Those that went to school in the 90s and early 00s may have had the chance to watch magic school bus during slave school aka class.
After going through all 52 episodes the only 1s that I do not recall watching in class was the Animal episode where the children are forced to turn into fox, birds and rodents. Also the computer episode.
As I rewatched the series more alert and wiser it was an interesting experience. For the record the show has an iconic theme song. It was sung by the late legend Little Richie.
TMS is a great show that was not about hand holding. If anything the show was mildly violent which is a good thing.
There are tons of great episodes that go on wild adventures and many ok-lame episodes. The characters were all unique and each had their strengths, weakness and personality. Each character got to lead an episode some more than others but we had a chance to learn about each character. Wanda and Arnold had the most development of the children.
Phoebe: She was the new girl, shy, tree hugger red head type. I had no beef with her.
Ralphie: was the chubby Caucasian. Like Carlos he made jokes from time to time, he was imaginative and he took charge when it was necessary. I had no problems with Ralphie.
Wanda: Was the Asian girl. She may have been Korean due to her rash, bossy, loud personality. After a while she annoyed me with her whiny voice.
My main man Carlos: He was the class clown and the most confident of the class. He may have been a Mexican. I loved his bad jokes they were so funny. He was mos def my favourite student.
Dorothy Ann: Was the blonde Caucasian who was a subtle flirt. She had her moments with Ralphie, Carlos and Arnold. She was the bookworm, know it all nerd. I had no issue with this character.
Arnold: Arnold was the normie, geek. He was a red head Khazar. I don't view Arnold as wimpy, but more rational than the others. He did not like the "field trips" I assume he has been traumatized due to the dangerous adventure The Friz put him in. I thought Arnold was a cool, confident kid. He was the best, special character of the series. If any character deserved a spin-off it would be Arnold.
Keesha: She was a melaninated girl. Possibly the most rational, smartest, best dressed, pretty, moral, well-rounded, leader, open-ended character of the series next to Arnold. I liked her.
Then there was my bro Tim: For 90% of the series, he was a side character at best. He did not get to lead his own episode until season 3. He was the least developed character and seemed a lot like cardboard. There is not much to say about him because like I said he was the least developed character. For the 10% of the series he did not lead in a lot of the episodes, but he had more speaking roles. I did not like his outfit, it seemed too cardboardy to me. He was an ok bro.
The Friz aka Ms. Frizzle: She was no doubt a psycho sadist. She could have killed the children so many times and did not care for their well-being. Without permission or warning she would zap the children to them tiny size, into another species or into some place like the human body, machine or time travel. In the early episodes she was mildly violent then she toned down by a lot by season 3 which is why season 3 eps to 4 collectively were not the best. My theory is that she is a promiscuous, witch that turned her partner into a lizard. She was crazy ok character. Many of her entrances were questionable amd vastly unrealistic.
Magic School Bus: Very OP and versatile machine. It could take down Thanos and Darkseid at the same time if it needed to.
Liz: The greats cover up is to call Liz a female if The Friz turned her lover into a lizard (or maybe she hits for both teams or the other.) Liz was a cool, smart, helpful Lizard and had more development than Tim.
Mr. Huxable, aka the Producer: He was a cool guy. He was a bro that answered rude callers answers for the last 5 min of the episode. Again, he had better development than Tim. I guess only 1 bro was allowed to be developed back in the 90s per show.
That being said, the last segment didn't make sense. I'm not sure if the Magic School Bus and class segments were a skit or real. I say this because at the time they would reference The Friz, guest characters, Liz and speak about them as if they are real. Then the producer will say the episode was made up to teach lessons. It's really confusing if the Magic school bus actually exist in their universe, or it's made up in their universe. Example Liz behaviour/continuity is the same in the actual show and in the last segments.
This show was very educational without hand holding. I learned something new in each episode. Sure some things they do state maybe bogus but overall they speak mostly fact. The show is about learning, discovery, being confident, growing, making mistakes, working as a team and having fun.
The stories were basic and fine. The best episode were that had a villain or featured Janet. Hate Janet or not, she made many episodes fun. What I would have done to make Janet an even better character is have her try to find out about the magic school bus. Make her be an ongoing stalker like character that was trying to prove that The Friz had a magic school bus that did magical things.
The animation was gold. Voice Work was iconic. I do know at least 4 voice actors from previous products which makes these characters even more unique, for example: Arnolds Voice actor voiced Michael DeSanta son in GTA 5 haha!. Keesha was voiced by the Shining Time Station (90s Thomas the Tank Engine show) actress, and Carlos was voiced by the actor from Are you Afraid of the Dark? And Braceface. The producer was voiced by the actor/son from the Cosby show. Great voice cast.
If I could choose one highlight of the whole series, I would have to choose 4 and they are:
- Arnold taking his helmet off in space and only getting the flu
- Carlos's great jokes
- Being enthralled of The Friz endangering children to learn a lesson that could be learnt by easily opening a book: Take a look, it's in a book a reading rainbow!!!!.. I Caaaaan I can beeee Anything.... The Reading Rainbow.
- Anyways... Lastly, each child had their own catchphrase in each episode which were unique, and funny.
Should you watch this show? Yes. Watch it for fun if you going to watch this expecting realism or Sponge Bob Garbage then don't bother. The show isn't for you. Just watch it for fun.
Overall it's a great show, I guess it's mainly due to childhood school nostalgia. Nevertheless, the production was near flawless.
Verdict: The show did have numerous goofs, but I won't be going through them all because I don't want you reading this review all day. It was a great show for children to learn something and to be relaxtained.
