The Cutie Mark Crusaders enter a talent contest, but their refusal to play their individual talents leads to a hilarious disaster.The Cutie Mark Crusaders enter a talent contest, but their refusal to play their individual talents leads to a hilarious disaster.The Cutie Mark Crusaders enter a talent contest, but their refusal to play their individual talents leads to a hilarious disaster.
- Twilight Sparkle
- (voice)
- Applejack
- (voice)
- Rarity
- (voice)
- …
- Spike
- (voice)
- Cheerilee
- (voice)
- Apple Bloom
- (voice)
- …
- Scootaloo
- (voice)
- Sweetie Belle
- (voice)
- (as Claire Corlett)
- Snails
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- Snips
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- Directors
- Writers
- Lauren Faust
- Cindy Morrow
- Bonnie Zacherle(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDerpy Hooves, the fan-favorite pegasus with crazy eyes, can be briefly seen twice as Scootaloo drives through Ponyville: at 02:06 and 02:10.
- GoofsAt the end of the talent show, the little ponies are lined up on stage. Twist (white pony, red mane, glasses) is missing her cutie mark, which she got earlier in the season in the same episode that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were formed.
- Quotes
Scootaloo: I'm just no good at lyrics. Coming up with words is, like, really hard.
Sweetie Belle: Oh, they can't be *that* bad...
[reads what Scootaloo's written]
Sweetie Belle: "With our cutie marks, we'll rock Equestria. We use our stomachs to... digest-ia"? Um... Well... these are good but... How about after "We fight the fight... There is nothing that we fear/We'll have to figure out what we'll do next/Till our cutie marks are here"?
Scootaloo: Wow! That's so awesome! Did you just come up with that now?
Sweetie Belle: Yeah... kind of.
Scootaloo: Thanks, I'm totally using that.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Pound Puppies: Olaf in Love (2012)
- SoundtracksCutie Mark Crusaders Theme Song
Lyrics by Cindy Morrow
Music by Daniel Ingram
Performed by Madeleine Peters and Michelle Creber
Season 1 had brilliant episodes, especially as far as the previous episodes go "Sonic Rainboom", but some disappointed. "The Show Stoppers" is one of the disappointments, and even, as far as the previous episodes go, like it less than "Boast Busters" (boasting some of the worst and most inconsistent characterisation), "Feeling Pinkie Keen" (despite that episode's senseless message being worse) and "Stare Master" (somewhat bland and didn't like the treatment of Twilight).
"The Show Stoppers" is not an unwatchable episode, or at least not to me, despite being one of Season 1's lower rated episodes. It is though disappointing by 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' standards, and a let down compared to "Dragonshy", "Winter Wrap Up", "Suited for Success", "Fall Weather Friends" and especially "Sonic Rainboom".
Despite the disappointment, there are good things. The animation is vibrantly coloured and it's not hard to see that much care went into putting detail and finesse to the backgrounds and drawing. The music avoids repetition, isn't too loud and the placement isn't random. Not everybody will like the theme song, have never had any problem with it myself. The Cutie Mark Crusadors theme is very catchy.
Love the different Cutie Mark Crusaders' talents, they are amusing, inventive and are plausible. Scootaloo's especially. The voice acting is very good as always, particularly Michelle Creber (though hers is a singing role).
However, there is too much focus on the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It is admirable that the episode tried to make them more interesting, but those for the Mane 6 are far more compelling and individual and some of the episode got rather too sugary sweet as a result. Somehow it didn't feel right having an episode focus too dominantly on characters that were not interesting enough yet. While the talents themselves were fun, didn't find myself as impressed with their consequences and how they went wrong which didn't come over as very funny and could be at times mean-spirited.
Writing has been much better in a vast majority of episodes before and since, there is a lack of maturity and wit here and the character interaction doesn't shine anywhere near as much as it does with the Mane 6. Which has much more range, chemistry and complexity thus feeling more real. The story could have done much more with its concept because it did feel pretty bland and predictable here. An example of how to make a pretty imaginative concept and execute it rather ordinarily. Was mixed on the message too, it is a good one but felt under-explored and the ambiguous ending may frustrate.
Overall, not unwatchable but should have been much more. 5/10
- TheLittleSongbird
- Aug 16, 2019
Details
- Runtime23 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1080i (HDTV)
- 480i (SDTV)