MLP:FiM Reviews: Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000

The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000

Synopsis: When the Apple family keeps running out of cider, two salesponies, the Flim Flam brothers show up, and challenge them to a cider competition with their cider making contraption.
Moral: Stick to hard work and quality control, and don’t look for quick solutions that may damage quality.

Let me just say one thing now. Here in the UK, we don’t have non-alcoholic cider, so when I first watch this episode, I wondered why they put ponies fawning over getting drunk into a kid’s show.
Anyway, we begin the episode with Rainbow Dash waking up Fluttershy and telling her they have to get to the front of the line for the Apple family’s cider, or else Pinkie Pie will get ahead of them. I don’t see why she had to get Fluttershy awake for this, given that Fluttershy clearly doesn’t mind having cider or not, but whatever.
And Pinkie Pie decided to camp out to wait for cider, thus is already at the head of the queue. This is one of those episodes where Pinkie is unintentionally annoying. It’s not nearly as bad as say Luna Eclipsed, but it’s still noticeable.
So, the Apples begin selling their cider. And they seem to run out pretty quickly, aggravating the rest of the townsfolk and Rainbow Dash. Now, here’s a small problem, we’re never given an explanation why the Apples aren’t making enough cider, which leads me to a bigger problem: there are a lot of things this episode could have done, that it didn’t. I’ll get to what that is later.
The following day, the Apples one again run out of cider. Okay, clearly the problem isn’t a shortage of apples if they’re still making cider every day. So, why aren’t they making enough? On top of that, why are the townsfolk so obsessed with the cider. It would help this episode a lot of more townsfolk and not just Pinkie were gushing over how good the Apples’ cider was. Anyway, the townsfolk are clearly annoyed, but then notice something in the distance. It’s a strange vehicle, being driven by two unicorns, who immediately burst into song that describes their contraption, the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. This song is one of the best of season 2 in my opinion, since it’s catchy, it actually does give us a lot of exposition rather than being in there simply to sound nice, and it fits the Flim Flam brothers pretty well. It almost reminds me of the Monorail song from the Simpsons. Essentially, the Flim Flam brothers have a device that can turn apples into perfect cider incredibly quickly.
And, here’s another minor issue, aside from seeming a little sneaky, the Flim Flam brothers seem to be giving the townsponies exactly what they want, while the Apple family has not. It’s good to be even handed, but it feels as though the episode wants them just to be the bad guys. Anyway, they offer the Apples the chance to make enough cider for everyone with their apples and the brothers’ machine. However, they offer them only 25% of the profits, which admittedly does make them seem more like bad guys. The Apples refuse, but the Flim Flam brothers say they are now in competition.
Here’s the problem though: Flim and Flam are unicorns. Hearth’s Warming Eve implied that only earth ponies could farm, and their apple cutie marks seem to be more related to being sales/con ponies (similar to Cheerilee’s flowers representing her students). While it does make sense that they need the apples, without the apple family’s apples, what can they do? They do say there are other apples in Equestria, but there aren’t any other apple farms in Ponyville, so there’s no real point in finding another farm then coming back to Ponyville. Even if that other farm was in the middle of nowhere, Ponyville isn’t exactly the biggest place in Equestria, and it already has cider providers, so they could probably make more by going to other places.
Eventually, Flim and Flam begin to mock the Apples, which makes Apple Bloom and Granny smith get angry and agree to a contest to see who can make the most cider. Flim and Flam suggest that the prize be total control of Ponyville’s cider production. And Applejack implies that if they lost that, they’d lose the farm. And here’s where the episode gets very unbelievable. Applejack has no reason to bet her entire livelihood on this competition. Especially given that the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 is obviously faster than them.
Now here’s how I’d have done the episode: instead of the Apple family needing to sell cider to, well, live, make it so that they’re trying to pay for something necessary to the farm. Heck, make it so that they used to have a cider machine too, but it’s broken, which would explain why they’re being so slow. If the Flim Flam brothers’ gain their cider money, then they won’t have enough money to pay for damage, thus will have to desperately find another way. That’s a problem, but not such a life shattering problem.
The contest begins, as the Flim Flam brothers just sit around as their machine works, while the Apples work hard. And, surprise surprise, they start to lose. Twilight and the others offer their assistance. While this would seem like cheating, the Mayor actually asks Flim and Flam for their approval, and they aren’t bothered, which is a nice touch.
So, with the extra help, the Apples start winning. So Flim and Flam speed up production, and cancel out their quality control. This results in them producing far more barrels, and winning. Applejack accepts the loss and gives up the farm. Though, all she pledged was to give up the cider production. Their deal never said anything about giving up the farm instantly.
As Flim and Flam offer up their cider, they of course give the “no quality control” versions, which are immediately rejected. And they see this as a reason to move on and leave town. Except they had an entire farm full of fresh apples that they could have given to the ponies. Again, this would have worked a lot better if giving up the farm and the apples weren’t part of the deal.
Applejack writes to Princess Celestia, specifically saying she didn’t learn anything. She already knew that quality control was important, and so was the help of her friends. Oddly enough, this could have easily been a moral that sometimes competition can be a good thing as it makes you work harder, since the contest was what finally got the Apples to produce enough for everyone.
So, this episode isn’t exactly bad, but it leaves a lot of unanswered questions, and there were a lot of things that could have been improved if they’d have been done differently. The plot feels a bit too forced, when it really didn’t need to be.

RATING
Concept: 3/5
Execution: 2/5
Moral: 2.5/5
Entertainment: 3/5
OVERALL: 3/5