Last Year's Holiday Story

I consider myself a casual South Park fan, mostly because I didn't actually get into the show (besides catching episodes here and there) until last year, mostly due to my husband randomly watching the reruns (which is how he watches most shows).  So it was about this time last year when he had on the episode "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics."  I was doing something else, not really paying attention, until this segment started:

Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics
Tags: SOUTH
PARKmore...

I was shocked, shocked I say, for despite having never seen this episode before in my life, I knew the sequence by heart, though not exactly as it appeared on the show.  You see, a few years ago, I discovered the Carols For a Cure CD series, a charity offering where every year the current casts of various Broadway shows (and the occasional Off-Broadway show and special guests) record a track, and the profits go to help fight aids.  And in 2003, guess what the cast of Hairspray did:

The joke here being that Marc Shaiman, who wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics for Hairspray, worked with Trey Parker and Matt Stone on the songs for that episode, which originally aired in 1999.

Comics - Carol of the Waa

(Click to read the rest of the comic and hear the carol)
I was kind of debating whether or not to post this, since to really get it, you need to know a little bit of Brawl in the Family's past.  But I just enjoyed it so much that I had to post it, regardless.  For Christmas this year, BitF is parodying various Christmas carols, and today's strip takes on Carol of the Bells with Waluigi, who occasionally takes over the strip.  I was hoping that there would be a youtube video made that I could post here (since there was one made of yesterday's strip, a Frosty parody starring King Dedede), but no dice.  If one gets made later, I'll update this post.
Edit:

The Christmas Tree

As I am wont to do, I sought out a Christmas special I vaguely remembered from my childhood, which I was actually looking for last year when I found Christopher the Christmas Tree instead.  Unlike Christopher, this special, generically named The Christmas Tree (which actually has exceedingly little to do with the plot), is animated so badly with even worse voice work that it actually becomes hilarious in parts.  I'm not going to summarize the whole thing, but just know the general plot involves an Orphanage of Fear run by Mrs. Mavilda, who, besides being generally mean, routinely uses the town's donations to play poker with her buddies.  Things are so bad that the kids turn the pine tree in the back into a surrogate parent named Mrs. Hopewell.  When the Kindle family comes to town, Mrs. Kindle and her kids have to stay at the orphanage while Mr. Kindle works at the mill (why exactly they have to live apart is not explained), which briefly brings hope to the kids, and makes Mrs. Mavilda accountable to someone when the mayor brings over the money for Christmas.  When she loses it in a poker game, she schemes to have Mrs. Kindle framed for stealing (so she can fire her) and Mrs. Hopewell cut down (to spite the kids).  The orphans, unable to warn Mrs. Kindle in time, instead turn to Santa Claus to solve their problems.  And that's when the coincidences begin.  The thievery plot is thwarted by a Christmas accident, and the mayor just happens to drive by when the orphans and Mrs. Kindle try to prevent Mrs. Hopewell from being cut down.  And Mr. Kindle shows up for absolutely no good reason.  And then, when Mrs. Mavilda takes the chainsaw to cut down the tree herself, she's struck by lightning!  Immediately followed by the arrival of Santa Claus, who magically decorates Mrs. Hopewell, and the Mayor declares it the town's official Christmas Tree.  He also magics the kids some new clothes, The Kindles adopt all the kids and are put in charge of the orphanage, and Mrs. Mavilda somehow survived.  But don't worry, the narrator assures us, she's turned good now, as she learned that when you're good, you always win if you're bad, Santa will strike you down.

So yeah, not really a classic.  And as I said, the animation is totally bad.  Most of the time, the characters, especially the kids, look like they're seriously depressed, regardless of what they should actually be feeling.  And Mrs. Mavilda seems to have only two facial expressions: cranky and evilly gleeful.  She also talks the most, which means that she gets the worst lip synch animation I've ever seen.  Ever.  And don't even get me started on the leering mayor:

I know that he's not supposed to seem creepy in the scene, but come on, animators, what's up with this?  It doesn't help that he's watching Mrs. Kindle with the children in this scene, and describes her as a "fine woman."  Brr....
As for the voice acting, the line delivery is so terrible that it almost isn't funny.  Almost.  You know it's bad when unemotional child voice actors actually sound good in comparison to pitched up adults.
You know, I would love to see The Nostalgia Critic take on this special (maybe the Chick), or have it turned into clips by Worst Cartoons Ever or Everything Is Terrible.  That would be awesome.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Episode Eight

We finally get to focus on Rarity this time around, though she shares the spotlight with Applejack.

