Seatbelts, Everyone!

November 10, 2012 2:58 PM

The Magic School Bus: The Movie [SLYT]
posted by schmod (43 comments total)

Oh, sweeeeet.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:21 PM on November 10, 2012

I've only ever watched this show as an adult, but my feeling has always been that the major problem was having too many characters. Or too many catchphrases. Having to fit ALL them into EVERY episode, plus tons of science info meant each episode was a frenetic mess.

I assume this is why the next project from the same writers, Cyberchase, was limited to just 5 major characters and only one of them had anything like a catchphrase.
posted by DU at 3:37 PM on November 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've only ever watched this show as an adult

Wait. Watched, rather than read? I'm getting old.
posted by alex_skazat at 3:41 PM on November 10, 2012 [7 favorites]

The inclusion of magic and hell in the Magic School Bus universe is deplorable. The ethos of the series was all about revelation through Science! and demystifying natural phenomena, much like Scooby Doo and Bill Nye.
posted by troll at 3:50 PM on November 10, 2012 [12 favorites]

Well, I've read the books too. But the movie trailer is obviously referring to the show, not the books.
posted by DU at 3:56 PM on November 10, 2012

The inclusion of magic and hell in the Magic School Bus universe is deplorable.

Kind of part of the joke, probably...
posted by Huck500 at 3:59 PM on November 10, 2012 [2 favorites]

You've obviously only ever watched early Where Are You, Scooby-Doo? episodes, then. The more the various series progressed, the more it became about the supernatural and the less it became about debunking superstition and fear. A major failing on behalf of subsequent production teams to understand the appealing core of the source material, IMO.

This is not true any more! Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated is the latest incarnation. It's ditched the supernatural, and added small serialized elements. Scooby purist friends of mine swear by it and the few episodes I've seen were very fun.
posted by yellowbinder at 4:55 PM on November 10, 2012 [2 favorites]

Love this. They should have asked Little Richard to be a part of it. I loved his theme song.
posted by caribbeanblue at 5:03 PM on November 10, 2012

This looks awesome.
posted by Doohickie at 5:36 PM on November 10, 2012

This looks like crap.
posted by 4ster at 5:38 PM on November 10, 2012 [5 favorites]

Is this where I get to discuss my inappropriate feelings about Phoebe?
posted by mollweide at 5:41 PM on November 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

This looks awesome.
posted by Doohickie at 5:36 PM on November 10 [+] [!]


This looks like crap.
posted by 4ster at 5:38 PM on November 10 [+] [!]


Yep.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:43 PM on November 10, 2012 [14 favorites]

This looks like it isn't real. Scroll down on the title, you will find this: This is a fan-made trailer. The Magic School Bus™ is a trademark under the rights of Scholastic. Moving Mind Studio and this video have no affiliation to Scholastic or The Magic School Bus™ It's just a video, not a real movie. Which is good, because hell and magic and the underworld, while they are some of my favorite things, don't belong in the Magic School Bus. Bad though, because the casting is spot on.

However! If somebody actually made a real movie of Magic School Bus, which I watched with great love and fervor with my kids, I would watch the hell out of it.
posted by mygothlaundry at 6:10 PM on November 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think there could be a television show where doohickey and 4ster review movies.
posted by 4ster at 6:13 PM on November 10, 2012 [2 favorites]

Destroying memories of your childhood, episode 15,786: out of curiosity I just searched GIS for "ms frizzle rule 34", and got the predictable/expected NSFW results. Probably shouldn't do that.
posted by mosk at 6:18 PM on November 10, 2012

I panicked when that link showed up in the "visited" color, mosk. "When the hell did I ever search for that? Who's been using my computer?!"
posted by Wolfdog at 6:21 PM on November 10, 2012 [18 favorites]

I apparently borked the link when I posted. Which is almost certainly for the best.
posted by mosk at 6:24 PM on November 10, 2012

Me and my daughter would enjoy the hell out of this movie.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 6:29 PM on November 10, 2012

Miss Frizzle is obviously a Time Lord.

There IS a series of books, audiobooks, and spin off Who media about a renegade Time Lady who travels around in a TARDIS that is permanently stuck in the form of a double Decker London bus. I leave it to you and Google to discover who that is.
posted by clarknova at 6:31 PM on November 10, 2012 [2 favorites]

It had never occurred to me how many catchphrases there were in this show until I saw them fill nearly 3 solid minutes.
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 6:44 PM on November 10, 2012

If this is from your childhood, you are still a child. Now where's my 3-2-1 Contact! reboot?
posted by Brocktoon at 6:53 PM on November 10, 2012 [7 favorites]

On a personal note I'm beginning to find it alarming that I have no idea what this is. It turns out I'm largely unaware of what other Americans watched and read as children.
posted by elwoodwiles at 7:07 PM on November 10, 2012

The inclusion of magic ... in the Magic School Bus universe is deplorable.

