A Magic School Bus Halloween is a Halloween special based on the PBS Kids series The Magic School Bus, originally aired on October 31, 1995. It features both live-action and animated segments.
Synopsis[]
It's a dark and spooky Halloween night in the live-action universe where people are not cartoons. Inside the city museum, three students are worried about their teacher and class. One is Katie the African-American girl (played by Karishma) who is holding a flashlight, one is Richie the Hispanic American boy (played by Gabriel Martinez), and one is a red haired boy named Howard (played by Danny Tamberelli). Richie asks Katie if they'll be back at the Halloween Camp-In and Katie agrees. Everything goes well until the thunderclap shows a giant monster, which scares Richie and Howard. But when the boys run away, Katie explains that it's just a bunch of old dinosaur bones. The boys stop at an area and Howard has had it that next Halloween, he'll be camping out. Just then, haunted organ music plays. Richie thinks Katie has tricked them and shouts through the entrance of the tunnel that enough is enough. He enters the tunnel to find out. Nervously, Howard thinks about his friend who is in trouble, or not. So he enters the tunnel, too, which leads to a scary basement. Howard tries to scream but Richie calms him down. Since they're not in camp anymore, the boys take a look around the basement. They even see old stuff. Everything goes really well until Richie is captured by a curtain but Katie who found her friends tricks him. Richie angrily says that wasn't funny and Katie knows that because it was actually historical. Katie shows the boys an Egyptian tomb. She plays tricks on the tomb, which wobbles. The students all stand back and out comes... Ms. Frizzle (played by Lily Tomlin) who is dressed as an old peddler! The students don't know where the Friz comes from and Katie says that that she comes from another universe. Ms. Frizzle talks about working on Halloween and she loves it. Just then, squeaky noises are heard. The students look down on their feet to see ugly bugs, which the Friz relates to cockroaches and beetles. Ms. Frizzle also talks about the sights and sounds of Halloween and then she hears a dinosaur roaring inside her bag, which sounds so delightful. Katie asks if she can see but Howard refuses her so Ms. Frizzle throws the bag to Richie, anyway. The students say that they have to leave so they can go find their class and teacher who are waiting in the camp-in but they stop at the same spot. Ms. Frizzle shows them pictures of kids from her universe, including Carlos. And this is how the story goes: "It all started one Halloween night and the little boy decided to go on a voyage of seeking the perfect sound. His search became an uphill struggle."
In the Haunted House: In class, the students rehearse for the musical with each different student playing a different instrument. Ralphie is on the xylophone, Phoebe is on the saxophone, Arnold is on the sousaphone, Tim is on the violin, Keesha is on the clarinet, Liz is on the drums, Wanda is on the trombone, and Carlos has a special instrument he invented himself, with Dorothy Ann as the music conductor. When Carlos plays his instrument, it elicits dissonance and fails to complement the orchestra. Ms. Frizzle then comes around wearing a costume with various of instruments. She takes off the costume and the class tell her about Carlos' instrument, which is devoid of harmony, and the rehearsal at the sound museum is this afternoon.
Ms. Frizzle leads the class to The Magic School Bus and the class take a ride. Carlos decides to put a blue top hat on the instrument to make it sound better, which proves to be futile. When Carlos says that he need more time, Ms. Frizzle alters The Magic School Bus' speed and it eventually breaks down. Ms. Frizzle exits the bus and takes in temperature before she finally concludes that The Magic School Bus is overheated, telling the class they will be stuck in the woods for a while, which gives Carlos enough time to work on the sound of his instrument, only for Dorothy Ann to worry about missing the rehearsal.
When night falls, the students have to push the bus uphill while Ms. Frizzle hauls it. They stop when they hear a sound. Carlos had put an umbrella on his instrument to have a thunder sound to it, as well as a mane to sound like a lion's roar. Dorothy Ann rebuffs those decisions, telling him that the thunder sounds more like a drizzle and the mane sounds more like a kitten.
As the students continue to push The Magic School Bus, they hear another sound. They think that it was from Carlos' instrument. But Carlos denies this, and the student view a house. They walk to it and Carlos says that it's kind of "eary". When Ms. Frizzle rings the doorbell, which makes a peculiar sound, Arnold, Ralphie, and Tim decide to leave. But Carlos wants to know what made the sound. So the students reluctantly enter the house and the door makes a loud sound as it shuts.
