Episode Review: Call of the Cutie

It's time to meet the show's secondary set of protagonists, refugees from a failed spinoff who will instead become important in their own right. So let's see how the Cutie Mark Crusaders first met as we look back on "Call of the Cutie."

TECHNICAL SPECS:

Season: 1

Episode: 12

Written By: Meghan McCarthy

First Aired: January 7, 2011

SUMMARY:

It’s another fine morning at Ponyville Elementary, and the town’s teacher, Miss Cheerilee, has planned today’s lesson around Cutie Marks. A peculiar part of pony physiology is that whenever they realize what their special talent and true passion is in life, a mark representing this passion appears on their flank. All ponies eventually get a mark, but some get it later than others. Unfortunately, there are only two ponies in the class who don’t have their marks yet: Apple Bloom and her friend, Twist. This earns them the nickname “blank flanks” by the class bullies, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon; the two even invite them to the former’s cuteceañera for further humiliation.

Apple Bloom fumes about this to Applejack, but all the big sister can do is give her the empty consolation that being the last in the class to get a mark runs in the family. This causes Apple Bloom to reason that her talent has to do with apples, so she assists AJ at the market. Unfortunately, her selling tactics cause property damage, terrify a visiting Time Lord, and finally cause them to lose all of their produce to appease Bon-Bon. Apple Bloom is unceremoniously fired, but AJ still tells her to go to the party with Twist, since neither will have their Cutie Mark. Only one problem: last night, Twist got hers.

AB next turns to Rainbow Dash, who was the first in her class to get a Cutie Mark. Dash’s advice is to try as many things as possible as quickly as possible, so she leads Apple Bloom through a series of athletic challenges, all of which end in failure. AB is ready to give up again when Pinkie stops by and invites her to help make cupcakes. Unfortunately, said cupcakes end up in disaster, and Apple Bloom still doesn’t have her mark. Even Twilight’s magic can’t force one on.

Despondent, Apple Bloom decides to leave Sugar Cube Corner and go home…only to wander into the middle of the party by mistake. She almost manages to escape by hiding under a table, but crashes into Applejack right at the door. Her older sister loudly proclaims how lucky she is to have no Cutie Mark, drawing the attention of Tiara and Spoon. AB dries to deflect the issue by using a tablecloth to cover her hind legs, but on the way out she trips and the cloth comes off. The two start making fun of her again…

When she’s saved by two other blank flanked fillies. The two newcomers, Unicorn Sweetie Belle and Pegasus Scootaloo, say how proud they are to have no Cutie Mark, since it means they can still explore things with fresh eyes and learn what they want to do. The other foals and adults all agree, despite Diamond Tiara’s objections. The three fillies later decide to form their own secret society, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and band together to discover their Cutie Marks. Meanwhile, Twilight narrates her lesson for the week: sometimes the thing that you think will alienate you is what will help you find your best friends.

REVIEW:

“Call of the Cutie” is an important episode in the show’s history for several reasons. It sets up the purpose of Cutie Marks, thus adapting the franchise’s traditional identification marks into something that compliments the new setting. In addition, it’s the first episode to focus almost entirely on a secondary character, with the Mane 6 serving only to keep hammering the point in over and over again. (Of course, as we’ll all see, “getting the point” isn’t one of Apple Bloom’s strong points when it comes to Cutie Marks.) And most importantly, it introduces Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, both of whom had a tiny cameo back in the pilot, and sets up the Cutie Mark Crusaders. (Originally, Faust had wanted the three to have their own series aimed at preschoolers, sort of like how Transformers currently has “Prime” and “Rescue Bots,” but that was shot down.)

The first scene pretty much establishes everything we need to know about Cutie Marks; and if you miss it here, you’ll hear the same things over and over and over again throughout. Basically, Cutie Marks are a physical representation of a pony’s talents, passions and/or goals in life, which manifest once a pony realizes what makes them special and different from others. Furthermore, they don’t have to be completely literal; Cheerilee’s marks, for example, are three smiling flowers, which represent how she wishes to make her students bloom. All in all, the concept is a fairly interesting one, but the initial episode kind of falls into the same trap a lot of fanfics do. (But that’s for later.) There’s also the idea that Cutie Marks represent puberty, with Apple Bloom’s plight this episode dealing with her being a late bloomer. While I agree with that on a metaphorical level, it’s not something that should be taken literally. It’s more of a personal maturation than anything else; after all, I highly doubt not getting your mark is going to prevent you from going through actual pony adolescence.

The rest of the schoolyard scenes are just okay. I do like Cheerilee’s embarrassing photo (such a shame that a land like Equestria had to suffer through the eighties as well) and the class’s general reaction to the topic of Cutie Marks. We also meet Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, who only exist to provide stock bullies for Apple Bloom to overcome. As for the idea of a cuteceañera…yeah, it’s a bad pun and nothing else. And then there’s Twist. While she pretty much never appears again outside of background cameos, she has somehow become one of the most hated characters on the show. Maybe it’s the lisp.

