The Cutie Map
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"The Cutie Map", also known as "Cutie Markless", is the collective name for the first and second episodes of the fifth season of the
animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...
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 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. Both episodes were written by Scott Sonneborn and M.A. Larson from a story by Meghan McCarthy with Jayson Thiessen and Jim Miller as director and co-director, respectively. First broadcast on
Discovery Family Discovery Family (known on-air as Discovery Family Channel and abbreviated as DFC) is an American Specialty channel, cable television channel co-owned by The Cartoon Network, Inc. and Hasbro Entertainment, which are divisions of Warner Bros. Di ...
on April 4, 2015, with both parts airing as an hour-long event, the premiere was a ratings success, becoming the series's highest-rated premiere in many demographics. The episodes received positive reviews from critics, who praised them for their messages and moral; in addition, both episodes were jointly nominated for the
Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...
for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form).


Plot


Part 1

At Twilight Sparkle's new castle, she and her friends sit on their respective thrones and 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
utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...
n village of ponies who share the same cutie mark, a black
equals sign The equals sign (British English) or equal sign (American English), also known as the equality sign, is the mathematical symbol , which is used to indicate equality. In an equation it is placed between two expressions that have the same valu ...
. 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 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 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 removes their cutie marks with the staff.


Part 2

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 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 Double Diamond to collect the six friends' cutie marks, with larger plans for Twilight's mark. She then sees Starlight accidentally splashing water over herself, 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 splashes water on Starlight to reveal her real mark to the villagers. Starlight confesses that she removed the ponies' marks with her own magic, and that the Staff of Sameness is just a piece of wood she found in the desert. The villagers revolt and reclaim their original cutie marks from the vault, while Starlight flees into the 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 cutie marks, determining that they have completed their work to bring friendship to the village.


Themes

The main theme of the episodes are that mediocrity is harmful; Alana Joli Abbott of
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considered "The Cutie Map" "a critique of
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, or at least a government like the one in eorgeOrwell's ''
Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' (originally ''Animal Farm: A Fairy Story'') is a satirical allegorical novella, in the form of a beast fable, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic far ...
''", where the leader is the only one content with the mediocrity. She deemed the message political. Additionally, Abbott stated the show and episodes solve many of the problems in the
science fiction fandom Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...
and highlighted faith, inclusion, celebrating differences, and the effect one could have as prominent themes.


Production and promotion

Meghan McCarthy and M.A. Larson created the concept of Starlight Glimmer, and Kora Kosicka designed her final look. Jim Miller, co-director of the episode, considered Starlight to be a "proto-Twilight character" and, thus, her colors were similar to Twilight's. The Cutie Map was designed by art director Rebecca Dart. Directors Jayson Thiessen and Jim Miller along with Dart and prop designer Charmaine Verhagen came up with the design for the Staff of Sameness; Miller denied that it was inspired by the Spear of Longinus from the anime ''
Neon Genesis Evangelion , also known as ''Evangelion'' or ''Eva'', is a Japanese mecha anime television series produced by Gainax and Tatsunoko Production, and directed by Hideaki Anno. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo and its affiliates from October 1995 to March 1 ...
''. The only song featured in the episodes is "In Our Town". Sung by
Kelly Sheridan Kelly Sheridan (born May 19, 1977) is a Canadian voice actress best known for being the voice for Barbie in the ''Barbie'' film series from 2001 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2015. She had also voiced in numerous animations and English-language dubs ...
in the first part, the series songwriter, Daniel Ingram, was inspired by World War II propaganda music, which he studied, and struggled to find its balance between motivation and "creepy as heck". The orchestration of the song was done by Caleb Chan. In February 2015, a trailer for the season premiere was released by
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TV Videos and was released on the next day by
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. Hasbro later released a new teaser trailer on February 14. At the 2015 BABSCon, the entire two-part season five premiere was shown without commercials.


Broadcast and reception


Ratings

Both parts of "The Cutie Map" aired back-to-back on Discovery Family as an hour-long event on April 4, 2015. The first part was viewed by 509,000 people and second part was viewed by 574,000 people. According to the Nielsen household ratings, both parts were watched by approximately 0.3 percent of American households. The episodes became the series' top-rated premiere among kids aged 2–11, kids aged 6–11, and girls aged 6–11. During their timeslot, Discovery Family became the second most viewed network in both broadcast and cable among girls aged 6–11.


Critical reception

Daniel Alvarez on ''Unleash the Fanboy'' gave the premiere a nine out of ten, praising the general writing of the episodes, the moral, and Princess Twilight. He also considered Starlight Glimmer a "great antagonist" but criticized Pinkie Pie for not "bring nganything to the table aside from noticing a fake smile". Abbott complimented the messages of individuality, lifting oneself up, and the effect one could have.


Hugo Award nomination

In 2016, the episodes were jointly nominated for the
Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...
for " Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)"; Den of Geek noted that some critics suspect that this was the result of the Rabid Puppies ballot-manipulation campaign, but emphasized that it was a worthy nomination despite speculation that the Puppies' intent had been a "joke entr designed to embarrass".


Home media

Under the title "Cutie Markless", the two-part season five premiere was part of the "Cutie Mark Quests" DVD which was released on June 30, 2015. It was also released as part of the complete Season 5 DVD set.


Notes


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cutie Map, The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episodes 2015 American television episodes 2015 Canadian television episodes