Line #43 Main/MagicBus


1	!!! [[center:'''This is a page for the trope ''Magic Bus''. For pages with similar names, see also:'''\
2	The Japanese animation studio ''[[Creator/MagicBus Magic Bus]]'']]
3	%% Image selected per thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1456564779084926000
4	%% Do not change or remove without starting a new thread.
5	%%
6	[[quoteright:350:[[Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/magic_schoolbus.jpg]]]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350: ''Seat belts, everyone!'']]
8
9	->''"Gimme a hundred''
10	->''I won't take under''
11	->''It goes like thunder''
12	->''It's a bus-age wonder!"''
13	-->-- '''Music/TheWho''', "Magic Bus"
14
15	A vehicle which is capable of much more than you would expect from a standard vehicle of that same make and model. May or may not actually be alive to some degree or another (sentient [=AIs=] don't count, except when they're not supposed to be sentient in the first place). AWizardDidIt or ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve is basically inherently part of the description as to ''why'' it has these abilities; mundane causes like user customization/upgrades don't count.
16
17	Typically has quite a bit of overlap with CoolCar, CoolShip, etc.
18
19	TropeNamer is Music/TheWho's song "Magic Bus," although that is not an example.
20
21	For the {{anime}} studio founded by Satoshi Dezaki (Creator/OsamuDezaki's brother), [[Creator/MagicBus click here]].
22
23	----
24	!!Examples
25	[[foldercontrol]]
26	[[folder:ComicBooks]]
27	* Creator/GrantMorrison's run on ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'' featured a story in which Mr. Nobody made a bid for the presidency and travelled across the country in a bus powered by Albert Hofmann's bicycle. The trade compilation of this story is titled "Magic Bus". Yeah, it was that kind of comic.
28	* Sheba, Briscoe's BlackHelicopter, in ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' may be this. Nemesis thinks its all done with technological wizardry, but Briscoe keeps slyly hinting that there is something out of the ordinary about Sheba.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Film]]
32	%%* Herbie, the Volkswagen Beetle from ''Film/TheLoveBug'' is sentient and able to drive himself.
33	%%* The Bluesmobile in ''Film/TheBluesBrothers''.
34	* The titular car from ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang'' sprouts wings and a propeller that allow it to fly.
35	%%* The bus in ''Film/MagicalMysteryTour'', most likely.
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Literature]]
39	* The eponymous vehicle of ''Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus'' is sentient and has numerous magical abilities ranging from shapeshifting to time travel.
40	* Several from ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
41	** The Weasley family car, which is an enchanted Ford Anglia that [[FlyingCar can fly]] and is sentient.
42	** The Knight Bus, a heavily enchanted, purple, triple-decker bus that transports witches and wizards.
43	** Sirius Black owned a flying motorbike, which he lent to Hagrid the night Harry's parents died.
44	** The Hogwarts Express, while being probably the most famous vehicle in the series and exclusively used by the wizarding world, is [[AvertedTrope an aversion]]; it shows no signs of magical properties at any point (except perhaps in the nature of the platform it leaves from and its ultimate destination). Although the fact it manages to leave on time every September with no delays for leaves on the line or the late departure of an earlier train or any other excuse painfully familiar to users of UsefulNotes/NationalRail might count.
45	* In ''The Mouse and the Motorcycle'' by Creator/BeverlyCleary, the aforementioned mouse is able to ride a toy motorcycle as if it were the real thing just by sitting on the seat and making engine noises.
46	* The Scalawagons, in the Literature/LandOfOz, a whole series of sentient, flying taxis invented by the Wizard of Oz in book 35 of the series, for public transit in the Emerald City. They run on Flabber Gas.
47	* The '57 Chevy from John De Chancie's ''Starrigger'' series. While it's stated that its abilities are the product of science, they are far beyond even the high-tech background of the setting, including inertial damping, artificial gravity, and some form of invisible streamlining.
48	[[/folder]]
49	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
50	* In ''Series/MyMotherTheCar'', the main character's mother has somehow reincarnated as a classic car.
51	%%* Nekomaru from ''Series/NinjaSentaiKakuranger''.
52	* [[Creator/SidAndMartyKrofftProductions Sid and Marty Krofft's]] ''Wonderbug'', an adventure-comedy about three kids, their [[TheAllegedCar barely-functional dune buggy]] named Schlep Car, and a magic horn that transforms Schlep into the titular Wonderbug, a golden dune buggy with a face that can fly (among other fabulous powers).
53	[[/folder]]
54	[[folder:Pinball]]
55	* In ''Pinball/JunkYard'', one of the scrapped vehicles is a bus that somehow bestows benefits and other bonuses to the player if he or she can get the ball up there. It's even called the Magic Bus. A NewAgeRetroHippie lives in it, which he has painted into psychedelic colors and flowers.
56	[[/folder]]
57	[[folder:Video Games]]
58	* The King of Red Lions from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' first appears to be a stern, regal talking boat. It's later revealed that the boat is enchanted by [[spoiler:the lost King Hyrule]], though it's never explicitly stated whether he's a ghost that's possessing the boat, or alive and controlling the boat magically.
59	* The trailer for ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'''s 2023 Lunar Revel features Zoe driving one of these that collects the other characters in the Storycraft universe.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Websites]]
63	* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': One of the "safe" SCPs is [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1958 a VW microbus]] (the "hippie van") capable of Earth-to-orbit and sealed up for use in space travel. Deconstruction ensues when it turns out it's actually no ''faster'' than a normal bus, the beatniks who intended to go to Alpha Centauri in a month end up dying of ''scurvy'' of all things long before (as in, almost 40 million years before) they reached it.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
67	%%* Crazy Bus, from ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}''.
68	* The eponymous vehicle of ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus'' is sentient and has numerous magical abilities ranging from shapeshifting to time travel.
69	%%* The Chan Van from ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingChanAndTheChanClan''.
70	%%* WesternAnimation/{{Hong Kong Phooey}}'s Phooeymobile.
71	* Professor Pat Pending's Convert-a-Car on ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'' is equipped with an improbable number of gadgets and can transform into other objects.
72	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MagicBus