Episode Review: The Mane Attraction · 6:11pm Dec 9th, 2015
It's a spoiler spectacle! Get your spoiler spectacles, fresh from the oven! Oy, and I don't care I'm mixing two Applejack episodes. Ba-da-bing, that's right: it's Applejack!
She's not the spectacle, though, though as Amy Keating Rogers's final outing with DHX before joining Disney's staff, you can certainly expect something big.
In this episode, everypony's helping to organize a charity concert event. Everypony from Amethyst Star to Pinkie Pie to Applejack is involved somehow, setting the stage for Equestria's top pop star -- and it's not Sapphire Shores this time? I guess fame is fleeting even in Equestria. The Pony of Pop has been dethroned by none other than Countess Coloratura (wonderfully voiced by Lena Hall). Pinkie says it was difficult to meet all of Coloratura's demands and get her booked, but Applejack remembers a much more down-to-earth Earth Pony, who sang wonderfully in accompaniment to AJ's guitar (which she somehow played with hooves) back in filly scouts. AJ decides to speak with Coloratura to find out what's what.
The more AJ watches Coloratura with her young fans, and the more she hears from her about how important charity work is to her, the more AJ is convinced that the Rara she knew is still very much there, and it's easy to see which mannerisms and choices were artificially created through the interference of Svengallop, Coloratura's pushy manager. The two old friends get into a disagreement over Svengallop's self-entitled demands (which AJ could have avoided, so she's again holding the Idiot Ball, although not for as long as in 'Hearthbreakers,)' but then AJ hatches a plan to discover Svengallop's true ambition. After exposing his selfishness, the mares have to manage without him, and Coloratura starts panicking.
Which is when, with a little support, she decides to sing naturally, as Rara, instead of using spectacle and auto-tune as Countess Coloratura. The result is much more genuine, and genuinely appreciated, as well as being heartwarming.
It was fun seeing Coloratura as she interacted with the fillies, and especially when her natural inclination was to interact with AJ as old friends, without that 'hoofsies' crap. That spoke volumes about her personality even before she found out that Svengallop was making demands for himself.
Some celebrities allow themselves to get swept up in their own hype, and their egos become too big for their own good. That's when they begin to see themselves as above others or indestructible, which is how you get so many celebrities caught in scandals. It takes a true friend to tell you when you've goofed and to bring you back down to earth.
On the other end of the spectrum are those fans who hold celebrities so high up on pedestals that they think the celebs can do no wrong. Then the celebrity suffers a fall, and the fan has to struggle to reconcile the on-screen personality with an addict, deviant, or criminal. It's not an easy thing to see, or go through.
It is far healthier for both celebrities and fans to see celebrities as human, and humans err. All the time. It's part of our nature. And the more natural way was definitely the more enjoyable one to watch and listen to when it came to Miss Hall's performance as Rara. She would not have discovered it without her old friend, Applejack, who would not have asked for help exposing Svengallop at the start of this series. AJ has come a long way, but she still has problems with falsehoods. And she's still at her best when she's there to support and guide her friends and family, even when she herself first makes mistakes, before going about fixing them.
On another note, this is perhaps the first time we have gotten even a visual hint that Diamond Tiara has stuck with her reformation. She's there smiling with the rest of the fillies.
I give this episode a 9/10.
