The Magic School Bus Cartoon Series

The last day of school before winter break is spent sorting recycling items to send to the recycling center, thanks to a suggestion from Arnold. Wanda isn't as enthusiastic, wanting to hurry so she can go see The Nutcracker, which is offering free entry if a toy to be donated is brought. She plans to give her favorite toy soldier. Ms. Frizzle then comes around and assists the class with their recycling spree. Once Arnold arrives, he shows Wanda an early Hanukkah present he got from his mother: a rock, which Wanda takes a liking to. Ms. Frizzle takes the class to the recycling center, which her cousin, Katrina Eloise "Murph" Murphy, owns and runs. Ms. Frizzle introduces the class to her cousin and the class begins sorting. During the chaos of the sorting, Arnold accidentally throws in Wanda's soldier, which she witnesses getting recycled. Wanda tries to warn Murph, but the latter can't hear her due to having on earmuffs. Wanda is then forced to watch in horror as her soldier ends up getting compacted along with the rest of the junk. Wanda is seen sadly holding the plastic pellets of her soldier and her sadness turns to anger as she yells at Arnold, saying she didn't blame him, but rather, blames his "crummy idea". A remorseful Arnold tries to make amends with his good intentions, but Wanda refuses to listen, complaining that she will now have to miss the ballet. Phoebe insensitively tries smooth things over and suggests a sullen Wanda think of the good things recycling does. She snaps at her, "Okay, Phoebe, name three," which she can't; Phoebe just feels sure it's a good thing. In her fury, Wanda wishes recycling had never been invented. When Ms. Frizzle contemplates granting Wanda's wish, Murph immediately advises against it, warning, "It won't be a purty [sic] sight." Still, she follows along and Liz activates the Un-Recycler, which fires a laser beam that causes the recycle center to transform into a huge pile of trash. As Ms. Frizzle drives the Bus, the Un-Recycler gets rid of the trees and newspapers. Since newspapers have to be made with wood, all the trees have been cut down, which Phoebe tells Wanda is the first reason recycling is good. Wanda, however, is relieved that her favorite soldier probably didn't get cut into pellets. The recycle bins also disappear and more garbage has to go back to the city dump, which can only accommodate so much garbage. The Bus stops to the park, and to the class's surprise, the Un-Recycler trashes the playground material into tin cans and cartons. As the Bus approaches Walkerville Elementary School, the Un-Recycler takes aim, transforming it into a trash dump. Tim also tells Wanda that more garbage is the second reason why recycling is vital. Wanda decides to just forget about her soldier and apologizes for messing up the town. When Wanda laments her wish and asks why she ever contemplated getting rid of recycling was such a good idea, she inadvertently sets off the Un-Recycler, which converts the Bus into all the recyclables that made it what it is. Wanda is now seriously regretful of what she has done. The class asks what the Bus has to do with the recyclable junk (as well as the swing sets and benches), and they try to figure out how to rebuild it into the junk it transformed into. Ralphie learns that the bottles are made of glass like Bus's windows, Dorothy Ann learns that the cans are aluminum like its chassis, and Phoebe finds that the green bottles are plastic, like everything else on the Bus (such as the seats, dashboard, and even some of the MagicWare materials, like the Portable Shrinkerscope and the Dew Dinger alarm). Wanda then figures out that it takes glass, aluminum, and plastic to rebuild the Bus, and Murph tells the class to melt the bottles to make new things out of old material, similar to how the plastic melted in the recycling plant. The class collaborates and melts the material in the cousins' portable recycling vat. The class and Frizzles finally fix the Magic School Bus, and Wanda then learns that certain materials made out of glass, plastic, and aluminum wouldn't be made without recycling, being the third reason why recycling is important. She also learns that recycling something to make something old or new saves the natural resources. Ms. Frizzle tweaks The Magic School Bus so it could undo what Wanda has wished. Everything is now back to where it was before, and the recycling plant is back. Arnold then suggests that the plastic pellets should be used to make new toy soldiers. So Wanda helps Murph make new toy soldiers and everyone gets one each. Arnold says he has to take care of his sick grandmother for the first night of Hanukkah, and won't be able to make it to the The Nutcracker with the rest of the class. Wanda is also offered her bag back and notices Arnold's rock, given to her as a gift by him. The rest of the class, along with Murph, make it on the train with Arnold to celebrate Hanukkah, and had decided not to go to The Nutcracker stating that some things are more important than going to see a play. Wanda also thanks Arnold for the rock and offers him plastic pellets as a gift. Arnold thanks Wanda, and Murph dedicates a song to recycling as the class sings along with her. The Bus, attached to the train, rides along, as the class breaks the fourth wall and wishes the viewers a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, and happy Kwanzaa.

