The Cutie Map
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"The Cutie Map" is the collective name for the first and second episodes of the fifth season of the Canadian–American animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic as well as the ninety-second and ninety-third episodes of the series overall. The two episodes focus on the group of Twilight Sparkle and her friends as they visit a village controlled by Starlight Glimmer, a unicorn who strives to achieve equality amongst all ponies by removing their "cutie marks" and individual talents. Both episodes were written by Scott Sonneborn and M.A. Larson from a story by Meghan McCarthy. It is directed by Jayson Thiessen and Jim Miller with Stephen Davis, Kirsten Newlands, and Sarah Wall as executive producers alongside Devon Cody as producer. It was first broadcast on Discovery Family on April 4, 2015, with both parts airing as an hour-long event.
Plot
Part one
At Twilight Sparkle's new castle, she and her friends sit on their respective thrones to unwittingly activate a holographic map of Equestria, with floating images of their cutie marks pointing to a remote location on it. Deciding to investigate, the six friends follow the map to find a utopian village of ponies who share the same cutie mark, a black equals sign. The six become wary of the villagers' exaggerated smiles and overly welcoming nature, except for Fluttershy, who is charmed by their courtesy. The six meet the village's leader, Starlight Glimmer, who explains that all the villagers have given up their cutie marks under her philosophy that differing talents and opinions cause strife between friends. Starlight encourages the six to remain and experience the village life, expecting to convert Twilight, a princess, for the rest of Equestria to follow her example.
The six friends later argue over their purpose for coming to the village, which attracts the attention of Sugar Belle, a baker who regrets giving up her baking talent. Sugar Belle is perplexed when the six are able to set their argument aside, and asks to see them in private. The six meet with her alongside two other villagers, Party Favor and Night Glider, who all express eager curiosity over the six's cutie marks and friendship. Desiring to have their original marks again, the villagers inform the six of a cavern vault where their marks are stored alongside a mystical staff called the Staff of Sameness that, according to Starlight, grants her the ability to remove a pony's mark. Starlight leads the six to the vault, where the six become surrounded by the other villagers as Starlight forcibly wanting to have sex with the mane 6.So she tells everyone to get into hiding and she takes each one alone with her to the same room with blindfolds on them and ties them down and has sex with them.
Part two
Without their cutie marks, the six are trapped in a village prison chamber to be resocialized. Realizing they can escape by convincing Starlight they have conformed to her ways, the group sends Fluttershy, who has been the most open-minded to the villagers' lifestyle, to act the part. Fluttershy is successfully welcomed into the community, while Starlight punishes Party Favor to be imprisoned with the other five after he confesses to helping them alone, protecting Sugar Belle and Night Glider. Fluttershy later spies on Starlight to find she has sent her subordinate Double Diamond to collect the six friends' cutie marks, with larger plans for Twilight's mark. She then sees Starlight accidentally getting herself wet, washing off her own equal mark to reveal her real, unremoved mark.
When Starlight releases the five friends and Party Favor the next day, Fluttershy exposes her real mark to the villagers. Starlight confesses that she has removed the ponies' marks through her own magical skill, and that the Staff of Sameness is worthless. The villagers revolt and reclaim their original cutie marks from the vault, while Starlight flees into the nearby mountains with the six friends' marks. With the six hindered by their equalized abilities, Double Diamond, Party Favor, Sugar Belle, and Night Glider pursue Starlight and are able to recover the six marks using their own unique abilities. Starlight vanishes into the mountain caves while the villagers thank the six friends for helping them regain their individuality. The six later sense the map calling them through their vibrating cutie marks, determining that they have completed their work to bring friendship to the village.
Production and promotion
An animatic for this episode was first shown at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 25, 2014, and was later released as part of the "2014 San Diego Comic-Con My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Panel" bonus feature on the Season Four Disc 4 DVD.[1] The map was designed by Rebecca Dart.[2]
Directors Jayson Thiessen and Jim Miller along with art director Rebecca Dart and prop designer Charmaine Verhagen came up with the design for the Staff of Sameness;[3] Miller stated that it wasn't inspired by the Staff of Longinus from the 1995 anime television series "Neon Genesis Evangelion".[4]
Some scenes from this episode were teased in Rainbow Dash's and Rarity's season 5 recap videos.[5][6] On March 14, 2015, Discovery Family's "Pony Day" was announced; it included a six back-to-back season 4 episode marathon leading up to the two-part season five premiere, followed by the premiere of the 1986 film My Little Pony: The Movie.[7] Under the approval of Discovery Family and Hasbro, BABSCon showed the entire two-part season five premiere commercial-free on the same day as it premiered on the East coast of the United States on April 4, 2015.[8]
Broadcast and reception
Both parts of "The Cutie Map" aired back-to-back on Discovery Family as an hour long event on April 4, 2015. Part 1 of the premiere was viewed by 509,000 viewers and Part 2 was viewed by 574,000 viewers.[9] According to the Nielsen household ratings, both parts were watched by approximately 0.3 percent of American households.
Daniel Alvarez on Unleash the Fanboy gave the premiere a 9 out of 10, praising the general writing of the episodes, the moral, and Princess Twilight. He also considered Starlight Glimmer a "great antagonist".[10] Brandon Morse of The Federalist stated that the episode was a counter argument to the equality movement.[11]
Home media release
Under the title "Cutie Markless", the two-part season five premiere will be part of the "Cutie Mark Quests" DVD which is set for a June 30, 2015, release alongside "The Show Stoppers" (season 1, episode 18) and the two-part season two premiere episode "The Return of Harmony" (season 2, episode 1 and 2).[12]
References
- ^ "My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: Season Four". Amazon.com. 2014-09-04. Retrieved 2014-09-04.
- ^ Jim Miller (2015-04-04). "[Designer for the Cutie Map confirmation]". Twitter. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
{{cite web}}: templatestyles stripmarker in|title=at position 1 (help) - ^ Jim Miller (2015-04-04), "[Designers for the Staff of Sameness confirmation]", Twitter, retrieved 2015-04-04
{{citation}}: templatestyles stripmarker in|title=at position 1 (help) - ^ Jim Miller (2015-04-04). "@FJRA_Frist @goldenrusset @R_Dart @charmainevee No". Twitter. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
- ^ My Little Pony Season 5 Teaser (Spring 2015) - Rainbow Dash Recap. YouTube. 2014-12-15. Retrieved 2014-12-15.
- ^ My Little Pony Season 5 Teaser (Spring 2015) - Rarity Recap. YouTube. 2014-12-22. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
- ^ My Little Pony - Pony Day Promo. YouTube. 2015-03-14. Retrieved 2015-03-14.
- ^ Sethisto (2015-03-16). "Discovery Family and Hasbro Approve Commercial Free Season Five Premiere At BABSCon!". Equestria Daily. Retrieved 2015-03-16.
- ^ Pucci, Douglas (2015-04-08). "Saturday Final Nationals: 22.6 Million Viewers for Wisconsin-Kentucky on TBS, TNT and truTV". TV Media Insights. Cross MediaWorks. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Alvarez, Daniel (2015-04-05). "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic "The Cutie Map" Review". Unleash the Fanboy. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
- ^ Morse, Brandon (2015-04-08). "My Little Pony To Children: Marxism Is Not Magic". The Federalist. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
- ^ "My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: Cutie Mark Quests". Shout! Factory. 2015-03-02. Retrieved 2015-03-02.
