Yeah, yeah, I know I promised all of you a review of Where The Dead Go To Die. It's coming, so bear with me on that one. It's not something you can rush into. Besides, the long-awaited Season 5 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is here, and I wanted to take a break from bad film to show my first thoughts about the new season from viewing the first episode, "Cutie Map".
Of course, like all other season openers, this is a two-parter. It takes place after the events of Twilight's Kingdom (Awesome season finale is awesome), where the Mane 6 are settling in to life in the new Castle of Friendship. They discover that sitting in their thrones projects a map of the entire world of Equestria, and that it detects friendship problems around the world that the ponies must solve. This map leads them to a strange town with no name (it's always just described as 'The Town' or 'Our Town') where every pony seems to have the exact same cutie mark: an equals sign.
The group meets up with the town's leader, who explains that every pony in the town has given up their special talent and become truly equal, including her, under the belief that having a special talent makes you conceded and leads to heartbreak. The leader has a magical item, the Staff of Sameness, that has the power to remove a pony's cutie mark and special talent, rendering them equal to all others affected by the staff. Everyone except Fluttershy suspects foul play due to the residents of the town's unnatural smiles and attitudes. It's quite clear that something is wrong with this town- but what?
I think it's safe to say that this is clearly a cult situation- and to be honest, MLP manages to approach the subject with a lighter hand than most. The group does function primarily like a cult- you have the respected leader, the unified belief and followers- they even throw in a bit of typical cult brainwashing methods. It's a pretty heavy topic to approach, especially for a kid's cartoon. But somehow these episodes do manage to get the point across that things like this are bad.
Of course, the humor in the episode is spot on- the characters retain their personalities, the jokes hit the mark, and the plot moves well and straightforward despite the humor. The song is alright- I wouldn't compare it to something like Under Our Spell, but as a quick rhythmic beat, it works.
Overall, I think this is a good start to a season- high hopes.
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