S02:E15 - The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000

[Buttonmash1973 1,024]

The Super Speedy Song was great.

[kelseymarie805 300]

I love this episode so much! Really good, I love how their friends and family work together, and how the I guess you could say "enemies" or "rivals" (that would be more fitting) ended up losing in the end, though I did kind of expect it, it was still great to see! It's unusual to see in kids shows nowadays anyway! Although I have to say, this ep was kind of predictable......

[Singe 2,109]

Rarity: Applejack, I think you need to hire some extra help to make enough cider.

Applejack: I don't think that is necessary.

Rarity: And, what about Rainbow Dash?

Applejack: What do you mean?

Rarity: Last year she was...

*Flashback to a random male pony with a mouth full cider.*

Rainbow Dash: So that must be really good cider?

Male Pony: *Nods.*

Rainbow Dash: You're not going to swallow it. Just let it sit in your mouth savoring the flavor.

Male Pony: *Smiles.*

Rainbow Dash: So I'm going to do something which will be the most awesome thing you'll ever experience in your life.

*Back to the Present.*

Rarity: She made out with 12 ponies that day. Why there is even this flyer passed around at the Colts Club about Rainbow Dash.

Applejack: Okay, I get your point. I'll get some help to make enough cider. *Applejack walks away.*

Rarity: Okay, she's doing it.

Rainbow Dash: *Hiding in the cloud.* Great.

[TheJLeeTeam 914]

This was a great episode. The Flim Flam Brothers appear and try to take over Sweet Apple Acres. But the Apple Family compete with them to stay in business. The song wasn't great but I thought the rest was a really good competition episode.

[ponytheorist 181]

Am I the only one who disliked the episode? 

 

I didn't like this episode for a few reasons. First, the story has holes as big as a cake at a obesitas meeting. The Apples will lose the farm if they go in sea with the flim flam brothers. The machine makes 3 TIMES as much cider! When the flim flam brothers prepose 25/75 split, try bargaining it up to 34 percent. The flim flam brothers would still get 66 percent, and would make 34 x 3 = 102% profit. They don't even try to raise the percentage!

 

Second, the part where they put the farm in risk. This feels really contrived for me. There was no reason for them to go into this kind of competition! The plot just needed something to make the kiddies feel even worse for the Apples.

 

Also, the only reason they don't try to raise the percentage, is because Granny Smith believes modernation is bad, because it doesn't have the same care as the apples make. WHAT? It helps you make 3 times as much cider! Put away your feelings and make enough cider for everybody!

 

But this could have been forgiven by me, if they resolved the episode good. But instead Applejack says: I didn't learn anything! So next year, nothing has changed. There are still a lot of ponies who don't get any cider, and it's all because of you and your family. Congrats!

[Silver Letter 1,830]

Does anyone know whether the Cider season is in the winter or the spring? I'm thinking winter.

[Deviousnights 48]

To be honestthis is my favorite episode, mostly because Flim and Flam play out the villian role relatively well, taking advantage of ones pride like Granny Smith.

[CC_Maud_Pie 6,431]

I thought this was a decent episode overall even though I didn't care much for the songs in it. One thing I liked about this episode is how it introduced two common big business practices to children viewers: 1. Trying to outcompete family and smaller businesses to put them out of business so that the big business can get even more powerful. 2. Trying to make a deal with a business that doesn't want them around their area so that they're allowed to have business in a particular area. Another thing is that it showed us what true friends and families do; supporting and helping each other through the tough times. In this case, Applejack needed her friends to cooperate with her family in helping her keep her family's business alive.

Edited February 23, 2015 by CC_Maud_Pie

[DBVSHHS 48]

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Edited June 7, 2018 by DBVSHHS

[Grepper 3,192]

I don't really care for this episode that much. The antagonists were stereotypical evil businessponies, and there was no good reason for the Apple family to literally bet the farm on who could make more cider.

 

I liked Applejack's friendship report though.

