Episode Review: "Growing Up Is Hard To Do" - Season 9 Episode 22 · 6:13pm Sep 28th, 2019
“Is it too late to get cutie marks in rapid ageing?”
Seems the Last Crusade wasn’t our final Cutie Mark Crusaders episode, and that’s probably for the best – it has its strengths for sure, but is far too Scootaloo-centric to function as a satisfying sendoff for all three of our favourite little fillies. And that’s not even mentioning that episode’s usual case of Nicole Dubuc tropes – both the lack of nuance and the ignorance of what came before, in that case relegating Rainbow Dash to the sidelines in favour of having Scootaloo’s aunts – characters Dubuc created prior to joining the show – act as the moral support. Even for Dubuc, that’s egotistical. Not an episode-ruining issue, but it definitely takes a massive chunk out of its armour.
Thankfully, the CMC have a do-over at a sendoff episode, and Nicole Dubuc wasn’t let anywhere near it. Instead, this episode’s writer is Ed Valentine, and… wait, what?
My visual sentiments exactly, just on the face of a bobbing white ghost rather then any of these magical pastel cartoon equines.
Never before has a writer returned to the show after so long an absence, being gone ever since “The Fault in Our Cutie Marks”. 3 seasons and 81 episodes ago (more actually, given that episode was pushed from 9th to 19th in its season to have some CMC in the back half – wish that motive of rotation, spacing and pacing had been applied to Season 9 a bit, as having “A Trivial Pursuit” and “The Summer Sun Setback” next to each proves). Call me naïve, but I’m choosing to believe he was called back specifically because this was the CMC’s final episode – his FiM resume consists of almost nothing but CMC episodes, “Three’s A Crowd” excepted (and that was also a co-credit with Meghan McCarthy, it should be said). He penned one of my personal favourites, “Flight to the Finish”, and were it not for the blemish that is “The Cart Before the Ponies”, he would be easily one of the most reliable writers who joined the show after the first three seasons. And that episode is not something I hold against him, as its main problem is conceptually tied to its story, rather then the actual writing. Not a defence of the episode, you understand. But I felt it needed to be said.
Anyway, that’s all a roundabout way of saying, I was at first surprised, then excited to hear he was writing this one, even if, as always, I was nervous to see whether some standard Season 9 issues would settle in. Enough hemming and hawing – how did “Growing Up Is Hard to Do” fare?
Well one thing’s for sure – if you walk into this episode expecting it to be a proper CMC sendoff episode, you might be a little disappointed. While a main thematic focus of the episode is still on the CMC not changing too fast, the episode has ultimately nothing to do with their Cutie Mark arcs throughout the series, only with the fact of them being younger. That can be worked with, but despite its shortcomings, “The Last Crusade” still had more of a tribute to them and their future in its last few minutes then is done here. So let’s not judge this episode as a “final CMC episode”, but just as an episode.
As you can tell from the review header, as well as probably the episode title, the CMC have turned into adults here. The reasoning for this is simple; the CMC got so caught up planning everything they were going to do at the Appleloosa fair that they forgot to ask someone to take them their. Or, more accurately, each assumed one of the other three asked their sister, biological or otherwise, to take them. The following few minutes consist of hearing their sisters’ reasons for being unable to go, whilst being reminded they cannot go on their own, being fillies. At Twilight’s Castle, they hear Fluttershy and Twilight’s reasons, the latter involving investigating a strange flower Star Swirl send her. While the other two search for a book that might have more detail, the CMC soliloquy that they wish they were grown-up right now. Cue the flower growing, magical tendrils encircling the CMC, a flower bud enveloping them… and you have canon variations on “kid characters in cartoons grown up”, immediately invalidating thousands of pieces of fanart the internet over.