Look Before You Sleep
On a beautiful, sunny day, the pegasus ponies are hard at work, moving clouds into position.  It seems that the they are in charge of making sure Ponyville gets enough rain, and since they accidentally missed a shower last week, they've planned a downpour for that evening to make up for it, meaning all the loose branches need to be pulled down from the trees to keep them from doing any damage during the storm. Rarity, however, would rather graft the branches back on and create pretty topiaries, much to Applejack's annoyance.  And thanks to Rarity fussing around, it starts raining while she and Applejack are still out.  Applejack suggests taking shelter under a nearby picnic table, but Rarity balks when she sees the mud underneath.  This leads to an argument that basically devolves into "does so/does not."  The two ponies agree to go their separate ways, but a bolt of lightning brings the term "safety in numbers" to mind.  Applejack hunkers down under the picnic table, but Rarity refuses.  Fortunately for her, it turns out that they're not too far from the library, and Twilight Sparkle calls for them to come in from the rain.  Applejack questions the wisdom of going inside a tree during a thunderstorm, but Twilight informs them about the library's magical lightning rod.  Rarity makes Applejack wash the mud off her hooves before coming in the house, which Applejack goes to do, with much muttering under her breath.

While Applejack attempts to work a hose, Twilight and Rarity make small talk about the storm, and Twilight invites them to stay the night, since Spike is away on "royal business."  It hits Twilight that this could be the makings for a slumber party, and she gets all excited.  Rarity, not keen on spending an entire night with Applejack, pretends to have suddenly remembered a pressing engagement, but Twilight is so excited about having her first slumber party (and her first chance to actually use her book on slumber parties) that Rarity just can't say no.  And so when Applejack comes back in, her hooves sparkly clean, she is quite surprised to find the two unicorns with mud all over their faces.  This is step one of a successful slumber part: makeovers!  Realizing the implications of a slumber party, Applejack also attempts to back out, but a clap of thunder reminds her it's probably better to stay put.  And so her face is mud masked as well (though when Rarity adds cucumbers for her eyes, Applejack just eats them).  Twilight squees over following the book's recipe for a fun slumber party, which Rarity uses to force a truce between her and Applejack.  Applejack attempts to seal the deal with a spit hoofshake, but Rarity is just squicked.  It looks like their truce is going to be harder to uphold than they thought.
After makeovers, the next thing on the list is ghost stories, which Applejack and Rarity try to use to needle each other.  But then Twilight hits the lights and tells her ghost story, The Legend of the Headless Horse, which is successfully scary.  Next up, s'mores!  Rarity tutors Twilight in the art of perfect s'mores, but Applejack is not impressed, seeing them only as tasty snacks.  Twilight keeps rolling with her slumber party checklist, leading to a game of Truth or Dare.  Applejack and Rarity ignore the actual rules to snipe at each other, putting their fight in plain view.  Twilight attempts to get things back on track by reading the official rules, so Applejack dares Rarity to go out in the rain and ruin her hair-do, which Twilight insists she must do, according to the book.  And she does, and then dares Applejack to dress up in a frou frou princess dress (which Twilight happens to have, for some reason).  This all just leads to more fighting, so Twilight suggests they move on.

After an epic pillow fight, Twilight, a casualty of war, decides it's time to just call it a night.  While Twilight sleeps, Rarity and Applejack are unable to drop their feud, even to fall asleep, as Rarity gripes about Applejack's muddy hooves, then snags the blankets after the earth pony shoves her hooves in her face to show she got all the mud off.  When Applejack snags it back, Rarity pushes her out of bed so she can make the bed again, and then insists Applejack scooch her way under the covers as she does.  Not in any mood to acquiesce, Applejack instead divebombs the bed, bouncing Rarity right out.  Applejack feigns sleep, but Rarity snatches the blanket clean off, leading to a tug-of-war, until Twilight finally has enough and calls the two ponies out for ruining her slumber party.  As she demands to know what else could go wrong, a bolt of lightning hits a tree next to the library.
As the three ponies watch a chunk of the tree teeter ever closer to the house next door, Applejack essentially blames it on Rarity, telling her this is why they needed to take down the loose branches.  Not quite sure that this is the same thing, Applejack.  Before Rarity can defend herself, Applejack opens the window and gears up to lasso the branch and keep it from falling.  Rarity calls for her to wait, but Applejack refuses.  She lassos the branch and gives it a tug, sending the entire thing crashing through the window and into Twilight's bedroom.  Rarity tells her, "I tried to tell you so," while taking cover from the wind and rain now pouring into the room, and Applejack apologizes to Twilight.  But Twilight is more concerned about how having a giant tree branch in your house effects a slumber party, and searches her book for an answer.  Meanwhile, Rarity starts picking up the books that fell off the shelf, and Applejack, seeing she's getting no help from either pony, tries to beat the tree into submission on her own.  When that doesn't work, she calls for Rarity to help, but Rarity ignores her demands until Applejack finally swallows her pride and apologizes, admitting that Rarity's eye for detail would have kept them out of this mess.  She asks for her help with the tree branch, but again Rarity balks at the thought of getting icky.  Applejack starts to gripe, but switches tactics and simply asks her to put her aversions aside because she's the only one who can save them now.  And so, while Twilight continues searching her book on how to turn this into a slumber party solution, Rarity uses her unicorn power to turn the branch into a bunch of little topiaries.  Applejack prepares to kick away the last bit of branch, but with a glare from Rarity, she checks herself and merely drops it out the window.  And so the day is saved, though Rarity is all covered in mud and leaves.  Applejack just adds some cucumbers for her eyes, and the two share a pony hug.  Meanwhile, Twilight finally notices that the branch is gone.

