My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 516 - Made In Manehattan

Rating:

Without a strong character like Maud Pie, Noelle Benvenuti’s Made In Manehattan achieves very little.  Coco Pommel returns, while Applejack and Rarity must somehow improve New Yorkers’ attitudes.  Their task involves a community theater revival which will reignite Manehattan’s neighborhood spirit, but the play is so dull that no one could possibly find it captivating.  And that goes for the rest of the episode also, which doesn’t offer any character development, story, or reason for existence as nothing remotely compelling happens.  Benvenuti still has decent characterization and some moments are watchable, but there are too many coincidences, odd references, and moments of Applejack wondering if this “could be the reason the map called me here”.  An “anti”-montage of Applejack accomplishing nothing is balanced out by her wondering if they can make it off a street “corner”.  While obviously satire, this could be legitimate after an earlier tense street crossing.  And that’s indicative of Made In Manehattan’s problem, since Benvenuti’s incredibly dry script fails to produce tension or interest.  The (almost forgotten) map’s god-like properties feel odd, Rarity and Applejack still aren’t convincing together, and Coco only frets about her stupid volunteer work which couldn’t possibly be important.  Obviously Benvenuti had a good heart and message behind this episode, but that lackluster play would have only further divided everyone.  Made In Manehattan is more frustrating than disappointing then, since few episodes are so boring and poorly thought out.

Bored, bored, bored, bored…BORED!  Sealab 2021 can get away with this opening, but for My Little Pony it indicates a subpar effort will be forthcoming.  Twilight totally finished all of those books in her huge library and has nothing to do.  After eight episodes, that large map finally kicks in and summons Rarity and Applejack for a mission to Manehattan.  Twilight is not invited, so her boredom will continue off screen.  Outside of some exposition, the teaser is unnecessary and sadly anticipates everything forthcoming.

Upon arriving, Applejack suffers through an obligatory struggle crossing the street.  She seems to have forgotten about visiting Manehattan twice before and having no such anxiety during Rarity Takes Manehattan.  They struggle in discovering their purpose, even though Rarity saves someone from buying an ugly hat.  Finally, a flyer for Coco’s Midsummer Theater Revival magically hits Rarity in the face.  After seven minutes of filler, Made In Manehattan’s plot only starts because of a deus ex machina.

Coco explains this event was originally much larger thanks to costume designer Charity Kindheart, but everything has fallen into disrepair after she died moved away to spend time with family.  Rarity can easily help Coco finish the costumes, but Applejack must clean up a rather overgrown Central Park.  Despite montaging this task, the only real progress Applejack makes is destroying her hat.  She also almost kills an actor when her rickety stage collapses.

After more soul searching, Applejack suddenly remembers how to build a professional-looking stage.  She places it along the street instead, and their troupe starts performing immediately.  Coco’s play covers Charity’s life story starting from her arrival in Manehattan, but we only see a few melodramatically performed scenes (another dry joke).  Gradually, more and more ponies stop by to watch, and the play inexplicably becomes a tremendous success.  Some audience members express their desire to help clean up the park based on what they saw.  With another job “well” done, Rarity buys Applejack a new hat before stopping one more potential fashion crime.

Made In Manehatttan’s premise no doubt pleas for more human interaction in an isolated digital age, but everything about its execution was off.  While the mystery of why Applejack and Rarity are there may seem interesting at first, subsequent viewings reveal just how much filler exists here.  The entire teaser and opening with Twilight (who has no bearing on any events), Rarity’s short fashion police stint, asking various Manehattan ponies to volunteer for Coco’s theater (Coco already said no one else would, and then Rarity subsequently states “all the help you need is right here”), Applejack’s montage, and even Coco’s play (which basically covers everything she said earlier about Charity) all count as examples.  This only pads a short story where very little occurs.

Sadly ironic for Maud’s writer, none of Benvenuti’s characters go further than stereotypes.  Rarity has definitely been depicted worse, and that hat she stopped the customer from buying was quite hideous.  But we don’t really learn anything new either (unless apparently being a Peanuts fan counts), and her importance diminishes once Coco appears.  Applejack naturally fares much worse, as her only traits are being unnecessarily scared of “the big city” and good at building things.  Coco gets much more exposure, but she constantly frets instead of receiving actual development.  It’s nice that she tries helping the community while suffering through a large workload, but her efforts should have failed completely.  Perhaps Made In Manehattan would have been more realistic like this, but probably not better.  Every other supporting characters is only a various New York stereotype, from those gruff accented workers with no manners or time for anyone else to the stuffy theater actors who overact and actually end a scene with “and scene” during the performance.  That such a boring play would inspire change is completely unbelievable.

After such a promising debut, Benvenuti’s sophomore effort only rates as an absolute failure on every level.  Any character insight disappeared, and she couldn’t find anything interesting from a premise which certainly had potential.  Her quirky uneventfulness fit Maud Pie’s mood well, but every joke fell flat here.  Satirical moments were too dry and serious, and the lack of a plot was both noticeable and detrimental.  Having a good heart just isn’t enough without any substance.  There’s nothing more to say about Made In Manehattan.  It’s watchable and pleasant enough, but finding anything truly positive remains difficult.