At Wanda's house, Wanda is asked by her mother to keep an eye on William since the magazine changed the time of the telephone meeting in the last minute. So Wanda decides to take William along with her on a field trip to the suspension bridge that's being built. She arrives onto the bus and Ms. Frizzle arrives with the rest of the class and they go inside Wanda's house. Liz makes a block tower for William, who tears it apart after he pulls Liz's tail and causes the lizard to run into it. The class decide to build a new tower for him and William tampers with the Porta-Shrinker. The class struggle to keep the blocks up and the tower eventually falls over. They notice that William has the Porta-Shrinker and the toddler ends up shrinking the class down to size. He also ends up shrinking the bus as well and things get worse when William steps onto the Porta-Shrinker, destroying it completely. So the class run inside the bathroom and Liz is left to care for William. Dorothy Ann comes up with the idea to make a human tower to reach the doorknob. But Carlos reminds the class that without foundation, they would topple over, just like the tower of blocks. So he comes up with the idea to start with three on the bottom. Unfortunately, they aren't tall enough to reach the knob. So Wanda decides to climb out the window, in which the class should build a tower to get onto the toilet, built one to get on top of the sink, and build a bridge to get across the tub and to the window. So the class build a pyramid and use the hair rollers to build a tower on top of the pyramid. Little do they know, the dog has grabbed the Bus and taken it to William's bedroom, to which William plays with it, calling it "Bussy". They successfully make the tower to get on top of the toilet. Wanda is the first to climb on top and slip on the toilet seat, holding on to the edge to try to keep herself from falling in. The class uses a cue tip to save Wanda and the class decides to build a bridge to reach across the toilet seat. While Mrs. Li is on the phone with her co-worker, Sonia, the class builds a bridge, only for it to snap when Wanda walks onto it, because it wasn't strong enough to hold her weight. So the class uses hairpins with gumdrops adhered to each end to build a triangular-shaped bridge that holds up sturdily as they walk across the toilet seat with it. Wanda ends up falling off the toilet and hold onto the toilet paper to land onto the ground smoothly. She grabs the toilet paper (transformed into a long rope) and climbs back onto the toilet to join the rest of the class. Ms. Frizzle uses the toilet paper rope as a lasso to grab onto the water faucet of the sink and the class slide onto the rope and on top of the sink. Wanda then notices an alligator inside the tub and the class notices as well. The class then learns that Wanda's mother only writes what she knows, which includes an alligator in the bath tub. Wanda uses the mirror cabinet for more material, using the dental floss to get across the tub and a pin for a hook. Wanda slides through the floss and to the window. The rest of the class decides to suspend the bridge and uses more floss and some bandages to make a suspension bridge as they get across. They end up onto a window seal and slide down the water spout. Meanwhile, Liz tries everything she could to take the Bus off of William. She soon digs through William's toybox to find an actual toy vehicle and finds a truck, prompting William to swap the Bus for the truck, calling it "twuck". Liz then brings the Magic School Bus outside right on time for the rest of the class to grow back in size using it. Wanda runs back inside her house and in William's bedroom and Mrs. Li, having finally finished her business call, lets her join the rest of her class to take a trip to the construction site. After Wanda leaves, Mrs. Li discovers the broken port-a-shrinker and tosses it inside the toy box, oblivious to the fact that the port-a-shrinker has caused the toy box to shrink in size.