With the feud over, Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity spend some time having an actual good time playing 20 Questions.  When Twilight points out that they could have been having this much fun from the start, it almost looks like Applejack and Rarity will start fighting again, but they end up in a bit of good-natured back-and-forth over who is more sorry than who instead.  Twilight declares her slumber party a success, since she can finally check off "have fun."  While Rarity guides a blindfolded Applejack through a maze, Twilight writes to Princess Celestia about what she's learned (even ponies who are totally different can still get along and be friends) and is ready to start planning her next slumber party.  Rarity and Applejack are not quite as enthusiastic as she is.

There's been some debate over whether or not Twilight Sparkle was out of character in this episode, as her being so enthusiastic over the slumber party activities made her seem as if she was channeling Pinkie Pie, and her comment that she's always wanted to have a slumber party seems to clash with the who-needs-friends-when-I-can-study kind of life she appeared to be leading in Canterlot.  But at the same time, wanting to go exactly by the book, and being slightly socially awkward about the whole thing is very much in line with Twilight Sparkle as we've seen her in the series.
I really liked this episode, and was surprised that Rarity and Applejack arguing so much didn't get old fast, as I thought it would.  I've said it before, but it merits repeating that one of MLPFIM's strengths is that it can take the same old plots that almost every cartoon and sitcom has done before it and yet still be new and entertaining.

Misc. Screenshots:
Curlers for everyone!
Applejack snickers
Applejack and Rarity get in each other's faces
Applejack hanging

What I Read - All my friends are dead.

I volunteer at my local library, and the other day when I came in to cover books, I found this sitting on the desk:

and of course I had to read it.  And I was glad I did, as I was thoroughly amused by the whole thing.  You can see a little more of it here, but that small preview really doesn't show the funniest parts, in my opinion.  But if you're intrigued, I would definitely recommend picking it up.

Hubworld: Naughty or Nice?

This Christmas, The Hub is having a contest to see which characters from their line-up are the nicest or naughtiest, with the winners getting a marathon on Christmas Day.  You can choose from seven characters in each category, though you can vote more than once.  Characters relevant to this blog include Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, and Strawberry Shortcake for niceness, and Nightmare Moon for naughty.  What makes this contest slightly different from any other character poll is that you can choose how naughty or nice a character on a scale of one to ten.
Although The Hub has promised a marathon for the winners, I'm guessing that what they probably mean by that is a marathon of episodes featuring these characters, and this contest just picks the order.  But we'll see come Christmas.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Episode Seven

A very nice group episode this time around, though it's better the second time around.  Also, there's a lot of facepalming.