Let me pause the story recap here, a third into the episode. To this point, the episode is fine. Nothing to be too terribly put off by, other then some mild cringe in how much characters repeat variations on “it’s only safe for grownups” or “don’t grow up too fast” or “you’ll understand when you’re older” (and boy, does this continue in spades for the rest of the episode). And there’s the atypical “first act takes too long” problem that means the rest of the episode has to cover a lot in its runtime, though oddly, it paces itself quite well in the end. That said, a closer examination reveals that, even in this first third, there’s a pretty severe case of “character-regression-where-we-pretend-the-characters-are-as-they-were-in-Season-2-or-thereabouts” going on here. This is not helped at all by this episode being yet another case of thematically reskinning a past episode; in this case, “The Cutie Pox”, just swapping the desire for a cutie mark with the desire to grow up. In essence, the CMC spend much of the episode showing not a whit of the maturity they shouldered pieces of in the 7 seasons since. Other then the scene in Twilight’s castle being there rather then the library, Rainbow Dash being a Wonderbolt, Troubleshoes’ silent cameo and the flower being gotten from Star Swirl – all tiny things – there’s basically nothing about this episode that would stand out, continuity-wise, were you to slap it into early Season 2. Couple this with usual Season-9-levels of lack of writing nuance, and you have an episode that feels especially forced and on-the-nose in its scripting execution. It’s certainly a big problem for the episode. We’ll get to the other big one in a bit.
On that note, the CMC’s adult designs and voices largely work really well. The former works really well; rather then just slap their manestyles and Cutie Marks on stock “adult pony” models (something which amusingly seems to be the case when Adult Scootaloo has her helmet on, hiding her mane), they have tweaks to their manes. Apple Bloom’s is like Applejack’s but without the bands, Scootaloo’s is more spiky, giving it a punk feel that still fits within the show’s tone, and Sweetie Belle’s is an odd but effective blend between her mane’s curves as filtered through how Rarity’s mane hangs. As for their voices, their VA’s all age their voices up a bit (to basically their natural bordering-on-20 age) and inject a vocal vibe of not quite settling with them yet (which helps to somewhat justify how the difference occurs AFTER the first scene in the castle, rather then right after they transform; perhaps the vocal effect from the wish took a few minutes to kick in). Apple Bloom less obviously so then the others, since while Claire Corlett and Madeline Peters could default to their natural voices more, she still has to put on the country accent. Anyway, If not as big and notable and enjoyable a vocal trick as what Andrea Libman did for Angel in “She Talks to Angel”, the voice change does work. But, yes, the “CMC as adults” angle receives the right treatment in the visual-and-audio department.
Alas, not in the story department, which is the episode’s other big problem. Given the CMC are in “Show Stoppers”-mode of not-getting-the-point this episode, the trivial story the episode goes with after the setup rings even more hollow. There are plenty of nice touches along the way – fun background gags, a neat if odd new creature, and others – but it’s not nearly enough to deter the episode leaving a bland neural impression when it is over. The story of the CMC getting off at the wrong stop, being briefly lost in the swamp, following two teens to the fair, giving them poor advice in their own interest, and having to fix the resulting mess… it’s not inherently bad, but it’s all completely irrelevant to them being grown-up now. Had the trio simply snuck off to Appleloosa instead (their refusal to do so is, oddly enough, the only sign of modern CMC here), the episode could have proceeded near identically, just omitting and rewriting all the various “you’re grown-ups, what do you think?” bit from the two bland teens.
Heck, the episode has not a single “other characters reacting to the CMC’s being different” moment, which is where the interesting angles basically scream for themselves. Because the CMC, Apple Bloom especially, have had many episodes specifically hinging on the fact of the age gap, and the shrinking gap, between them and their sisters and how their relationships ebbs and flows as a result. The episode doing nothing with how any of those relationships would be affected by this… leaves me flummoxed. Even for a show that, in its later seasons, ignores obvious and interesting concepts that are well within its parameters to execute left and right, this sticks out. Even when Twilight and Fluttershy show up to help, they barely react to the sight of what the CMC look like. It’s enough to make one wonder if the writing process went like this:
Haber: Okay Ed, the reason we called you back after three seasons is because we’ve got a killer story for the CMC’s final episode. They really want to be grown up, and get their wish.