Wait. What?
posted by erniepan at 9:00 PM on November 10, 2012 [7 favorites]

Going by the rise of twenty-something, male, my little pony fanatics any horror of fandom seems possible.
posted by clarknova at 10:06 PM on November 10, 2012

I'm a bit shocked to learn that Scooby Doo is some kind of Humanist/Atheist propaganda.
posted by Brocktoon at 10:19 PM on November 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

Brocktoon: "I'm a bit shocked to learn that Scooby Doo is some kind of Humanist/Atheist propaganda."

No Gods, no monsters, only Scooby Snax.
posted by boo_radley at 10:37 PM on November 10, 2012 [3 favorites]

yellowbinder: This is not true any more! Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated is the latest incarnation. It's ditched the supernatural...

Except for the talking dog, of course.
posted by themanwho at 10:46 PM on November 10, 2012

I forget, can anybody other than Shaggy actually hear Scooby speak?
posted by ckape at 11:00 PM on November 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

Hey, we already had the Scooby Doo as kid's first foray into skeptical.inquiry post & thread several months back (check the jinkies tag, yo). Let's get back to the Miss Frizzle as a Time Lord. It would explain SO much. Maybe she's another regeneration of Romana?
posted by KingEdRa at 11:03 PM on November 10, 2012

On the one hand, nice production values and the catchphrases & characters in this clip brought back memories I hadn't even remembered I'd forgotten.

On the other hand, needs more Sᴄɪᴇɴᴄᴇ!
posted by Gordafarin at 11:22 PM on November 10, 2012

The inclusion of magic ... in the Magic School Bus universe is deplorable.

Wait. What?

Well, it's not the same magic, see. In the fake movie trailer, supernatural or otherwise unexplainable events drive the plot (spooky ancient clay tablets, communication with the dead, hell, etc.); whereas the magic in the titular "Magic School Bus" merely freed the bus from the scrutiny everything else was getting, thus endowing trans-dimensional capabilities upon it without compromising the inquisitive integrity of the show. A small license for a big payoff.
posted by troll at 12:11 AM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

ckape: "I forget, can anybody other than Shaggy actually hear Scooby speak?"

No. Not really
posted by clarknova at 1:02 AM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

It's the aliens-and-demons problem. You can have aliens no problem, or demons no problem, but when you have aliens and demons at the same time you start to get funny looks.

It ain't something you can't overcome, but still. Funny looks.
posted by KChasm at 1:47 AM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

If this is from your childhood, you are still a child.

As I get older (and goodness' sakes, I'm not that old) one of the most horrifying things about it is hearing actual adults talk about stuff that I would've guessed happened maybe 4 or 5 years ago as something that happened when they were kids. Sometimes my internal chronometer is way off, and the thing actually happened 12 years ago. And sometimes it happened in like 2006, which feels like no time at all to me but feels like a very long time for somebody who is, say, 22 now.

If you haven't started experiencing this Billy Pilgrim-esque time confusion yet, give it a few years. Next thing you know you'll be talking to a 30-year-old woman who tells you that when she was a toddler, her wall was covered with Justin Bieber posters.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:57 AM on November 11, 2012 [4 favorites]

Now where's my 3-2-1 Contact! reboot?

Where's my Reboot reboot?
posted by MartinWisse at 5:21 AM on November 11, 2012 [6 favorites]

Where's my Reboot reboot?

development hell, sounds like, unfortunately.

Also, big thumbs-up to Troll for clearly and pithily articulating the difference between "the Magic School Bus" and "magic." I liked this for the nostalgia-tugging-at-heart-strings; I disliked it for the "this is the best plot they could come up with for their fake movie they don't even really have to make!?" Don't regret watching it, anyway.
posted by Alterscape at 7:15 AM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

(Following up on hippybear's comment, with apologies for the derail:

Scooby-Doo is a cartoon about kids looking for truth. The bad guys in every episode aren't monsters, they're liars... Reason, curiosity and thinking always triumph over fear.

A provocative and passionate defense of -- Scooby-Doo? Well.)
posted by RedOrGreen at 8:14 AM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I got Magic School Bus momentarily mixed up with the Wayside School series, but then I found this Wayside School movie, so I guess it's alright in the end.
posted by hopeless romantique at 10:17 AM on November 11, 2012

Is this where I get to discuss my inappropriate feelings about Phoebe?

No.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:04 AM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

The ethos of the series was all about revelation through Science! and demystifying natural phenomena, much like Scooby Doo and Bill Nye.

That is why that secular humanist Frizzle is in hell.
posted by vorpal bunny at 12:55 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

Never watched the show. Yet somehow, watching that made me nostalgic for someone else's childhood.
posted by webmutant at 8:28 PM on November 11, 2012

I think fake movie trailers may be the defining art form of the twenty-first century. (This includes fake movies like Magic Schoolbus and Oregon Trail, as well as fan trailers or remixes like Honest Trailers or Shining.)
posted by mbrubeck at 9:24 PM on November 11, 2012

There are Scooby Doo purists out there? And they have friends?

YES THERE ARE, and we are, well, not legion, more like a loosely assembled, well not even... maybe, like, every so often we send out a mailer.

I can't stand the SD movies that end up with real ghosts/aliens/whatever at the end. The new show that's rid itself of all that crap is okay.
posted by Neale at 11:24 PM on November 11, 2012