"The Magic School Bus" Characters Quiz

Answer: Arnold

Arnold is a sensitive boy. He doesn't like certain smells or sounds, and he doesn't like being turned into things or changing sizes. Despite this, he said in the first ever episode that there is no better teacher than Mrs. Frizzle.

Arnold loves rocks, he even has a collection of them. He also loves Malloblasters, a chocolate snack in the Magic School Bus universe.

There are two episodes where the class goes on a field trip through his digestive system. After the first of those episodes, "For Lunch," Arnold says the he will never miss another field trip. Mrs. Frizzle holds him to his word when he volunteers to stay behind in the episode "Taking Flight." In "Shows and Tells" and "Makes a Rainbow," however, Mrs. Frizzle lets Arnold stay behind again because she needs him to.

Funny fact: In the "For Lunch" episode, Arnold is somehow on the bus even though the bus is in his mouth!

If I were in Mrs. Frizzle's class, I would be the Arnold of the class.

Answer: Wanda

Whenever the class is in trouble, Wanda says "What are we going to do?" three times.

Wanda is the toughest and bravest person in the class, willing and able to do things her classmates refuse to do. In an episode that takes place in her bathroom (and she and the class have been shrunk) she turns bathroom items into building materials and is the first one to test them. She was the first to walk one the weak bridge across the toilet bowl, and also the only one, because the bridge collapsed and Wanda barely made it to the other side, causing the rest of the class to build a stronger bridge. She also made a rope out of floss and climbed it from the sink to the window. Arnold refused to do this so they made a bridge for the rest of the class.

Wanda is also a selfish girl who wants to take all the credit when things go right, but wants to be absolved of all blame when things go wrong. In the "For Lunch" episodes, she asks Arnold to keep chewing gum until he and she set the record for the longest amount of time chewing gum. Then she gives Arnold a hard pat on the back, making him swallow it. She then scolds Arnold for swallowing the gum even though it was her fault. In "Taking Flight" she demands to be giving all the credit for designing a model airplane even though Tim did all the work. She often calls her clasmates "weaselly wimps."

She used to own a pet frog named Bella. On pet day in Mrs. Frizzle's class. Bella hopped out of the classroom window. The class goes on the field trip to find that Bella went to her natural habitat in a pond. It takes her a while, but Wanda eventually admits that Bella is happier in her natural habitat than she was with Wanda. The class then creates a fake frog for Wanda to console her.

Answer: Keesha

Similar to Wanda's "What are we gonna do" times three, Keesha says "Oh bad! Oh bad! Oh bad bad bad!" whenever the class is in trouble.

In some episodes, Keesha is the first to talk sense into people when they start talking about things that don't exist like ghosts, vampires, or weatherman.

In other episodes, she's whiny and annoying. In one episode, she screams like she's being murdered when all that happened was her prize cucumber was turned into a pickle. Meanwhile, Wanda's prized carrot and Arnold's prize tomato had been rotting, and neither of them got upset. When Keesha sees that Mrs. Frizzle has a storage room that has barrels full of pickles, she accuses Mrs. Frizzle of stealing and ruining her cucumber. Mrs. Frizzle admits that she put Keesha's cucumber in a jar with pickle juice, but claims that it was "The microbe gang" that turned her cucumber into a pickle. Mrs. Frizzle takes them on a field trip to show everybody what she meant and what happened. The class eventually learns that Mrs. Frizzle did it to save Keesha's cucumber from rotting.

Answer: Ralphie

Ralphie says this a lot because he often doesn't believe or like what he sees on Mrs. Frizzle's field trips. He also says this a lot because his mother says it a lot. In some early episodes, he says a variation of this such as "Is it my imagination?" or "Am I going crazy?"

Ralphie is arrogant. He loves playing practical jokes on people. However, he has a tendency to believe in things that don't exist. He used to think that the weather was made by "Weatherman!"

My personal favorite episode of the original "Magic School Bus" show is "Inside Ralphie." In this episode, Ralphie is sick and his mom makes him stay home from school. Ralphie REALLY wants to go to school anyway because his class is supposed to do a 2-hour live TV broadcast and he is supposed to write the script for it. When Mrs. Frizzle learns that Ralphie is sick, he takes the class on a field trip through Ralphie's bloodstream, and their TV broadcast turns out to be "The Inside Story," meaning the story of what is going on inside Ralphie. They learn that bacteria got into his body through a cut in his knee. The school bus, the kids, and the medicine that Ralphie's mom gave him, defeat the bacteria, and Ralphie gets better. This episode is also the favorite episode of the general in the "Spins a Web" episode and it's referenced in the "Works Out" episode.

Answer: Phoebe

Phoebe was transferred to Mrs. Frizzle's school and class from another school. Her old school was then amusingly renamed "Phoebe's Old School." I guess she was the only person that ever mattered there. Her old teacher was Mr. Seedplot, voiced by Robby Benson who also voiced the beast in "Beauty and the Beast."

