The Magic School Bus In the Arctic
Original airdate: September 21st, 1996
Subject: Heat
Focus Student(s): Arnold, Wanda, Ralphie, Phoebe
Arnold is delighted that the cafeteria is serving hot chocolate with marshmallows. He's not so delighted, however, when sitting by an open window leads to his chocolate getting cold. Ms. Frizzle then takes the class on a field trip to the Arctic, where the bus engine freezes up and grounds them.
Producers Segment
The male producer answers the questions about the episode while it snows outside. In the meantime, Liz uses various tools to rebuild the device used to shoot blubber at most of the class and winds up using it on the producer and the audience.
Tropes
- Book Ends: The episode starts and ends with Arnold getting hot chocolate, and a "bully" taking his seat.
- The Bully: Subverted. Although the guy who takes Arnold's seat is large and appears mean, he actually makes room for Arnold at the end when he sees the cute little jacket that Arnold made for his cocoa. It also turns out that he's actually one of Miss Frizzle's former students (he had her as a teacher the previous school year).
- Casting Gag: Harry Arm (who was in Miss Frizzle's class last year) is voiced by Amos Crawley, who previously voiced Arnold in the first season. For bonus points, both characters are redheads, and he serves as a Stealth Mentor to Arnold (voiced by Danny Tamberelli in season two onward).
- Chekhov's Lecture: The polar bear's heat-retaining fur gives Arnold the idea to build a similar structure to trap heat around the bus and thaw out the engine.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Liz blubberizes the Producer as punishment for putting her through Arctic levels of cold.
- Diabolus ex Machina: The class comes up with the idea of placing a bunch of hot water bottles in the bus engine to heat it up and get it going, but before they can put it into play the ice they're standing on cracks, separating them from Ralphie, Phoebe, and the bus. It then becomes a race against time to save the bus before the ice cracks completely and submerges it.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Arnold when he at first thinks to construct something that will retain heat within the bus, and when Liz comes across igloo equipment.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Liz during the Producers Segment covers the audience in blubber.
- Mundane Utility: The class tears pages out of DA's book to stuff into their jackets for isolation. It's the only time she acquiesces to such damage.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ms. Frizzle searching for thicker jackets while driving leads to her submerging the bus in icy water for a few minutes, freezing the engine. Given her usual modus operandi, however, it could be All According to Plan.
- Punny Name: The kid who takes Arnold's seat is named Harry Arm.
- Swapped Roles: Arnold's the one who suggested to go on a field trip to find out why his hot chocolate turned cold, while Wanda is the one who wants to go home because she hates the cold.
- That's No Moon: When the class is threatened by a polar bear, Ms. Frizzle shrinks them so that they end up in a "forest" of tall, thin trees. When Keesha climbs one, though, she finds that they're on the polar bear.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ralphie asking if the class jackets are too thin for the cold leads to Ms. Frizzle searching for alternatives while driving, leading her to drive the bus into the ocean momentarily.
- Valley Girl: Miss Frizzle has a niece (named "Moon Valley") who talks like this.
- Wham Shot: The ice cracking and setting the bus on a drifting course to sea.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Wanda hates the cold. So of course this week's fields trip is in the Arctic.