Valentine: Okay, Josh, I see the potential here. And, what happens after the setup?
Haber: …that’s all I got. To be honest, I didn’t expect you to respond to the call to write this so quickly.
Valentine: 
I’m joking there, of course, but I’m not when I say the story after the transformation feels tacked on to the concept of the CMC ageing for the episode, like they didn’t know what to do with that setup.
Now, all of that describes an episode that’s really frustrating, which honestly isn’t the case. It’s just there, not lingering in the mind and only sticking out due to being a poor showing for their last outing. As mentioned before, there are good touches – unlike in “Fake It ‘Til You Make It”, where the busy characters are able to drop everything when the problem arises there, it’s perfectly fine here, given Twilight and Fluttershy would naturally note the flower’s missing petal and their business revolved around that. The reasons for characters being busy are fine too, certainly no more contrived then the ones they gave in Baby Cakes (alas, there is no equivalent to Rarity’s hilarious refusal to babysit there). And the song is a catchy, fun one, with unexpected visual gags resulting from child and adult CMC being onscreen simultaneously, undermined only in that the message behind the song is way out-of-character for them here (basically like how Rarity flipped attitudes for “It’s Gonna Work” in “Spice Up Your Life”). Even the odd omission of Pinkie being considered as a chaperone is avoided by them being transformed by the flower right after Twilight’s busy, when they’re suitably upset at being unable to go enough that’s it’s believable they hadn’t yet thought of Pinkie.
It’s weird an episode that’s very bland and unmemorable produced a review this long, but having a lot to say isn’t directly related to the episode sticking out. Though this is a weird, off episode, just in a way that leaves the mind quickly rather then sticking there. Yet another mixed Season 9 affair, and one that, though it could have been much better, should still count itself lucky to be easily forgotten rather then remembered for all the wrong reasons like many others. Just a pity Ed Valentine returned for an episode as ultimately flavourless as this.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- While the CMC's adult designs worked, the animation in the episode was quite off. Even past the usual meme faces, which were very abundant (you can even spy them on Scootaloo in a far shot when she's explaining their situation to Rainbow Dash) there was enough stiff movements and disorientating camera angles (and not just the group huddle angles either) to stick out, I'm sure, even to those less observant to the actual animation then myself. I could delve into this more technically, but suffice to say the increasing drop of actual character animation in the show's last stretch doesn't speak well to the stench of many at DHX caring less about the show given the contract wasn't getting renewed no matter the quality of their output.
- The way the CMC are written here is especially odd given every other pre-established character is fine – Twilight feels like her S4/5 self, and Fluttershy gets a good showing. The two blank slate teens less so.
- “Are you sure you aren’t Twilight’s sister?” I smell a fanfiction prompt in there somewhere. I once read a good fanfic where Scootaloo was Twilight’s sister, so I’m sure one where Sweetie Belle is Twilight’s sister has been written, even if it means some explanation given she has actual parents that have been around.
- I loved having the crazy guard pony from “Sound of Silence” back.
- It’s a bit random, but the Dorothy pony getting swept up by the tornado got a chuckle out of me.
- The CMC explaining the situation to Twilight and Fluttershy is especially odd – rather then go for the obvious “cut across them saying they know, thus saving the audience being repeated known information”, they have they say it all before the two react proper. It’s just… I don’t even know.
Speaking of that episode, who here saw a quick cameo of Valley Glamour in the Stadium scene? X3
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I did not, but I see it now (talk about minor one-time ponies being re-used, eh?). I'd also missed a nonsensical cameo by Mrs. Cake talking to an old pony running some stand mere shots after that, though that's a little easier to spot, being a more distinctive character and being a medium shot rather then a wide one.
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For me she's my favorite from her debut episode in Season 8, know what I mean? :3