Dragonshy
Fluttershy spends a typical day at her woodland cottage home, helping feed the various animals that surround it.  When she coaches the bunny Angel (who is a boy, apparently) on how to eat his carrot, he gives her a hard time, and frankly, I don't blame him.  You don't tell a rabbit how to eat a carrot.  The other animals may put up with her overprotectiveness, but not Angel.  In the course of running away from her, he spots a trail of smoke high in the sky, heading straight for Ponyville!  But it takes an awful lot of coughing to get Fluttershy to realize what's going on (as she's still fixated on his half-eaten carrot).  Once she does, though, she heads into town to try and alert the other ponies to the problem.  She's unable to get her voice heard in the park, as Rainbow Dash attempts to break the ball-bouncing record and Pinkie Pie plans a party to celebrate her attempt.  But Fluttershy keeps trying, until Twilight Sparkle arrives on the scene and gets everyone's attention instead.  She reveals the source of the smoke: a dragon!
Later on, Twilight fills in her friends on the situation, as told to her by Princess Celestia.  The dragon is just taking a nap, and his snoring is causing the smoke.  Rainbow Dash is all for taking action against the dragon, but Twilight emphasizes the need for diplomacy on this mission.  If they can't get the dragon to leave, Equestria will be covered in smoke for 100 years!  She calls for the girls to meet her with supplies in one hour, and as the others leave, excited for the mission, Fluttershy hangs back.  Cut to a montage of each pony getting ready: Dash puts on war paint, Granny Smith, Apple Bloom, and Big Macintosh get Applejack's rations, Pinkie Pie busts out with sunglasses and a bunch of balloons, Rarity trades her camo-helmet for a more stylish chapeau, and Fluttershy gets freaked out by her door closing, and then they all pose Charlie's Angels-style.
Once everyone is assembled, Twilight explains that the dragon is snoozing in a cave at the top of a (relatively) nearby mountain.  Fluttershy is apprehensive, and goes to tell Twilight that she'd rather just stay in Ponyville.  She nearly gets away with it, too, since Twilight was reading a map and not really listening, but unfortunately for her, Twilight realizes what the other pony just said and insists that Fluttershy come along. After all, her uncanny way with animals will surely come in handy when dealing with a dragon.  And even though the mission involves a dragon, Spike stays behind to watch all the animals that Fluttershy will be leaving behind.  Rainbow Dash is also apprehensive about bringing Fluttershy, but Twilight is confident that Fluttershy, despite all appearances to the contrary, will be fine once the trip gets going.  And so the ponies begin their mission, sweeping up Fluttershy as they head for the mountain.

By the time they reach the foot of the mountain, the dragon's snores have become audible.  Rainbow Dash is ready to just fly straight up to the top, but Applejack catches her before she can fly off and makes her stick with the rest of the group.  And so up they go, Rarity and Pinkie Pie bantering a bit about the dragon as they climb.  Twilight tells them to knock it off, and then asks Fluttershy, the animal expert, about the dragon.  Only Fluttershy is still at the bottom of the mountain, afraid of the steepness.  Rainbow Dash suggests, with more than a hint of sarcasm, flying up, but when Fluttershy does, the sound of the dragon's snores snap her wings firmly to her sides, and she plummets right back down to the bottom of the mountain.  Twilight gripes that they don't have time to wait around for her, so Applejack snags the map and volunteers to take Fluttershy up a less steep path.  She promises to be up "lickety-split," but Rarity and Pinkie Pie have time for 35 games of Tic-Tac-Toe before they actually get there, since she basically had to drag Fluttershy the entire way (if you were gonna do that, you might as well have just dragged her up the steep path, Applejack).
The whole team together again, they reach a gap in the path.  Everyone jumps over with ease, but Fluttershy can't get herself to do it.  Not until Pinkie Pie sings her a little song about taking "a hop, skip, and a jump," that is.  Twilight nearly ruins it by telling her not to look down, which of course saps her resolve, but fortunately the gap was short enough that she could have just walked over it and been fine.  With a push from Dash and pull from everyone else, she finally gets across.  Further along, they come to an avalanche zone.  Twilight warns them all to be quiet, but the already nerveracked Fluttershy mistakes a leaf falling on her rump for the start of an avalanche, and cries out in fear.  Applejack stops her, but it's too late, the damage is done.  The ponies manage to avoid all the falling rocks, but now their path is blocked by the residual rubble.  There's no choice but climb over it all, with Fluttershy in the rear.  Which naturally means that on the way down, she stumbles and knocks into Rarity and Applejack.
Rainbow Dash is still annoyed about Fluttershy being on the trip, but now her moment has come; they've reached the dragon's cave.  Twilight goes over everyone's part of the plan: Rainbow Dash will clear the smoke, Rarity and Pinkie Pie will create a diversion if needed, and Applejack will use her apple-fu if the dragon decides to attack.  But that's only if she and Fluttershy can't convince the dragon to leave, of course.  Twilight enters the cave, unaware the Fluttershy is not with her.  So out she goes again, and tries to get Fluttershy to come with her this time.  But not even a push from every single other pony is enough to get Fluttershy to budge.  Fluttershy tells them that she can't go in the cave because she's afraid of dragons.  As if to prove her point, the dragon lets out an extra loud snore, covering the whole area in smoke.  Twilight, however, calls attention to her wonderful way with animals, and Fluttershy responds that they aren't dragons.  This is her response to Rainbow Dash reminding her of the manticore in episode two, and when Pinkie points out that Spike is a dragon, she responds that he's not a full-grown dragon, and that makes all the difference.  Twilight demands to know why she didn't say anything about this earlier, conveniently forgetting about Fluttershy trying to get out of the trip back in town, and how much she's been dragging her hooves this whole time.  Applejack, meanwhile, tries to appeal to Fluttershy's sense of duty, but Fluttershy just can't bring herself to face a dragon, not even with Equestria's fate on the line.