"Dear Princess Celestia: I didn't learn anything!"

Edited June 4, 2015 by Greppertas

[slumberparty101 21]

I like how they serve up the horrible mass-produced cider at the end, and you know it's ghastly before they even drink it - "mine has rocks in it"!!!

Good moral message to the story as well, the cider is nowhere near as important as to how the farm is the centre of gravity for the Ponyville community. Also, mass-produced stuff tastes awful even if it is quick and cheap.

[Daring_Do 552]

I like how they serve up the horrible mass-produced cider at the end, and you know it's ghastly before they even drink it - "mine has rocks in it"!!!

 

Good moral message to the story as well, the cider is nowhere near as important as to how the farm is the centre of gravity for the Ponyville community. Also, mass-produced stuff tastes awful even if it is quick and cheap.

But the plot hole in the episode was that the cider wasn't shown as being bad just because it was mass-produced - Remember, Granny tasted some? It only turned out rotten after the Flim Flam brothers switched off the quality control setting - So why did they try selling the crummy quality-controless cider to the villagers, then give up and leave? They could've just made a fresh batch.

[slumberparty101 21]

But the plot hole in the episode was that the cider wasn't shown as being bad just because it was mass-produced - Remember, Granny tasted some? It only turned out rotten after the Flim Flam brothers switched off the quality control setting - So why did they try selling the crummy quality-controless cider to the villagers, then give up and leave? They could've just made a fresh batch.

 

Well given how supremely arrogant they were, they were already stupid enough to let the entire Mane Six help out thinking it wouldn't affect the race, they probably thought their low-quality mush cider would make the grade. 

Besides, if the whole plot fails, I doubt the locals would have accepted them for long - they all seemed annoyed how the Apple family might lose their home.

 

I think the message was the less love put into something, the cheaper it becomes. In their case, grounding up entire trees and rocks whilst picking the apples.

Edited September 11, 2015 by slumberparty101

[NeonCobalt 256]

Just re watched this one, and I still laugh out loud at "Dear Princess Celestia, I wanted to share my thoughts with you: I didn't learn anything!" Even outside of that, this is a pretty good episode. The Flim Flam Brothers are pretty good villains, if a bit cliché. I felt really bad for Rainbow Dash though, especially when she literally had the cider flung out of her hooves.

[best poni 1,518]

I like the episode. It inspired a new line of We Love Fine shirts.

[powerpuff-tsubasa 447]

entertaining. that's all i gotta say

[twiia 1,842]

So surprisingly... This wasn't too bad. It was actually very interesting

[cmarston1 5,951]

This episode had the best letter to Celestia in the entire show.

[BlinkZ 1,151]

Am I the only one who disliked the episode? 

 

I didn't like this episode for a few reasons. First, the story has holes as big as a cake at a obesitas meeting. The Apples will lose the farm if they go in sea with the flim flam brothers. The machine makes 3 TIMES as much cider! When the flim flam brothers prepose 25/75 split, try bargaining it up to 34 percent. The flim flam brothers would still get 66 percent, and would make 34 x 3 = 102% profit. They don't even try to raise the percentage!

 

Second, the part where they put the farm in risk. This feels really contrived for me. There was no reason for them to go into this kind of competition! The plot just needed something to make the kiddies feel even worse for the Apples.

 

Also, the only reason they don't try to raise the percentage, is because Granny Smith believes modernation is bad, because it doesn't have the same care as the apples make. WHAT? It helps you make 3 times as much cider! Put away your feelings and make enough cider for everybody!

 

But this could have been forgiven by me, if they resolved the episode good. But instead Applejack says: I didn't learn anything! So next year, nothing has changed. There are still a lot of ponies who don't get any cider, and it's all because of you and your family. Congrats!

Oh don't forget the iceying on the cake aboutheabl to make the amoutn of cider for the custemrs in under what ten minutes? The only difference was speed. Plus why not increase the price, it simple supply and demand. the less suppy the higher the price. Even filhty rich would agree with that logic.

