Trivia / The Magic School Bus Rides Again

• Celebrity Voice Actor: Along with Lily Tomlin reprising her role as Professor Frizzle and Lin-Manuel Miranda singing the show's theme, Will Arnett and Sandra Oh guest star in the first season. Jay Baruchel, Nathan Fillion, Catherine O'Hara and Martin Short also appear in the second season.
• Children Voicing Children: As with the original series, the child characters in Rides Again are once again voiced by real children.
• Cross-Regional Voice Acting: Rides Again features voice actors from both the U.S. and Canada, a tradition carried over from the first series.
• International Coproduction: Like the previous series, Rides Again was co-produced by Scholastic Entertainment in the U.S. and by 9 Story Media Group in Canada.
• He Also Did:
  • Writer George Arthur Bloom not only worked on the original Magic School Bus, but also served as head writer for Cyberchase and a slew of 80s cartoons, including the specials, movie, and the first 14 episodes of G1 My Little Pony and the first three episodes of The Transformers.
  • Story editors and writers Suzanne Bolch and John May also previously worked on Blazing Dragons, Stickin' Around, The Famous Jett Jackson and Jimmy Two-Shoes (John only), as well for co-creating Connor Undercover and Captain Flamingo. May also worked on the original Magic School Bus as one of the show's original writers.
• In Memoriam: The 2020 specials were dedicated to Joanna Cole, who succumbed to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis one month before the premiere of "Kids in Space".
• The Other Darrin:
  • For obvious reasons, the child actors from the original series were replaced.
  • For the 2020 specials, Roman Lutterotti and Matthew Mucci respectively voiced Arnold Perlstein and Ralphie Tennelli due to Miles Koseleci-Vieira and Matthew Mintz aging out of the roles.
  • Also played straight in almost every dub. The Latin Spanish dub moved from Mexico to Colombia; the Italian dub moved from Milan to Rome (Tim's original voice actress, Monica Bonetto, died in May 2017); and the German dub moved from Berlin (redub) to Hamburg.
• Playing Against Type: The perpetually upbeat Galapagos Gil is one of the few even remotely friendly characters whom Will Arnett has played.
• Role Reprise:
  • Lily Tomlin reprises her role of Ms. Frizzle, now Professor Frizzle.
    • In the European Spanish dub, Cristina Yuste returns as Dorothy Ann.
    • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, everyone returned from the Netflix redub of season 1 except Arnold.
    • In the Hungarian dub, Dániel Hamvas (Tim), Levente Molnár (Carlos), Ilona Molnár (Keesha), and Kati Zsurzs (Professor Frizzle) reprise their roles from the original series.
  • In "In the Zone", both Amos Crawley and Miles KV return as Arnold, albeit in different forms (Crawley as an elderly version of Arnold and KV as Captain Rock Man).
• Saved from Development Hell: It was announced in 2014 but no new plot details came out until summer of 2017. The only info between that period were a few pieces of concept art.
• Science Marches On: Many of the original series' facts had become outdated by 2017, which is why Rides Again was created.
• Sequel Gap: 23 years since the original series debuted and 20 years since the final episode aired.
• Studio Hop: Animation jumped from Nelvana on the original series to 9 Story Media Group.
• What Could Have Been
  • The series was originally going to be named The Magic School Bus 360° and be animated in CGI. The shift to ToonBoom was presumably due to most of the budget being blown on Kate McKinnon and Lin-Manuel Miranda, though the bus itself is still CGI.
  • Concept art indicates that the show was originally going to be Ms. Frizzle with a new class of kids. Humorously enough, the final product is inverted: it's (mostly) the same kids, but a new Ms. Frizzle.
  • Concept art shows that Wanda originally had a skunk stripe.

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