With or without Fluttershy, the others still have to try and get the dragon to move along, so Twilight heads in to try the diplomatic method.  Seeing the dragon face-to-face, she begins to realize that Fluttershy may have had a point.  Still, she attempts to get the dragon's attention and give her spiel, even after getting a snootful of dragon morning breath.  In response, the dragon just blows more smoke in her face.  Rarity goes in next to try the charm method.  She lays on the flattery, all while helping herself to a fraction of the dragon's hoard.  Her honeyed words seem to be working, and nearly gets him to leave, until she mentions watching over his hoard while he's gone.  Her true motives laid bare, the dragon roars and she hightails it out of the cave before he can do anything more.  While she grouses about not getting any of the jewels, Pinkie Pie decides to try the laughter approach, but is shot down before she can say anything more than "Hi."
Well, by now Rainbow Dash has had it.  "We've tried persuasion, charm, ...whatever it is Pinkie Pie does."  She goes in herself and gives him a kick right in the snoot.  While this doesn't seem to actually hurt the dragon much, it does get him riled up, and he roars so loudly that Rainbow Dash is propelled right out of the cave and into the others, knocking them all over like bowling pins.  As the dragon emerges from his cave, they cower in fear, making an easy target for his smoke breath, which is strong enough to knock them all back into a nearby rock.  Right where Fluttershy was hiding all this time, it seems.  Seeing the damage dealt to her friends, Fluttershy suddenly switches from timidness to righteous indignation, demanding "How dare you?" straight to the dragon's face.  She goes all alpha on him, much to her friends' surprise.  With a whimper, he tells her that Dash kicked him (and Dash actually has the audacity to be smug about this), so she apologizes for her friend, but reminds him that he's bigger and should know better.  She goes into Mommy-mode and lectures him about sleeping where his smoke can effect other creatures, ending with "What do you have to say for yourself?"  Her lecture is super effective, and the dragon breaks down crying.  Fluttershy comforts him and tells him he just needs to get a move on.
While the dragon packs up his hoard, the other ponies surround Fluttershy to congratulate her on a job well done (if a little late).  And so the dragon flies off, the pegasi of Ponyville clean up the smoke, and Twilight makes her report back to Princess Celestia, giving Spike a break from trying to keep up with Angel.  She includes this week's lesson on friendship in the report, which is "never give up on your friends."  As soon as she finishes her letter, Applejack calls her to watch Rainbow Dash break the ball bouncing record.  But just as Rainbow Dash is about to do it, she hears a roar and freaks out, thinking the dragon came back.  But no, it was just Pinkie Pie practicing her dragon imitation.  "It's okay, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy tells her,  "Not everypony can be as brave as me."  Dash, not in any mood to take this from the resident shrinking violet, promptly blows a leaf onto Fluttershy's rump, making the pegasus panic while everyone laughs.

Okay, after this episode I'm 87% sure that Cathy Weseluck (Spike) is Fij Fij on Maryoku Yummy.  And speaking of Spike, how come they didn't bring him along, too?  Wouldn't another dragon have related to the dragon better than an animal specialist pony?  Or perhaps he would have been too much of a distraction to the other dragon, so that's why they left him home.  I wish they'd addressed this, seriously.
The end credits changed to a more readable font with this episode, with the voice actor credits broken into two pages, but we still don't have any additional credits listed.  What's up with that?  Even the rebooted Pound Puppies and Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures change up their credits each episode to tell you exactly who is who, and frankly, MLP:FiM should be better than them in every way.  Stop letting those shows beat you in in the credits, MLP:FiM!  Get on the ball, whoever is in charge of the credits!

Misc. Screenshots
Angel facepalms
Rainbow Dash salutes
Rainbow Dash Posing
Applejack Posing
Pinkie Pie Posing
Rarity Posing
Fluttershy Posing
Rainbow Dash facepalms
Did you just say "avalanche zone?"
Twilight's reaction to Pinkie's chicken
Ponies getting cried on