Inside the house, the students search through the house for a phone. When Ralphie discovers that the doors are locked, Ms. Frizzle says "hello" in a loud voice. Her echo travels through the hallways and Ms. Frizzle says that it sound friendly enough. Dorothy Ann finds a phone book and the others hear the phone ringing. Ms. Frizzle picks a book off the shelf, which blows a foghorn when flipped open. Carlos then concludes that the books were making the sounds and Ralphie turns to leave, only to trip over a book. Ms. Frizzle then shows the class a picture of Professor Cornelia C. Contralto, eccentric collector of sounds, born in the year 1807 and disappeared in 1892. Ms. Frizzle then tells the students that after her disappearance, the house turned into a sound museum, which is confirmed Dorothy Ann's prediction that the class missed the rehearsal. Ms. Frizzle also explains that Professor Contralto devoted her life towards sound and her whereabouts are obscure. Ralphie surmises that Professor Contralto is a ghost seeking for the perfect sound. Ms. Frizzle also tells the class that they would be spending the night, much to Arnold's fear. When Tim steps on a panel, the class comes across a rotating wall, which propels them to an adjacent bedroom replete with ample beds.
When the students go to bed, Carlos decides to put a blanket over his instrument to make it sound like a ghost. When Dorothy Ann once again rebuffs that tactic, Carlos asks for Professor Contralto's help, which elicits a tremendous lightning. Convinced that it's the call of Cornelia, Carlos leaves the room to find the sound and the students reluctantly follow along. The sound gets louder as they get closer to it. They hear a yodeling sound through a door, which Carlos enters, only to find a jungle inside. There is also pictures of the beach and city inside as the class enters and the yodeling continues. The students have a vociferous conversation, eliciting echoes. Just then, Ms. Frizzle arrives and is revealed to be the one yodeling. In the mountain paintings, she gives the students a ride up the chair lifts and they fall into a room of instruments. Ms. Frizzle elucidates that Professor Contralto built every room in the house to show different things about sound. Dorothy Ann comes across a harp and pulls the string, vibrating it. Carlos then concludes that the vibration of the string is what was making the sound. Tim and Phoebe try out the drum and Wanda tries out the gong, both of which makes the same vibrating sound. Carlos then figures that he needs vibration to make his instrument sound better. The sounds the students make causes the wall to crack open, revealing a different room. Carlos notices a pair of goggles on a statue and puts them on, which causes him to see the sounds. The other students put on goggles for themselves as well, and Ms. Frizzle informs them that high sounds elicit vibrations close to another, made by something vibrating quickly, and the low sounds elicit vibrations far apart from each other, made by something vibrating much slower. Ralphie compares the motion of the vibrations to ripples in a pond when something is thrown inside of it. Carlos then figures that his instrument can vibrate regardless of its appearance and runs inside the bedroom to grab it, only to find that it is now missing.
When the students search around the room, wind blows out the candles, dimming the bedroom, and Carlos hears the sound again. He searches through a closet and falls into a secret dungeon-like room. The students follow along and use their goggles to follow the mysterious sound. They soon learn that it's the sound waves that elicits echoes and find that the sound waves are coming from a mysterious door they come across. Carlos opens the door and finds a woman playing sounds with her organ. The woman introduces herself to the students as Professor Cornelia C. Contralto II, and that she is the great granddaughter of Professor Cornelia C. Contralto herself. She tells Carlos that she is helping him make his instrument sound better for the concert tomorrow. Carlos then learns that his instrument had too much stuff on it, which prevent any form of vibration, and that is what made it sound bad. So he eliminates any unwanted materials out of his instrument.
The next day, the class performs at the sound museum and when it comes Carlos' turn, his instrument elicits a unique, harmonic sound and ends with a thunder sound (which involves a shoe kicking a trash can lid). The audience applaud at the performance and Dorothy Ann tells Carlos that it was the perfect sound, and hugged him. Professor Contralto II also asks him if she could add this sound to her great grandmother's collection, which Carlos agrees since the professor helped him. Professor Contralto II and Ms. Frizzle, who is in her instrument costume, then make a performance of their own as the students watch in amusement.
After the story, Richie finally realizes that it's actually just a bag of old sounds, no big deal. Ms. Frizzle agrees that there's no need to keep them from in here any longer. She recites a poem about her bag and Howard notices a tarantula on his hand, which he thinks it's a spider. Ms. Frizzle says that tarantulas are slow moving creatures. Howard touches the tarantula and thinks it's actually friendly. One fear Ms. Frizzle doesn't need is for what she does. Katie asks "And what's that? Scaring people for no reason?" Ms. Frizzle answers bats but Katie says bats are gross, they're horrible and creepy, and they can be vampires. Richie says "Get outta here!" and Howard says "Yeah, vampires? No way!". Ms. Frizzle asks how Howard knows that and he says that he doesn't really now. But the Friz says that he's not the only one who doesn't know and she has another victim who has a secret identity.