In one episode, the class is going to be on the cover of "Plant it!" magazine, but Phoebe doesn't have a plant at her new school. She writes Mr. Seedplot asking him to bring her a plant from her old school to her new school, but then Mrs. Frizzle takes a class on a field trip to her old school. This terrifies Phoebe, who thinks that Mr. Seedplot will not understand a school bus that shapeshifts and changes sizes and that he will that Phoebe has gone nuts. The class goes on a field trip through Phoebe's flower and learns of the different parts of the flower. They then get a flower, and they ride on Mr. Seedplot back to Phoebe's new school. Carlos convinces Phoebe to think about everything Mrs. Frizzle has done. Phoebe than concedes that while she loves Mr. Seedplot, Mrs. Frizzle is an even better teacher. Mr. Seedplot brought Phoebe a flower as she requested, but that turned out to not be necessary. Phoebe then learns that Mrs. Frizzle and Mr. Seedplot knew each other, and and that he's actually a huge fan of her. During the "Talk to the producer" part of the show at the end, Mr. Seedplot is seen writing a love letter to Mrs. Frizzle. This is when we first learn that her first name is Valerie.

Answer: Dorothy Ann

Dorothy Ann is a bookworm. She reads a lot and she tells the class relevant information that is, as she says, "According to my research."

In one episode, she and Carlos have an argument over reading because Carlos says that it's a waste of time. On the subsequent field trip to find a new island, she drops her book bag into the water. Mrs. Frizzle then dedicates much of the rest of the field trip to finding the book bag. Carlos and Arnold stay on the boat to find an island. The book bag ends up on the boat, with all the books somehow in perfect shape even though they got wet. Carlos then reads one of the books to Arnold. Dorothy Ann learns that she can make her own observations, she doesn't need books. Carlos then learns the joy of reading. After their argument at the beginning of the episode, both Carlos and Dorthy Ann concede that they were both right. But then when they decide to write a book together, they get an another argument over the order of the names.

In another episode, the class goes on a field trip in one of Dorothy Ann's books. The bus gets trapped in the book at one point.

Answer: Carlos

Carlos is known for being the class clown. He makes jokes, which are often followed by the rest of the class, unamused, saying "Carlos!" This running gag sometimes happens with some of the other characters, even with Mrs. Frizzle, but it happens most often with Carlos.

Despite all his jokes, Carlos is a good student. In one of the more memorable episodes of the series, he invents a new musical instrument. Originally, the musical instrument sounds terrible. He tries putting more things on the instrument, but it just sounds worse and worse. One their field trip to the sound museum, Carlos hears a sound that's both haunting and beautiful. Against the wishes of the rest of the students, Carlos insists on going into the museum when it's closed for the night and finding out the source of the sound. The class learns all about sounds, and at the end they finally find the source of the sound. It was coming from an organ played by the woman who owns the museum (she inherited it from her great-grandmother). She tells Carlos that there was too much stuff on his instrument for it to vibrate properly. Carlos takes off most of the stuff, and the instrument sounds great. The museum owner buys the instrument and adds it to her museum.

Answer: Tim

In the 1990's, several TV shows had an African American boy who was smarter than everybody else. "Arthur" had Allen, AKA The Brain. "Wishbone" had David. "The Magic School Bus" had Tim.

Tim is the only human in the class that doesn't have a saying he always says or some kind of running gag. However, he is usually the first of all the kids to observe and learn things. In one episode, he designs a perfectly functioning award-winning model airplane by himself, although he accidentally breaks the remote control that operates it.

Tim's grandfather is a beekeeper. Every summer Tim delivers jars of honey to people. In one episode, Tim's bike falls over and the jars break and the honey goes down the drain (literally), and Mrs. Frizzle takes the class on a field trip to get some new honey.

Answer: Mrs. Frizzle

Mrs. Frizzle is an eccentric teacher. She owns a magic bus that shapeshifts and changes sizes. Every day she takes the class on a field trip that couldn't happen in real life. If Mrs. Frizzle and her magic bus existed in real life, you could never get a parent to sign a permission slip for her field trips. They are dangerous, and in real life these field trips could kill everyone involved. When the rest of the class is terrified, Mrs. Frizzle is the one person who rarely worries. She knows everything will be all right in the end. She's even calm when she's about to get eaten by a spider, and she's even disappointed when Tim saves her! In some of the episodes in season three and season four though, even she gets terrified. One thing that scared her is when she designed a pinball machine, but she kept losing the game and nearly lost a bet with the principal. Another thing that worried her is when her class almost lost a debate with Janet on whether or not to build a mall in the swamp.

These field trips may be dangerous, but the kids learn more from just one of Mrs. Frizzle's field trips than you or I could learn in all of elementary school, middle school, high school, and college put together!

Answer: Liz

Liz is a lizard who is Mrs. Frizzle's pet. She can't talk, but she is capable of doing many things only humans can do, such as understanding human speak, operating the magic school bus, wearing clothes, banging a gavel, and plating a flag in the ground with a picture of her face on it. One of her favorite places is "Herp Haven," a place that lives up to its name.

In one episode, Mrs. Frizzle sends her there for vacation, but the class thinks that something terrible has happened to her. There is an island named after her because she was the first to discover it and plant a flag there.

She also appears in many of the "Talk to the producer" segments at the end of each show.