Hello & welcome back to Trotting For Love, our Hearts and Hooves Day event, here on Trotting. Speaking of the holiday, we are finally tackling the Hearts and Hooves Day episode from season 2. Thus completing my look at the holiday episodes of MLP and the second appearance of the Cutie Mark Crusaders on Trotting. With that out of the way, let's begin.
Episode Title
Hearts and Hooves Day
This is a cute little episode title that shows just like our other two holiday episodes, that they have their own names for these holidays. And it's cute.
The Plot
We open on the Crusaders at the clubhouse making a large card for Miss Cheerilee. We later see them delivering it to their teacher, where they learn that she doesn't have a very special somepony. And this is when Sweetie Belle gets the perfect idea to find the Perfect Stallion.
Later on, after school, the CMC decide to find The Perfect Stallion for their teacher, but they run into a lot that just don't measure up, some are too young, (Hi Button), too splashy (Hi Doctor Hooves) or strangely obsessed with tubs of jelly. Wait.. what?
They finally find the Perfect Stallion in Big Mac. Wait a minute, are we talkin' about Apple Bloom's big brother. Yes, yes we are! They decide that he'll set their teacher's heart aflutter.
The CMC decide that Miss Cheerliee will need to be the one to ask Big Mac since he's rather shy. Ah, that explains the Fluttermac ships. Back to the review at hand, the girls set up a picnic for Mac and Cheerlilee by asking Cheerilee to identify a tree. It's an apple tree and to have Big Mac set up, a gazebo. The girls had it already set it up. The girls go and hide behind a bush to watch the adults chat, albeit awkwardly as the girls hope for them to fall in love and in kiss but that does not happen and we get one of my favorite moments. Sweetie, take it away...
Feeling down, after their failure at setting up their teacher and Mac, they bump into Twilight Sparkle, who was reading about the history of Hearts and Hooves Day. According to her book, the holiday was started because of a prince that made a love potion for a princess to make her fall in love with him. Learning of this, the girls ask to borrow the book and use it to make the potion. And then after potion is made, they set up another picnic for Cheerilee and Mac to drink some punch. And then Love Is In Bloom. Oh, wrong episode!
Mac and Cheerilee become so lovey dovey that it's sickening. Scoots, mind helping me here.
Thanks, back at the clubhouse, the CMC learn that they didn't make a potion but rather a love poison, Apple Bloom imagines mass chaos as she envisions a Ponyville with hungry and uneducated ponies.
Sweetie informs the other two that there is a cure, the puppy love, doe eyed couple just have to avoid eye contact with one another for an hour. Where, Mrs. Cake is disgusted by the love she sees on display. (Okay, who wants an episode showing how the Cakes met?)
With the so sappy love that maple syrup should be on display love, Mrs. Cake says that it won't be long 'til a wedding and that gives the CMC an idea. What would a wedding between Mac and Cheerilee look like. Let's see something new, we are in the fourth season, that's new. Something old, Granny Smith, Something blue, Rainbow Dash could be a bridesmaid, something borrowed, Mac never did return Smartypants.
This gives the girls, an idea to trick the two into getting married as to split them up, so that poison can wear off. Bloom takes her big brother to buy a ring, while Scoots and Belle take Cheerilee to Carrousel Boutique to try on wedding dresses. Alas Cheerilee did not say yes to the dress.
Mac is bound to determined to his lovey dovey buttercup. Um, girls.
Thanks. We see Mac bouncing off to be with the love of his life and look he even found a house. Granted, it already has tenants but hey, maybe they could work out a deal, where Mac and Cheerilee pay rent. After all, Berry Punch can't pay for her wine all by herself. And plus the CMC could play with Berry Pinch, while Cheerilee and Berry Punch chat over a bottle of Moscato.
And plus, they have a great story of how they first met too! Wouldn't that be something to tell the kids. Back to the review at hand, the CMC do everything in their power to block Cherimac from becoming the show's first official ship. But The Power of Love will not prevent Mac and Cheerilee from being together. As Cheerilee shows the same amount of strength as her shmoopy doo, uh girls.
Thanks. As she falls in a ditch that the Crusaders had dug to try and prevent the Cherimac ship from setting sail. And she fells in and the clock rings an hour and we get the best line of the episode from Miss Cheerilee.
"Um, girls, can you explain why it looks like I'm getting married at the bottom of a pit?"
That one line right there makes me love this episode so much. This is a great episode but this episode is icing on the cake. After the girls lament on what they did, they are punished by Miss Cheerilee by having to do all of Mac's chores at Sweet Apple Acres. Where we get a nice callback making the girls think that the poison hadn't worn off. But the adults were just pulling a fast one on the girls.
Characters
Now, I won't be breaking this down any further as I'll be grouping the characters together.
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, & Sweetie Belle voiced by Michelle Creber, Madeline Peters, & Claire Corlett
The CMC were a lot of fun in this episode. That's the best way of describing this episode, it was fun and it while the girls were in the wrong, it was humorous trying to watch them fix their mistake. This probably wasn't the strongest Crusader episode but they did a decent job with them here. And they had some pretty cute expressions. And maybe it's just me but it really seemed like Sweetie Belle took leadership in this episode from the getgo. All I can say is that I had fun watching these three silly fillies trying to fix their mistake.
Big Mac & Miss Cheerilee voiced by Peter New & Nicole Oliver
While I made fun of, the love between the two in the episode, I had fun watching them because it was so over the top and silly. And c'mon, the show was basically making fun of how absurd, this relationship is. They know it's silly and dumb, and that's why, they aren't taking it seriously. They are skewering the idea of forced love in this episode. And it's hilarious.
Music
The Perfect Stallion
This is up there with Babs Seed as my favorite CMC song. It's just really catchy and I just love the various visuals as the girls are having troubles finding the perfect stallion until they settle on Mac. And still what is with that pony covered in jelly? That is a big WTH moment? Seriously, who came up with that? It's just weird. Ah well, still love this song and kinda bummed that it wasn't the show's official soundtrack. (Granted, it took forever for that thing to be released).
My Final Thoughts
The big thing that works in the episode's favor is that it's silly, and it knows it's silly. This episode shows that show isn't afraid to have fun and I'm so happy to see that they decided to go silly route for their Valentine's Day episode. It's just a blast to watch. Join me tomorrow as we head back to the comics for a two part review as I take a look at the story of how Cadance and Shining met and fell in love as I take a look at the My Little Pony arc...
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