters, and the sense of humor, warmth, and occasional excitement he incorporated was fun too. He even gave the special a great moral involving friendship, which was that it's never the gift that makes a holiday special for someone. It's the friendship that one has with others that truly matters, as well as the thought behind the gift that counts. It helped the special to live up to what made "Friendship is Magic" so phenomenal and have heart.
The voice acting, characters, and character development were also entertaining. Each character featured didn't seem out of place and fit this episode's story like a glove, and the vocal performers sounded like they were having a great time working with their material. The chemistries that were shared between each character were likewise quite well-played, my personal favorites being the chemistry shared between Rainbow Dash and Discord and the romantic banter between Cadance and Shining Armor. And, the new characters that were introduced were instantly worthy of fan attention.
Admittedly, the animation was pretty much on the same level of a regular episode of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". The significant thing about it, though, was that the animators were clearly quite passionate as they worked on it. Under the direction of Denny Lu, Mike Myhre, and Jim Miller, the animators did a brilliant job at not only translating perfectly what Michael Vogel was going for with the story, but also getting this holiday special to feel like something more than just a regular episode.
Finally, the music by William Anderson, and the songs by Daniel Ingram, were melodiously magnificent. The beautiful thing about their work here, to me, was that they gave their music the feeling that musicians would often incorporate into a cinematic feature, and the lyrics of the two songs that were incorporated mixed together like a frosting on a cake.
In the end, "The Best Gift Ever" isn't a flawless MLP installment because of what I mentioned at the beginning. But, it's a holiday treat that's extremely delightful in its own way, particularly because of the heart and joy that was put into it.
So, I rate MLP: FiM's "The Best Gift Ever" 4½ out of 5 stars.
(This review was originally posted on my personal website on December 25, 2019)
