The Magic School Bus the Busasaurus
Original airdate: September 23, 1995
Subject: Dinosaurs
Focus Student(s): Arnold, Phoebe, Carlos
The class couldn't be more excited to visit a real paleontological dig, where the scientists have found an intact T-Rex skeleton. Things only get more exciting, however, when Ms. Frizzle takes the class back in time 67 million years, and they see dinosaurs in the flesh.
Producers Segment
Dr. Skeledon answers the questions about the episode.
Tropes
- Adapted Out: Jeff, the paleontologist from the book The Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs, does not appear in the episode; Dr. Skeledon replaces him.
- Adaptation Distillation: The Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs was more expansive in its study of dinosaurs; this one focuses solely on the Late Cretaceous period in order to fit inside a half-hour block.
- Alternate Catch Phrase Inflection: Keesha usually says "Oh bad, oh bad, oh bad, bad, bad, bad bad!" in a fearful tone when things get out of control. She disgustedly says "Oh bad!" when the class gets a faceful of rancid T-Rex breath as the dinosaur tries to push the bus over.
- Anachronism Stew: While Pteranodon, Parasaurolophus, and Maiasaura are Late Cretaceous animals, they didn't live 67 million years ago (they went extinct 5 million years earlier).
- Artistic License – Paleontology: The episode did their best to avert this, but
unfortunately it has become dated as of late:- Alamosaurus looks like a generic "brontosaur". It is now known titanosaurs are closely related to Brachiosaurus and have longer forelimbs. Sauropods also have only one claw on the forefoot.
- Ornithomimus and Troodon should be omnivores, rather than true carnivores. They should also have feathers (it's debatable whether Tyrannosaurus has them though).
- The theropods have pronated hands.
- Hadrosaurs should have hoof-like hands.
- Thanks to digital technology, it turns out Parasaurolophus's call sounded differently
than what was heard in the episode. - The Triceratops are depicted with padded feet. In real life, ceratopsian feet were more complicated, with the forefeet having two clawless toes that do not touch the ground.
- Troodon's validity has been questioned as of late. The troodontids in the episode should be better identified as Pectinodon (once considered synonymous with Troodon).
- Tyrannosaurus wasn't the biggest meat-eating dinosaur. That title was given to Giganotosaurus and then to Spinosaurus—which, incidentally, would've received the title far earlier if not for World War II and those pesky Nazis.
- Bad Vibrations: Like in Jurassic Park, the T. rex shakes the earth with its footsteps and can be felt from a distance away. The Triceratops herd sense these vibrations and immediately flee, knowing what's coming.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Carlos tells Arnold that the field trip would have been even cooler if they could have seen real dinosaurs in all their ferocious glory. He's not happy when Ms. Frizzle actually takes him up on the offer.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Ms. Frizzle dives into this as the T. rex attacks the bus.Hmm, I wonder if this insurance policy covers dino damage.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Arnold says that if he had known he would be chasing a hungry dinosaur for an egg, he would've "gotten off the bus 67 million years earlier".
- Coy, Girlish Flirt Pose: At the end of the episode, Phoebe does this while saying, "It's a good thing you didn't stay home today, Arnold!"
- The Day the Dinosaurs Died: Subverted. The meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs is shown, but only in a Rewind Gag where all the fallen trees rise back up and the meteor goes back into outer space. As the time traveling Magic School Bus finally stops, Ms. Frizzle reveals to the class that they travelled sixty-seven millions years into the past, meaning that the class won't be seeing any meteor action for another million years or so.
- Determinator: Arnold is determined to return Dr. Skeledon's egg unharmed, even if it means chasing an unknown dinosaur into the jungle. While Phoebe isn't sure if this is a wise move, she admires his principle.
- Dogged Nice Girl: Downplayed. It's heavily implied that Phoebe gets a crush on Arnold, but at the end of the episode, despite the fact she helped him get the egg back and uses obvious body language to show her interest in him, he's oblivious and pretty much ignores her in the end.
- The Dreaded: You know the T. rex is bad news when a herd of Triceratops, who had easily driven off the Troodon pack moments ago, decides to flee from the scene.
- Dumb Dinos: Averted, despite Carlos's expectations of this trope. The dinosaurs are depicted as fairly intelligent. Even the predators are not willing to risk their lives just to get a meal.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Carlos believes that the dinosaurs are gunning for the kids and are dangerous. The fear of his friends getting hurt actually is legitimate since they nearly get trampled by the herbivores a few times, and the dinosaurs are wild animals. He finds out, however, that the dinosaurs don't mean malice, even the meat-eating ones.
- Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Subverted. Carlos believes this is the case when they end up separated from Arnold and Phoebe, but it turns out that most dinosaurs don't eat meat and the ones that do can be fended off.
- Evil Egg Eater: A sneaky Ornithomimus snatches Arnold's egg and runs off, forcing him and Phoebe to chase after it. The Ornithomimus has snake-like appearance and the kids speculate it only eats eggs rather than plants or meat.
- Face Palm: Liz does this when Arnold and Phoebe run off after the Ornithomimus.
- Gentle Giant Sauropod: The Alamosaurus are completely docile towards the class, despite Carlos's insisting otherwise.