Applejack’s scene is mostly there to reinforce the lecture, but brings up two interesting points. First, Applejack says that she was the last in her class to get a Cutie Mark, as was Granny Smith. (No mention of their parents, strangely.) But in “The Cutie Mark Chronicles,” we learn that Applejack was younger than Apple Bloom when she got her mark. So yeah, that…doesn’t help AB much. The second point is that Apple Bloom immediately assumes that, since she’s a member of the Apple Family and the rest of her kin have apples, she must also be destined for an apple-related Cutie Mark. Granted, there is considerable evidence for this, but still…

The market scene sets up exactly how every single Crusade will go: the kids will fail to understand what they’re supposed to do and just start causing chaos and madness. Apple Bloom misses the point of apples (to serve as a food source) and instead tries to sell them as being able to serve as paint and tennis balls. We also meet Dr. Whooves (who had previously only had a cameo in “Winter Wrap-Up”), who Apple Bloom harasses until he buys some apples just to get away. And of course, she takes this as a victory, which will no doubt lead to a mark. When one doesn’t show up, she decides to be even more forceful in her tactics, yelling at ponies for daring to get too close and trying to force apples into Bon-Bon’s bags. (By the way, her voice here is probably the worst one she’s had all series.) Unfortunately, all this is a prelude to the horrors that await us in future CMC episodes, especially when Apple Bloom costs them their entire inventory, thus dooming her family to poverty and starvation.

Naturally, this leads to Applejack firing her little sister, which is perfectly understandable considering the chaos she’s caused. But still, she at least leaves her with the suggestion to go to the party with Twist, since that way she’ll at least have a friend. Unfortunately, that would make for too simple a solution, so even Twist has to get her mark in making candies. Again, however, this reinforces the point that obtaining a Cutie Mark has more to it than just doing something and being good at it; you have to realize that it’s what makes you special before the butt tattoo appears. And of course, this ends with Tiara and Spoon showing up again to continue being bland, one-note antagonists.

Rainbow Dash’s contribution to the episode is to further push Apple Bloom away from what she needs to do, and it’s her who plants the idea to just do random things as often as possible to get her mark. The montage itself is hilarious, although Apple Bloom sucking at Kung-Fu and then liking it in “Show Stoppers” is a bit of a plot hole. Otherwise, it’s just an escalating series of funny gags, ending with yet another Tiara and Spoon scene to further drive Apple Bloom into despair.

Next up is Pinkie, who lures her into her kitchen with the promise of cupcakes before asking her to help make some. I’m sure there’s a joke here somewhere, but my last shreds of human decency are preventing me from making it. In any case, we have the last Pinkie Pie Song we’ll get for a good while, and it’s just okay. The real payoff, however, is when Apple Bloom succeeds only in creating burnt monstrosities and mistakes some flour on her flank for a Cutie Mark.

And finally, we have Twilight, whose purpose is to show that not even magic can make a Cutie Mark appear. The marks she tries to make appear all seem to tie into what Apple Bloom’s done so far in the episode, as if she’s just sifting through everything that’s happened recently for one that sticks. Of course, this leads to even greater despair, which then segues into one of my favorite off-camera jokes in the series. Mind you, Apple Bloom being in the middle of the cuteceañera for about fifteen seconds without knowing it herself or being seen is a bit of a logical stretch, but it’s still a funny enough scene. Oh, and Pinkie’s serving the burnt cupcakes. Lovely.

Apple Bloom trying to sneak out is a pretty good bit, supplying us with two more background ponies, Pokey Pierce and Berry Punch, both of whom do their one thing that will forever brand them in the fandom. Unfortunately, I can’t say I’m a fan of what happens when Applejack enters. For whatever reason, she loses about twenty IQ points, loudly announces the thing Apple Bloom’s trying to hide, and then things that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are her friends. Yes, this is an old trope, but it’s not one I like, and I had hoped that this series would be smart enough to avoid making every adult utterly clueless.

Other than that, Apple Bloom trying to bluff her way out actually gives Diamond Tiara a bit more character. It’s not enough that she’s a bully, but she has to be the center of everypony’s attention. And when Apple Bloom’s “Cutie Mark” is apparently so cool that it’ll show her up at her own party, she very quickly backs off rather than take the chance that AB’s lying or hyping it up too much. Of course, the bluff breaks down a moment later, complete with a justified record scratch for once…

And then we meet Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Neither one really has any defining characteristics at this point, though, since they’re shoved into the episode so late that they don’t have a chance to develop quite yet. The only important thing is that they also don’t have their marks, and unlike Apple Bloom, they don’t think that’s the end of the world. Twilight also takes the time to tell how special it is that they haven’t been pigeonholed into a set role in life, and that they can still have fun discovering who they really are. And while that’s a nice sentiment, the way the show presents it makes it sound like once you get a Cutie Mark, whatever it says is all you will ever do for the rest of your life. Just speaking from a personal standpoint, that’ a terrifying idea, and thankfully the show will pull away from it in later episodes.

The last scene shows the aftermath of this union. The three fillies decide to join forces to find their Cutie Marks, thus forming the Cutie Mark Crusaders. (And lo, a great cry was heard from across the land as bronies wallowed in tears at their misfortune.) Diamond Tiara was shown up anyway, and has responded by withdrawing from her own party completely, despite Silver Spoon’s attempts to cheer her back up. (At the very least, Spoon is a good friend, even if she is a bully.) And Twilight delivers the lesson, which is admittedly a good one. And our last show is Princess Celestia staring at her own Cutie Mark.

…I so want to see an episode about how she got hers. That would be epic.

CONCLUSION:

“Call of the Cutie” explores the concept of Cutie Marks, creates a secondary cast of characters for us to follow, and has some really good moments, but otherwise it suffers from the same issue that all the Season One CMC episodes do: the whole plot is just the main character not getting the point. As an introduction to the concept and the two new fillies, it’s all right, but it won’t be for several more episodes until they become fully fleshed-out characters. Still, it’s a nice enough little episode if you can get past Apple Bloom’s stubbornness, Diamond Tiara’s generic villainy, and Twist’s mere existence.