Going Batty: The class is studying nocturnal animals at school and eventually checks out the attic of the classroom. Inside the attic, Tim notices a bat hanging from the ceiling and confirm that the bat is the only nocturnal creature they know very little about. Just then, the bat flies away and Ms. Frizzle suddenly appears, dressed as a bat. She tells the class that she will "show them the secrets of being nocturnal". As Ms. Frizzle tells the class more about the night, Ralphie becomes apprehensive.
The students' parents arrive at the school, and Ms. Frizzle, after being introduced to Keesha's grandmother, tells her that she could just "eat you up", exacerbating Ralphie's trepidation. When Ralphie's mother Dr. Tennelli meets Ms. Frizzle, the latter states that, "I do so enjoy taking him under my wing", which finally convinces Ralphie that Ms. Frizzle is a vampire as he tells the rest of the class. He uses Ms. Frizzle's term "The darker the night, the safer the flight" as evidence to support this, but Dorothy Ann states that Ms. Frizzle was talking about bats, for when it's dark, they blend in and are unobtrusive to enemies. Ralphie, however, is not convinced as he states that vampires come out in the night to. The conversation is interrupted when the class overhears Ms. Frizzle informing the parents that the class and their parents will go someplace more "suitable" and "breathtaking" right before letting out a sinister laugh. As the parents enter The Magic School Bus, Ms. Frizzle tells them that the children "will be taking care of" and takes them on a nighttime field trip to learn more about bats. The class follow her and their parents via 8-seat bat mobile driven by Liz to a scary old castle.
As they arrive at the castle, they spy on Ms. Frizzle and their parents, who enter the castle. When Ralphie keeps trying to convince the class that Ms. Frizzle is a vampire, Keesha, having enough of this, decides to see for herself and the class walks to the castle. Wanda tries to open the door. But the handles break apart. When Ralphie views Ms. Frizzle and the class' parents drinking a beverage each through the window, he becomes convinced that Ms. Frizzle is making the adults drink blood.
Keesha tells Ralphie that the adults are drinking tomato juice, which Ms. Frizzle served at the class picnic. Ralphie then comes with a plan to drive a textbook in the heart of who he calls the "teacher vampire". When Carlos swats mosquitoes off of him, the bats fly around the class, and Phoebe tells the class that the bats are really eating the mosquitoes, causing Keesha to come to the conclusion that the bats aren't vampires.
Meanwhile, Ms. Frizzle gives the adults a tour through the inside of the castle and they walk around "bat guano", the waste of the bats that makes great fertilizer according to Ms. Frizzle. When they walk through a stuffy hallway, Ms. Frizzle tells the adults that it's from the breath of the bats, and Mr. Ramon jokingly states that "bat breath is better than no breath at all". They then come across pink bat progeny, which Ms. Frizzle calls "the children of the night".
The class also views them through the window and Keesha informs Ralphie that the bat babies drink milk and not blood. Ms. Frizzle tells Keesha's grandmother (who has heard Keesha's voice from outside) about how bats protect their young and Ralphie is convinced that Ms. Frizzle will feed the class to the bats, misconstruing tidbits (food fed to bats) as "kid bits". So he brings the class with him to get help.
When they enter The Magic School Bus, Ralphie tries to drive it so the class can get out of here before Ms. Frizzle catches them. He pushes the bat button and The Magic School Bus transforms into a bat, which flies through the woods. The class are impressed of the fact that The Magic School Bat isn't running into any trees. They notices that as The Magic School Bat makes the pinging sound, it opens its mouth and wiggle its ear to listen to the echo of each ping. Keesha finally infers that when the sound the bats make echo back, they know something is there and avoids crashing into it, as they use their echoes to locate things. They also learn that bats see more with their ears rather than just their eyes. When The Magic School Bat eats moths, the class also learn that bats are at night to find food in the dark. Ralphie presses another button on the bus, which transforms him and the rest of the class into bats. Just then, they come across an owl, who attempts to catch them, only to miss in the process. The students then learn that the bats' enemies can't see them due to the dark.