[blackstarraven 142]

Am I the only pony who think that the Apply Family where the one's being stupid in the episode?

I mean really they where the one's holding all the apples.

_

They actually more or less screwed themselves out of a huge deal on this. Because the only reason that the Brothers lost is because they literally got hit with the idiot ball.

They literally could have just made 1/2 as much cider and they could have sorted the apples easier.

_
The Apples more or less almost lost there entire farm because of nothing but stupid pride. And only won because they happened to be going up against idiots.

[Singe 2,109]

There is a lesson of running a business and not satisfying customers, that will invite competition from outsiders or drive the customers away. However, this flies over the head of the target demographic.

[Moony the Cat 3,697]

I disliked this Episode, it had a good moral maybe, but the first Song was so painful to watch, i never felt so emberassed by watching something from Mlp - Fim. How they acted towards the Cider and when they constantly sang Cider...eh.

And then at the end, the Flim Flam Brothers just went away, like nothing. It was a little bit disappointing. I would have liked it more, if they failed the Competition, because they let not addable ingredients into their Cider, which i assume would be unhealthy or even dangerous to the Ponys.

[Nye 1,652]

Follows the idea of “man vs. machine”

[Thrond 3,257]

This is energetic and funny, and that song is great, and maybe I'm overthinking all of this, but I just find the Apples' luddism is obnoxious. You literally don't have enough product, so do you really have a right to be upset when someone provides what you can't? Even if you ignore all the facile elements, it's a very cold conflict of self-preservation, and I genuinely believe the moral to be one of the worst in the whole series. Remember, if someone provides an alternative which fixes the issues in your business, instead commit to stubborn traditionalism, because of course all of your friends will help you and your rivals will undermine the quality of their product just to outpace you and - what? That's not how the real world works at all, and this entire happy ending is reliant on the Flim Flam Brothers offering that challenge to the Apples. It's too contrived.

This had the potential for one of the show's more ambitious bits of social commentary, with the Flim-Flam Brothers representing runaway capitalism or whatever, and to an extent it still does, but this all becomes too situational, and the actual major issue of the episode - the cider shortage - is never addressed. The Apples will run out of cider again next year, and maybe the scarcity will keep their business afloat, but when they depend on it for keeping afloat through winter, I don't think they can rely on their friends enforcing their monopoly forever. The Apples' success is so dependent on a specific set of circumstances that I honestly think trying to replicate it in the real-world will go badly, and that really bothers me. 

In other words: I think the Flim-Flam Bros. have a point, and the episode doesn't do anything with that. 

Of course, this episode also would have been shorter if the Apples refused the Flim-Flam Bros. use of their apples, so there is that. And again, I have a lot of fun with this episode, even if only due to the song and the general flow of the thing, so I very well might be overthinking all of this. But that simple problem with the Apples' approach just makes this episode hard for me to endorse. 

Score:

Entertainment: 8/10

Characters: 6/10

Themes: 3/10

Story: 3/10

Overall: 50/100

[Meushell 52]

On 6/5/2013 at 7:59 PM, Jack Spades said:

Shouldn't the Apples join with the Flim Flam Brothers? They would have both made even more profit together other than all by themselves? 

I didn’t really like the episode for this reason. The Apples were just arrogant and foolish. The episode seemed to be anti-technology, but if they wanted a “love and care makes good food” message, then the cider (before the quality meter was changed) should have been worse. Otherwise...

Flim Flam Brothers: Then we’ll be competition.

Applejack: Go ahead.

FFB: We need your apples.

Apples: LOL

FFB: Then we’ll go get other apples.

Apples: LOL

FFB: 50/50?

AJ: No. 75/25, like you said, but WE get the 75.

FFB: 60/40?

AJ: 75/25.

FFB: 70/30?

AJ: 80/20.

FFB: !

AJ: 

FFB: 75/25?

AJ: Deal!