Pony Hype

“The Super Cider Squeezy 6000”

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

Episode 215

January 28, 2012

Below Average

Pros: One Good Running Joke in First Act

Cons: Poorly Thought-Out Plot, Dull

 

 

           It’s been a while since I’ve done an episode of MLP:FIM because it’s been a while since I’ve been all that into MLP:FIM.  Still, it’s fun to deconstruct these things, and this is an episode I’ve always wanted to get to since it always struck me as a decidedly mediocre entry as well as an overrated one.  So now it’s long overdue for me to dissent on the artistic prestige of “Super Cider Squeezy 6000.” 

           It begins with the Apples’ selling their once-in-a-year homemade apple cider, which brings lines like that of a communist country.  People have questioned why the Apples can only produce cider for this one short period, when they can produce the stuff as long as they have apples.  Personally, I think it’s to create a false scarcity that increases demand and price.  It’s explained that the profits from the cider period are what they need to get through the winter, so it makes sense to do something like this.  However, there’s clearly a problem because the Apples cannot produce enough cider to satisfy the trumped-up demand.  One wonders why no one simply decides to produce their own cider, but maybe IP laws are different in Equestria (contrary to what happens in “Rarity Takes Manehattan”).  Perhaps the Apples can also take up some other work to support themselves during the winter?

           The only part of the episode I found particularly amusing is a running joke in which Rainbow Dash cannot get any cider.  The humor is reinforced by an element of anti-karma.  Despite her extreme anticipation for this, she takes the time to wake up Fluttershy so the latter can get some too and even lets her friend go in line in front of her.  This, along with Pinkie Pie’s shameless greed, narrowly prevents her from getting her sample.  You’d think the Apples would ration this stuff for everyone, but that’s not their problem.  Unfortunately, this arc ends immediately when Rainbow gets a taste of cider thanks to the Flim-Flam Brothers’ (Sam Vincent and Scott McNeil) cider-making machine.  Practically near the beginning of the episode.  

          While the Flim-Flams are depicted as villains, they actually present a solution to Ponyville’s problem.  They can provide an efficient way to provide people with cider while the Apples can sell them the raw material.  This may not cover the needed expenses for the winter, but perhaps the Apples can insist on royalties in some kind of deal.  Meanwhile they can still make organic cider for the niche market.  The episode misses an opportunity for conflict by having Rainbow automatically side with the Mane Six despite having reason to see Flim-Flams’ point.  I’m not a particularly hard-core fiscon, but it seems like a pretty obvious free market solution that could everyone if done right.    

          In a contrivance that many have called out, they agree to an absurd contest in which winner takes control of Sweet Apple Acres.  Of course, the Apples have every right to tell them them to bugger off and everything to lose by agreeing to this, but it happens anyway.  In order to keep up with the cider production, our protagonists resort to running themselves ragged (this includes Apple Bloom and Granny Smith) while enlisting the temporary help of the Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity.  They’re barely able to keep pace over the SCS6000, so the Flim-Flams decide to gain an edge by deactivating the machine’s automatic quality control, allowing spoiled apples to enter the mixture.  They seemingly win the contest until people taste the fruits of their labor and spit it out in disgust.  The Apples win.  In what would be a cute twist on the show’s formula if it was earned, Applejack’s letter to Celestria proudly proclaims that she didn’t learn anything because she was right all along.  Surely, a less-than-amused Celestia would write back with a lesson:

 

        Applejack,

 

       It seems that there was indeed much for you to learn.  Your business model is flawed to the point of failing to account for the town’s demand for a certain product.  As long as this situation persists, there will be multiple competitors like the Brothers Flim-Flam who will offer the solution that you currently will not provide.  You barely survived the fallout of your own logistical shortcomings, and you only did so by resorting unsustainable means: enlisting the temporary, free help of your friends as well as that of your elderly grandmother and your school-age sister.  You should have taken this as the warning it was.  Because as long as you do not address this, there will more Flim-Flams.  And you will not always be so lucky.

 

                                                                             Do not waste my time like this again,

                                                                                                                                    Princess Celestia

 

       It seems to be a popular fallacy (especially in politics) that people will mistake their barely surviving the consequences of their mistakes as proof they were right all along.  Now, Scorpio, you say, this is just a children’s cartoon, your being too critical.  Well, I’d say you’re partially right, I shouldn’t expect too much narrative quality, but this is a show for small children with the purpose of teaching them lessons, and this episode’s lack thereof is unearned.

     Of course, I’d be perfectly willing to forgive this if I found the episode entertaining, which I do not.  The only particularly funny part was the aforementioned Rainbow joke, and I’m not particularly fond of the song.  I know it’s purely subjective, but I just don’t like this type of music and found this number to be a bore.  Also, it’s “sophisticated” reference to The Music Man is less impressive when most of us are more familiar to The Simpson’s classic reference to that movie, arguably making this episode guilty of committing a cardinal sin of comedy: making a parody of a parody.  

 

 

QUOTES

 

[Pinkie has just cheated Rainbow out of cider]

PINKIE PIE: She’s right, you know!  You can’t rush perfection, and this year’s batch was perfection!

FLUTTERSHY: Erm, Pinkie Pie…

PINKIE PIE: I’ll never forget the cider I just drank.  It was a moment in time that will never exist again.  

 

APPLE BLOOM: That’s it, the last cup!

[crowd groans revealing Rainbow’s hovering in line in the distance]

RAINBOW: Oh, for Pete’s sake!