this time around iâd like to talk about my issues with the reboot of the magic school bus, the magic school bus rides again!Â
donât get me wrong, for the most part? thereâs a lot i love about rides again: it really expands on characters like arnold, tim, janet, and ralphie, whose new characterizations are developed but still faithful to the original; likewise, i like fiona frizzle and jyoti as new additions to the class. many of the jokes land and the episodes tend to be pretty funny and inventive! (jokes in the 3 recent specials have been particularly great)
there are, though, rather noticeable flaws that especially bother me, someone who grew up with the original. now here we go, in order of importance!
and another point, which i didnât think of then! itâs just about as important as my point on wanda:
1.5. keesha
keesha in the original magic school bus cartoon was one of my favorite characters - she was probably the most rational and levelheaded of the bunch, always making sure she âhad all the factsâ before proceeding with a decision. she had a plan in her head and knew how to execute it, and generally enjoyed having some kind of power or control. keesh was also always the skeptic, never blindly following or agreeing with anyone.
i really enjoy this take on a character because sheâs forceful, but not brash. keesha was barely hot-headed, and when she did get upset it manifested more as frustration rather than anger. other headstrong characters like wanda or other levelheaded characters like da often got angry at their fellow students; despite her equally headstrong and levelheaded demeanor, keesha didnât usually fall into this. sheâs super cool and mature!
but... rides again keesha? like with wanda, they completely mangled her character. in fact, like with wanda, many of rides again keeshaâs traits are the exact opposite of 90s keesha! now letâs look at the facts:
i think rides again keeshaâs personality differences can be summed up entirely in the episode âspace mission: selfieâ. for one thing, she randomly has an obsession with space and astronaut camp - she didnât have this before, and has been to space several times in the past, so i donât know why she should have it now. but hey, rides again likes pulling interests out of their butts and assigning them to random people.
this obsession with astronaut camp makes her distracted, careless, and irrational. she has the bus stop so she can take a picture. she doesnât listen to ms. frizzleâs warnings and then proceeds to destroy a number of satellites. not only is she not the mature person she was in the 90s cartoon, but sheâs now the exact opposite of that. itâs bizarre!
i recently rewatched âspace mission: selfieâ right after watching the 90s cartoon episode âsees starsâ, in which the class go and check out stars they might want to buy for dorothy annâs birthday (itâs a great episode, you should check it out); and these episodes in contrast just make rides again keesha look so much different from the original.
i wish rides again didnât do this!! i donât know why theyâd take perfectly good characters, completely reverse their personalities, give them random interests they were never shown to have, and then act like nothing changed? this is not keesha. maybe the real keesha went with pheobe to her old school, i dunno. but this is not the keesha i know, thatâs for sure.
this time around iâd like to talk about my issues with the reboot of the magic school bus, the magic school bus rides again!Â
donât get me wrong, for the most part? thereâs a lot i love about rides again: it really expands on characters like arnold, tim, janet, and ralphie, whose new characterizations are developed but still faithful to the original; likewise, i like fiona frizzle and jyoti as new additions to the class. many of the jokes land and the episodes tend to be pretty funny and inventive! (jokes in the 3 recent specials have been particularly great)
there are, though, rather noticeable flaws that especially bother me, someone who grew up with the original. now here we go, in order of importance!
1. wanda
okay, iâll get this out of the way: rides again wanda is not wanda. the original 90s wanda was a force to be reckoned with, a headstrong and active character who acted first and thought later - she was a great foil for a character like arnold who, in contrast, is so cautious and reserved. 90s wanda had an immense chaotic energy which reflected that of the original ms. frizzle and that of the show as a whole, really making everything exciting.
rides again wanda is... none of those things. sheâs... kinda active? more in a stubborn way. sheâs more defensive than offensive now and seems way more... soft than before? rides again wanda now loves animals and often acts as a morality pet in terms of them. now, if youâve ever seen the original 90s cartoon, you know thereâs one person who this sounds exactly like. pheobe.
by the start of rides again, pheobe had apparently went back to her old school, with jyoti taking up the 8th spot in the class. you wouldnât think that pheobeâs role needed to be filled now that she was gone, and yet almost all of her traits were superimposed onto a character who originally had none of them. if they were going to pheeb-ify anyone, doing it to someone as iconically un-pheobe-like as wanda was a terrible idea!
not like they needed to pheeb-ify anyone - you already have cautious and shy characters like arnold, quiet and observant characters like tim, and voices of reason like da. i love pheobe, but her role didnât need to be filled; people donât work like that in real life.
and what sucks the most about this for me is that wanda was one of my favorite characters growing up! i loved her spunk and her attitude and her bravery going into anything! and i loved her catchphrase of âcâmon, you weaselly wimpsâ, which i may add i donât remember her saying at all in rides again. it just sucks, man!!
