People who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s are completely used to properties from their childhood getting some sort of modern revival. With Masters of the Universe now in theaters, a Thundercats movie on the way, and X-Men ‘97 season 2 hitting Disney Plus pretty soon, millennials have their hands full with reboots and revivals. Yet a new live-action adaptation of a nostalgic 1990s cartoon has just been announced and I can’t help but be excited by the potential of it all.
The Hollywood Reporter revealed on June 23 that a new live action film based on The Magic School Bus is in the works with director Rob Letterman and star Elizabeth Banks as Ms. Frizzle. Having previously directed the 2015 Goosebumps movie (the one where Jack Black plays R. L. Stine) and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, Letterman is well-versed in taking 1990s properties and turning them into successful films.
As for Banks, she’s got the comedy chops from projects like The Lego Movie, 30 Rock, Scrubs and many others to pull off the quirky Ms. Frizzle. While obviously The Magic School Bus is a children’s property, my hope is that the movie has a more all-ages vibe that parents can enjoy too, and Banks is a good choice for that. Plus, her Hunger Games character, Effie Trinket, already has some of that spunky weirdo energy Ms. Frizzle needs, so hopefully she leans in that direction for the adaptation. She’s such a strong choice that it seems she’s been attached to some version of the project since at least 2020, back when Universal was pursuing it, though now it’s being produced by Legendary instead.
The Magic School Bus began as a series of books in the 1980s written by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen. The stories featured elementary school teacher Ms. Frizzle taking her students on all kinds of journeys aboard a living school bus that could shrink to microscopic size. While the franchise is mostly remembered for venturing into the human body like the 1960s science-fiction film Fantastic Voyage, The Magic School Bus went on a variety of adventures to all kinds of locales, from outer space to the depths of volcanoes to the middle of a beehive. In the 1990s, the books were adapted into an educational PBS series starring Lily Tomlin, where it lasted 52 episodes spanning four seasons. In 2017, a revival series began on Netflix starring Kate McKinnon as the sister of the original Ms. Frizzle, who is retired in the sequel series, but still shows up in most of the 30 episodes produced.
The fact that The Magic School Bus is being adapted into a big-budget live-action movie is cause for excitement for the unique place it can explore in modern cinema. There are reboots of all kinds of action and superhero shows, but The Magic School Bus is an unabashed adventure property and if the movie leans into the mostly-unoccupied space, we could see a story about the Magic School Bus venturing into the human body for what would essentially be a modern remake of Fantastic Voyage, the landmark body exploration movie. I also wouldn’t mind some Osmosis Jones vibes thrown in for good measure too.
While I don’t want to get ahead of myself here, given the versatility of the original series, there’s lots of room for sequels too, from deep space exploration to exotic Earth locations. Letterman just has to make sure that Banks’ hair is red and frizzy in the movie. Fans will not abide a blonde navigating their Magic School Bus.