My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (TV Series) The Cutie Mark Mix-Up (2022) User Reviews

Lots of pointless running around

[nebbiezebbie · 4/10 · 28 September 2022]

The premise of swapping cutie marks and personalities is interesting, but the execution is awful. The entire plot is predictable from start to finish, and the villain basically does nothing the whole episode.

Sunny and Hitch are the focus, and that really puts things down as they're the least interesting characters of the bunch. They simply can't emote more than simple frustration and worry, and drive the whole plot down, leaving animals running around more interesting.

Unless you for some reason really love the idea of cutie mark swaps, this is nothing more than a much worsely-executed version of some FiM episodes.

Problems Add Up

[ansongc · 4/10 · 29 September 2022]

Luna and Celestia swapping Cutie Marks lead to one of G4's better episodes, but they recycled the premise (which isn't always a bad thing) and did it several times worse (which is). Combine this with poor episode pacing that means we never get much rest or build up, and very unoriginal "humor", and it makes for a swing-and-miss of an episode.

This show needs to focus more on its Mane cast, less on the townsponies, because it's hard to get actual characterization from the latter, and we're still getting to know the former. If they need to use non-main characters for a plot, they should do what G4 generally did and invent or use individual characters who could be interesting in their own right. The only character who really got to shine here was Zipp, despite the episode not being about her, who showed true intelligence and planning, combined with concern for her friends. I didn't like how Sunny was forced to act adversariel to Zipp to make the plot work, but it is cool she's making progress towards her greater goals by making the garden.

Speaking of character goals and progress, Opalescence is a lame villain, and it shows here. She lacks charm, a compelling motivation, powers or origin, menace or intelligence. Misty doesn't fare much better as the "abused sidekick" cliche, but there's potential to tell a real story about abuse here.

Animation remains great.