2. lack of chaotic energy of the original/lack of memorability
one thing that characterized the original 90s cartoon was how... well, chaotic it was. there was something so energized and wacky about the whole thing, and you never knew what was going to happen next! the jokes were hilarious and the characters played off of each other perfectly, giving it an interesting, pseudo-sitcom vibe in the background.
the fact that it came out in the 90s at all, with its animation style and the technology at the time made these fantastical field trips all the more fascinating and mysterious - oftentimes, the frizz would push a simple button or pull a simple lever and the bus would turn into a fish or a bee or a rocket ship! this combined with the fact that the bus itself was rather old and rudimentary made it all seem more relatable and nostalgic.
unfortunately, rides again has none of this. the new art style, character designs, futuristic tech, and voice acting not only further suspends your disbelief with how starkly different they are from the original, but also completely get rid of that nostalgic 90s chaos that made the original so memorable.
and speaking of memorability, i can remember the premise of just about every 90s cartoon episode - they all have some wacky twist that makes it all the more bonkers and memorable: gets ready, set, dough? the baker thinks heâs delusional and that a moth baked a cake. in a pickle? court scene and the âmike robe gangâ. shows and tells? arnold is forced to do improv and doesnât suck at it somehow. holiday special? wanda turns the recycling plant into a pile of garbage. itâs all over the place yet somehow plausible, which makes it all the better to remember.
but rides again? the only jokes i remember are from episodes iâve specifically seen over and over and over again, such as frizzle of the future, monster power, or making magic. give me episodes like pigs in the wind, in the swim, hides and seeks, the tales glaciers tell, the land before tim, ghost farm, i spy with my animal eyes, or send in the clouds and i wonât remember a single joke, funny line, or wacky moment. it makes it all seem bland in retrospect, unfortunately.
3. catchphrases!
there isnât a ton to talk about here, but there is an annoying lack of characters using their catchphrases in rides again: sure, arn does occasionally say âi knew i shouldâve stayed home todayâ, and da does say âaccording to my researchâ (albeit differently than she did before - iâll touch on this in a second), but most other characters donât use their catchphrases much at all now.
tim doesnât say âweâve been frizzledâ and keesha doesnât say âlet me get the factsâ and ralphie doesnât say âis it just meâ and carlos doesnât say âyouâre gonna love thisâ and wanda doesnât say âcâmon you weaselly wimpsâ etc. or heck, if they did, i just donât remember, which is honestly telling enough.Â
youâd think thisâd be a good thing, as people in real life donât tend to have catchphrases, but it only makes the charactersâ personalities more distinguished and memorable, having the unique things they say when excited or scared or whatever.
4. pheobe leaving :(
donât get me wrong, jyoti is super cool, but i can still miss pheeb!
while i always resonated with arnold more, iâve also found a connection with pheobe, such as with her love of animals (especially butterflies). sheâs also just a really sweet, kind character who has a very strong moral backbone and a passion for doing the right thing. i find that a really nice personality for a character to have!
i also have my personal ship of pheobe and keesha (just watch the 90s episode gets ants in its pants, youâll thank me later), and i find the two of them really cute! sucks that my pheobe privileges had to be revoked by rides again, though... why donât we at least see what sheâs doing, or get a mention other than just that âshe returned to her old schoolâ? why would she do that, anyway?
5. daâs accent
i donât know how to describe dorothy annâs accent in the original 90s cartoon? itâs like an american accent with slight bits of an english accent to it. a tad old-timey. either way itâs a very distinguishing trait of hers, besides her gravity-defying pigtails and love for the color violet.
unfortunately, there seemed to be no effort to carry this over to rides again in any capacity - heck, even if the voice actress couldnât replicate her voice, they could at least pronounce the word research the same way da does: âreh-searchâ rather than the more common âree-searchâ. but alas, no. also da in a ponytail is not a good look, at least to me.
also, please return to the books. i donât want to keep hearing the word âfrizzpadâ.
6. please donât let them ruin this with a bad live action movie
note: it doesnât have to be bad! it could be good! but the reputation of live action movies lately has been abysmal and iâm just worried how much they might butcher it...
and thatâs all i can think of! despite all of this complaining i still do rather enjoy rides again. thereâs just a lot of room to improve!!
a view of walkerville elementary during winter as seen in the holiday special. i think itâs interesting to note the parking lot and large stretch of asphalt behind the school - and in the top left corner is what appears to be a backstop for baseball, such as the one seen in âplays ballâ.
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