The class has gone to a drive-in movie, where Stand by Your Mantis (1953) is showing, about General Araneus, who is attempting to destroy a giant praying mantis. Carlos and Phoebe aren't enjoying it. Carlos doesn't like insects, and Phoebe is upset of how unrealistic the movie is. When Carlos freaks out when a spider crawls onto his book, Phoebe catches it and lets it out, and telling Carlos the difference between insects and arachnids. Ms. Frizzle returns with popcorn and in the movie, the soldiers attempt to destroy the mantis with bug spray. Phoebe deplores this and declares that if she were in the movie, she'd trap the mantis, take it somewhere safe, and let it go. Naturally, this gives Ms. Frizzle an idea: materializing the Bus into the movie's universe. Inside the movie, they look for the military command center to search for General Araneus. They finally find him and the praying mantis corners them. They hide under the table and run back into to the bus, which General Araneus controls. He presses a button that ejects the class out of the movie shrunken and takes Liz along with him. Keesha and Phoebe also end up stuck to a large spider web. The two struggle to extricate themselves out of the web and spot a fly onto the rock. They try to keep it away from the web, but to no avail. Just then, a spider arrives, and Phoebe learns that they are the professional trappers. Tim cuts one of the lines of the web and Keesha and Phoebe fall into a large popcorn bag. The class watch as the spider wraps the fly with its web. They watch the movie to find that General Araneus is driving the Bus, and Liz attempts to hit one of the buttons, only to get squelched by the general, who attempts to use Liz as bait for the praying mantis. The class then comes across a centipede and run away. They watch as the spider comes out from under the soil and steals the centipede. Phoebe learns that the spider hiding is its other technique to catching insects and that that kind of spider is called the trapdoor spider, which hides inside until an insect comes around for them to catch it. The class then runs away when the spider reappears and notice that a beetle is shunned by the spider once it approaches its trapdoor. They run from and beetle a hide inside another trap. They exit just in time to watch General Araneus still driving The Magic School Bus. They run to the movie, only for Ms. Frizzle to get caught by the Deinopis spider, which takes its trap to the food. So the class saves their teacher and watch the movie in horror as the general has Liz in his hand. Liz uses her tail to press one of the buttons to suck the class into the movie and onto The Magic School Bus. Liz escapes out of his grip and Phoebe attempts to make a web to trap the general. But the general catches Liz and brings her with him as he exits the Bus. Phoebe ends up tangled in her own web and the general takes a pizza car to drive away. The class returns to the Bus and Arnold tells Phoebe, "only a giant spider could trap that general", giving Phoebe an idea: transform the Bus into a giant spider and search for the general. They use the Bus' trapping techniques to capture the pizza car, only to discover that the general has already left. They let the car go, but not before ordering some pizza themselves. Wanda asks "Okay, okay. What did we learn from this?" to which Carlos jokingly answers "Never order mushrooms and anchovies on the same pizza." They spot the general hanging onto the ladder of the helicopter, and the Bus creates a spider web between two buildings. The helicopter gets the attention of the praying mantis, which follows the helicopter. The general ends up on the web, but manages to escape out of his shoes and runs off. So Phoebe decides to take the trap to the mantis instead and uses the deinopis spider's technique to catch the praying mantis. The class exits the Spider Bus and Wanda and Dorothy Ann rescue Liz. The general ends up in his own trap and Liz uses the Porta-Shrinker to return the praying mantis back to normal size. Phoebe frees the mantis and lets it fly away. The class returns out of the movie and Carlos has gotten over his aversion of spiders. Ms. Frizzle states that, "There's nothing like a spider to teach you everything you need to know" (which she has derived from her great uncle) as the film's epilogue is shown to say The End... After this scene, the Mantis appears, and the text Or is it? displays.

