What Happened to the Magic School Bus?

In this video, we discuss the 90s educational cartoon The Magic School Bus, and what the changes made in the 2017 reboot may mean for a new generation of children learning STEM.

Articles mentioned:
How narratives can aid memory | The Guardian

0:00 Intro
1:07 “at my OLD school…”
6:51 magic school bus rides again
14:18 who’s this for?

[midnightjay]

I had no idea this reboot existed until recently from a post on Twitter. Even more shocked it's back from 2017? I loved the original as a kid and it's cool the reboot holds up.

The question at the end: should rebooted shows focus on nostalgic fans or a new generation?--this reminds me of Pokémon. It's not rebooted but has been running for 25 years with games, the anime and such. The anime and how it depicts battles, characters, voice acting and relationships between characters all are very different now. I haven't seen it in ages save for clips here or there but when it didn't suit my tastes so I stopped watching it. Why? Because I'm an adult and it's target audience is kids. While something I loved as a kid (and still love today) would be great if it appeased my tastes I know kids still love it so I step aside. The Pokémon Company does cater to older fans too but not enough to alter how they do things now. It's super kid friendly and the games reflect this as well. I think there's money to be made catering to older fans but it's a slippery slope. If shows like MLP catered to their loudest fanbase (bronies) their targeted audience would be isolated (young girls/children). Same with SpongeBob. I'm a fan of s1-3 but anything paste that I don't like much save for an episode here or there. Still, SpongeBob is still around today because kids still love it. I think people should relax and remember when stuff is for kids you can have constructive (unbiased) criticism but not try to mold something for only them.

So, I think while catering to older fans is great, older fans must also be mindful that they are not the target audience but just along for the ride. I don't think it's wrong for older fans to add critique with issues like whitewashing characters and changing distinctive racial features (PoC still struggle for meaningful and positive representation so seeing whitewashing was disappointing af) but adults should not take over entirely.

[JustLilGecko]

It's extremely hard to get past the animation style

[tyrant-den]

I had no idea they were even supposed to be the same kids.
If you have a different teacher, why have the same kids?

[sorath]

Arnold freakin committed die to shut up his annoying cousin and resurrected. That's a boss move right there.

[littleblueclovers]

Hearing that Ms Frizzle became a professor and is traveling the world doing scientific research brings a tear to my eye.
While I don’t like the artstyle at all, as long as the reboot teaches kids while keeping it engaging and playful, I’m more than honored to see The Magic School Bus live on and hold a space in the hearts and minds of new generations.

[loopystreams]

OG Arnold temporarily killed himself to prove a point to his cousin, absolute madlad.

[denilsonthomas]

“Girl, thats a bootyhole!” LMFAOOO THAT TOOK ME WAY OFF GUARD 💀💀

[jacobbelow]

I think Netflix’s ‘Carmen San Diego’ is a fantastic example of rebooting a nostalgic property from 90s with the intent of introducing it to a newer generation!

[tehawsumninja]

Story time:

So, I've lived in the Valley of Texas my entire life, right on the border, so I and 99.9% of my classmates are Hispanic. When we were growing up, most of our elementary school teachers (see: every teacher I had until 6th grade) played an episode of the Magic School Bus that corresponded with our topic for that week every Monday. It always helped get us ready for what we were about to learn and get us interested in the topic without them "force feeding" the curriculum down our throats. One of the funniest things to me, and I'm sure my classmates as well, was that, with the name Carlos being so common down here, every classroom, regardless of the year, had at least one Carlos. So, when Monday would roll around and Ms. Frizzle's class would yell "Carlos!" when he made a pun, we, as a class, would also turn to our Carlos and say it at the same time. Because we had our classroom doors open and almost every classroom started the episode at the same time, you would hear "Carlos!" echo in a chain reaction in the rooms next door too, and it was HILARIOUS.

Looking back on it now, I don't recall exactly what I was supposed to learn from the episodes themselves all that much, but I do remember the topics and certain moments, like them getting eaten by arnold, etc. It's only now, as a fourth grade teacher myself, that I have started rewatching the show and found lots of good teaching moments and lessons from the episodes, lessons that I had originally thought I learned from school itself through osmosis, but I had, in fact, learned from Ms Frizzle and her class of curious students. I can't help but love the "new Ms. Frizzle", but in a different way than her older sister. While the OG Frizzle was who I looked up to and viewed as the ideal teacher, her younger sister instead reminds me of myself, a brand new teacher who wants to see her students thrive and enjoy learning, one who is an average, every day teacher, one who doesn't have all the answers, one who learns just as much from her students as they learn from her. Which, from an adult perspective, is a very different and more deep take on that type of teacher archetype.

I've continued the tradition and used episodes from both the old and new series as supplemental material in my teaching and, based on the fact that all my students turn to classroom Carlos after every pun just like we did, I'd like to say it's still just as effective and will be, hopefully, something they remember and carry with them to the future that they can look back on as adults one day too.

EDIT: Hey!!! Fellow teacher!!! [high five]

[allieeverest]

Something im really appreciating now from the series that I didn't as a kid is how diverse the class is. This show is from a group of educational shows that really embraced diversity from tge early early days like Sesame St. And the Electric Company. Keisha, Carlos, this was the first time i was hearing these names as a young child.

[biggusdiccus]

I love how Carlos just cracks a joke in every life or death serious situations and everyone’s like
“Carlo’s!”

[con_the_artist]

the freezing in space scene stuck with me for YEARS, i didn't remember anything else, JUST that scene

[daychild_]

“In my old school we were never allowed to be digested”

[nayeli]

I really can’t get past how they lightened their characters and got rid of Arnold’s curly hair and nose

[maammorg]

Im really just frustrated with the character designs, They got rid of everything unique about each kids design, like they made wanda look like a basic white kid, Ralphie is just a short kid now, and basically everybody is whitewashed, the story and stuff is fine i don't really care, I just feel like they stripped away all the diversity in the kids.

[unclepablowastaken]

I love that Arnold has a smirk on his face right before he dies

[pollyisagoodbird]

What should have happened, if you ask me, is have the original kids be adults with kids of their own, who are in Ms. Frizzle's class. It would have been a great reason to make the first episode a reunion episode of sorts, plus have the original characters make occasional experiences throughout the series.

[NekoJesusPie]

I think this speaks to the value of design. It’s not only important in the appeal of something, but in how the information is understood. Feeling pandered to, recognizing a corporate design, recognizing a woman being beautified are the sort of things that can quickly make a kid shut something out forever.

[settheworldonfire]

I’m an elementary school teacher, and I use the Magic School Bus regularly in my classroom. Whenever we move on to a new topic in science, we watch an episode. Depending on the topic, sometimes it’s the original series, and sometimes it’s the reboot. Either way, my students love it. The show is perfect for its intended audience. It’s engaging, fun, and memorable. When we’re discussing something in science, it is not uncommon for a student to relate the discussion back to an episode of the show. I personally prefer the original because of my nostalgia blinders, but the new show is a valuable tool for helping children learn.

[kylestillwell]

I think both viewpoints presented can be true simultaneously:
The new show succeeds in being a great educational cartoon for today's youth and made some story changes that let it do its job even better, BUT
The whitewashing of characters, removal of ethnic features from the kids AND Mrs Frizzle and the boring samey-ness of the new character designs are all objectively bad decisions that lower the feeling of diversity the show COULD have