When the students overhear a vociferous Ms. Frizzle stating, "At last, the moment I've been waiting for has come", Ralphie tells the class that the vampire in his comic book said the same thing and the class fly to the castle, with Keesha reluctantly starting to believe Ralphie's theory. They hear Ms. Frizzle asking who would be her first victim, and Keesha, after overhearing her grandmother telling Ms. Frizzle to take her, flies inside the castle, shouting, "DON'T YOU DARE BITE MY GRANDMOTHER!"
The rest of the class and The Magic School Bat follow along and use their sound to locate Ms. Frizzle and the other adults. They come across more bats and finally hear the adults voicing their opinion of the field trip to Ms. Frizzle, as Keesha's grandmother tells the teacher, "I can't believe I let you do this to me" and Dr. Tennelli states that, "My neck will be sore for a week". Ralphie brings the class with him to fly to Ms. Frizzle's location as Mr. Perlstein is heard saying, "Maybe we should've stayed home tonight".
The class finally spot Ms. Frizzle and the rest of the adults hanging from a chandelier dressed in bat costumes. The class fly through them and the adults extricate themselves off the chandelier. When the class finally find the truth, they all chide Ralphie for his theory. Ralphie apologizes to them and acknowledges the fact that bats aren't vampires, but nocturnal creatures that come out at night to feed on insects. Carlos jokingly states that "The bat news is we're still bats", to which Phoebe jokes "Fangs for reminding us, Carlos!", causing everyone to groan and laugh "Phoebe!". Liz comes around with The Magic School Bat and the class hops inside to transform to their human form and The Magic School Bus back to normal, just in time for their parents to exit the castle. When Dr. Tennelli asks Ralphie what was going on, Ms. Frizzle states that he and the rest of the class were just "hanging around", with Ralphie stating "bats all" as he and Ms. Frizzle laugh.
After the story, Ms. Frizzle names the bat Belinda so she puts in the bag. But Katie explains that if she only puts scary things in the bag, then she won't put the bat in there. In fact, it's kinda cute. Ms. Frizzle agrees and as her aunt Bodacious always says "The more you know something, the less you fear" and puts the bat back up in the ceiling where she belongs. Richie asks Howard if that guys reminds him of somebody and Katie ask the Friz what else she got in the bag. Ms. Frizzle says nothing and as she begins to leave, Richie, Howard, and Katie asks anything such as what she did but she says that she didn't do anything and the students actually did. Ms. Frizzle says that the students began this victim of their own fears but they took chances, made mistakes, and they conquered them. Just then, the Magic School Bus beeps his horn and Ms. Frizzle leaves the museum and calls out "Bus, do your stuff!" The students open the door and see Liz inside the Magic School Bus and Ms. Frizzle drives the bus off while saying "Wa-ha-ha-ha-hoo!" After the bus leaves to Walkerville, the students all say "Wow, we've been frizzled!" and they give hi-5 while jumping through the air in conclusion.
Stories[]
Trivia[]
- Hugh Martin directed the live-action segments of the special.
- The live-action segments were also shot at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
- This is the only time a character (Ms. Frizzle) is seen in live-action.
- Danny Tamberelli who does the voice of Arnold plays one of the students (Howard).
- Katie appears to be an amalgamation of Keesha and Wanda, while Richie appears to be a blend of Carlos Ramon and Ralphie Tennelli.
- The three students say the catchphrase, "We've been frizzled!" at the end of the special before they jump in the air while hi-5.
- The instrumental version of the theme song is played over the credits with a guitar solo. This is heard on various DVD menus.
Cast[]
| Voice actor/actress | Character | Episode |
|---|---|---|
| Karishma | Katie | |
| Gabriel Martinez | Richie | |
| Danny Tamberelli | Howard | |
| Arnold Perlstein | "Going Batty" | |
| Amos Crawley | "In the Haunted House" | |
| Lily Tomlin | Ms. Frizzle | |
| Daniel DeSanto | Carlos Ramon | |
| Stuart Stone | Ralphie Tennelli | |
| Max Beckford | Tim Wright | "In the Haunted House" |
| Andre Ottley-Lorant | "Going Batty" | |
| Tara Meyer | Dorothy Ann Hudson/D.A. | |
| Erica Luttrell | Keesha Franklin | |
| Maia Filar | Phoebe Terese | |
| Lisa Yamanaka | Wanda Li | |
| Carol Channing | Prof. Contralto II | "In the Haunted House" |
| Tyne Daily | Dr. Tennelli | "Going Batty" |
| Eartha Kitt | Mrs. Franklin | |
| Dana Elcar | Mr. Terese | |
| Elliott Gould | Mr. Perlstein | |
| Edward James Olmos | Mr. Ramon |