Wanda and Tim have built a model airplane together for the local model airplane show, though the former says that the latter based on "her dream and idea". Wanda has a desire to be an ace test pilot known as "Wildcat Wanda". Ms. Frizzle then arrives via hang glider and says she was checking the wind conditions for the airplane to fly in the show. Arnold is worried that they will go on a field trip and shrink inside the plane, and Ms. Frizzle likes the idea. Liz turns on the Portashrinker and gives it to Phoebe, who shrinks her classmates and Ms. Frizzle small enough to fit in the plane. Phoebe, Tim, and Liz stay on the ground to operate the remote control as the students and teacher get in the plane, which takes off in the air. Phoebe gets a hold of the remote control and pushes the right lever down, causing the plane to tilt up. Dorothy Ann reads in one of her books that when the plane's nose tips too far up and slows down, it is known as a stall. Tim warns Phoebe about the stall and she pulls the plane up just in time to keep it from crashing. Phoebe and Tim then decide to land the plane, as the show will soon be happening. Unfortunately, as Tim looks for a suitable landing spot, he accidentally trips over a pair of binoculars and drops the remote control, smashing it on the ground. This causes the plane to continue flying out of control away from the school. Tim, Phoebe and Liz get in the Bus and make it transform into an airplane. Unfortunately because of its impractical design, it cannot make moving air to create lift and stays standing on the ground. Meanwhile, Wanda is left unable to steer the plane, which suddenly drops due to Ralphie impetuously turning a lever attached to the side down, which causes the wings to fold (he thought it might help them steer). The other students quickly push the wings back down and Ralphie locks them again as the plane regains airspeed. The class then learns that moving thin air is what's holding up the wings as Carlos and Dorothy Ann are still holding onto the wings. They fly through some bubbles, which visually illustrates the thin air moving across the plane's wings. Meanwhile, Tim, Phoebe, and Liz try to turn the Bus into various different airplanes. They transform it into a motor plane with ten wings, but it is still too heavy for the air to hold up and collapses. The bus appears to be angry with Liz for this. The class in the model airplane continue to fly through the air until the motor dies and propeller stops turning. Dorothy reads in her book that the propeller keeps the plane moving forward, and when it slows down the plane falls, or rather, glides down and eventually crash lands in a high tree branch. Meanwhile, just as Tim suggests to Phoebe that they should try to find the plane on foot, Liz turns the Bus into a Wright Flyer plane and finally gains enough altitude to really get flying in the air. When The Magic School Biplane is about to crash into the city hall, Liz transforms it into a World War 2 era plane and makes it fly higher to the sky. While the model plane is still stuck in the tree, the class initially despairs of ever getting out. Wanda, however, refuses to give up and helps them remember the thin air moving across the wings as the factor that helped them fly earlier. The moving air also causes planes to lift, but then Ralphie and Carlos point out that they need something to help them get moving, then flying. When a bald eagle lands on top of the tree branch ahead of them, Wanda suggests that the class use the eagle to tow them back up into the air. Arnold adds that birds flap their wings in order to stay in the air and Ms. Frizzle suggests having the class use bike pedals to make the propeller turn. She also tells them how flapping wings can have the same effect as a spinning propeller. While Tim, Liz, and Phoebe continue with their search and rescue mission, the class uses the eagle to get themselves back in air by tying one end of a rope to the plane. The Frizz then lassoes the eagle's ankle as it flies in the air and it pulls them skyward. The other students pedal with all of their strength to move the propeller and get the plane flying again as Arnold unties the rope, only to end up flying along with the eagle. A terrified Arnold clings hard to the rope and gradually manages to climb up and onto the eagle's back. Ms. Frizzle points out to Arnold how the eagle is using its tail to move back and forth through the moving air. Arnold uses the tail to steer the eagle back to the flying model airplane. Wanda grabs the rope and Arnold slides down back onto the airplane as the eagle finally flies away. The class continues to pedal, only for the plane to go spinning out of control. Because of how well Arnold did with steering the eagle, he is given the job of steering the plane by pushing and pulling on the rudder flaps with his hands and feet. Before long, the plane ends up in the model air show, as does the bus-plane. Liz transforms the bus into a giant seaplane and, with her help, the class manages to land safely on its flattened roof. Later, at the air show, Wanda explains the physics of flight (in rhyme) and she and Tim win the trophy, which they share with the rest of the class, wanting to give them credit for their accomplishments. Ms. Frizzle then concludes, "Sometimes, you have to do the wrong stuff to find out what the right stuff really is" as Liz is seen taking a wild ride on the model airplane.