- The Glasses Come Off: Arnold puts his glasses away when facing the T. rex.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: While it's done for an Aesop, it's slightly bizarre to see the mother plant-eaters being perfectly okay with having a bunch of strange mammals going so close to their babies.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Carlos's plan to get the Parasaurolophus to clear the way so they can rescue Arnold and Phoebe backfires when one of the dinosaurs ends up launching the class into egg nests.
- Idiot Ball: Arnold takes the egg off the bus, where it nearly breaks several times, rather than leaving it behind.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: This trope applies to many carnivorous dinosaurs, in that they want "an easy lunch, without getting hurt." While horns will scare off Troodon, Ms. Frizzle has to go to more drastic means to get rid of the T. rex.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Arnold undergoes this in order to stop the T. rex.
- MacGuffin: Dr. Skeledon's fossilized dinosaur egg, which regresses back into an egg. Arnold loses it to an Ornithomimus.
- Mammoths Mean Ice Age: A woolly mammoth shows up in the Ice Age as the class and bus are going back in time.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The class multiple times during the episode.
- First when they realize they're in the age of dinosaurs, and a herd of Alamosaurus come by for some salad.
- Second when the Troodon attack them.
- Third is when the T. rex attacks the bus, and Ms. Frizzle suggests exploring the Rex's digestive system.Class: Ms. Frizzle! DO SOMETHING!
- Narrative Shapeshifting: Liz telling Ms. Frizzle what happened to Arnold and Phoebe.(Liz holds her hands to her eyes, her fingers circled to look like glasses)
Frizzle: Arnold.
(Liz holds her hands next to her head to look like hair)
Frizzle: Phoebe.
(Liz poses like a predatory dinosaur)
Frizzle: An Ornithomimus? - Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Arnold and Phoebe accidentally wake up the T. rex when trying to dislodge the egg from its sleeping body.
- Oblivious to Love: Phoebe seems to make it clear in the end that she has a crush on Arnold, but that seems to go over his head.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Keesha when the Alamosaurus eats the leaf she's carrying and she thinks it's going to eat her.Keesha: Oh, bad! Oh, bad! Oh, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad!
- The Ornithomimus when it smells the nearby sleeping T. rex.
- Keesha when the Alamosaurus eats the leaf she's carrying and she thinks it's going to eat her.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Carlos drops the puns for this episode, opting instead to be the naysayer about dinosaurs being dangerous.
- Arnold is more proactive in first rescuing Dr. Skeledon's egg and then saving the class from the T. rex.
- Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Dorothy Ann theorizes that the T. rex is attacking them, a smaller group, because of this. Her theory is proven correct when Giant Arnold manages to scare off the other dinosaur with some karate moves.
- Prehistoric Monster: The episode teaches this is not the case, though Carlos initially believes in this.
- Raptor Attack: Downplayed with the Troodon. No feathers (due to the time the episode was made), but they don't display the ferocity or super-intelligence of Jurassic Park's version of their Velociraptor cousins.
- Rewind Gag: When the bus and class go back in time, everything important in geographical history happens backwards.
- Say My Name: Phoebe cries out "ARNOLD!" when he falls as the T. rex is chasing them.
- Ship Tease: Phoebe makes it blatantly obvious that she has a crush on Arnold when he refuses to give up on getting Dr. Skeledon's egg back, and then again after he finishes scaring off the T. rex.
- Shown Their Work:
- All the animals, though somewhat displaced in time and space, are principally from the Late Cretaceous and no Jurassic or Triassic fauna are anywhere in sight.
- Dorothy Ann and Dr. Skeledon both correctly point out that dinosaurs are not lizards.
- Social Ornithopod: Both the Parasaurolophus and Maiasaura are depicted as gregarious, with the latter naturally showing that dinosaurs can be Good Parents.
- Special Guest: Rita Moreno as Dr. Carmina Skeledon.
- Stock Sound Effects: For some reason, the Parasaurolophus' calls have porpoise noises in them.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Carlos expects that the dinosaurs will act like the fierce beasts that they are in the movies, and mindless to boot. It turns out that dinosaurs actually are thinking beings, not solely using their stomachs to guide them. Some may be fierce, but they're also pragmatic, not Super Persistent Predators.
- Downplayed; the kids note that the herbivores don't want to hurt them, and the mom dinosaurs mistake the kids as part of her nest brood given she spits up berries on them. Even so, whenever the herbivores are startled, it's shown that they will endanger the class if they happen to be in the way.
- Temper-Ceratops: Zig-zagged; the Triceratops are docile towards the class, but turn aggressive when a pack of Troodon attacks one of the young. But when they sense the approach of the T. rex, they promptly flee.
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: Of course the dinosaur-themed episode would feature a T. rex. Its very presence scares off the Triceratops herd despite having previously fended up the Troodon pack. It's even given the moniker as the "biggest meat-eater" by Ms. Frizzle. However, she ensures a subversion to the trope by making Arnold into a giant, revealing that the T. rex is just another animal who can be easily scared off by another, more powerful rival.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Somehow Arnold's footprint instead of the T. rex's skeleton is preserved at the dig. There is also Dr. Skeledon's fossil regressing into an egg.
- Wham Shot: Giant Arnold standing next to the T. rex and the bus.
- You Leave Him Alone!: When the T. rex grabs the bus in its mouth, Arnold yells at it to leave his class alone and calls it a bully. Luckily, Ms. Frizzle gives him the size to enforce the demand.
