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Butterfly and the Bog Beast |
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- "When the road ends, adventure begins!"
- —Ms. Frizzle
Butterfly and the Bog Beast (Butterflies) is the fifth episode of the second season of The Magic School Bus. It first released on all PBS stations in the USA on October 7, 1995.
For its 1999 US VHS release, it was given an alternate title: "Butterflies!".
Plot[]
The class is playing in the biggest soccer game of the year, but they don't have a mascot. Dorothy Ann decides to use a branch of broccoli since it's a healthy vegetable. But Carlos rejects this, saying that the team can't be called "The Broccoli". Wanda wants to use the old mascot. But Tim reminds her that "it's so old no one knows what it is anymore." When moths fly out of it, Tim attempts to swat it. But Phoebe squelches his attempt and informs that moths are over 100,000 different kinds of moths than butterflies, adding that there are eight kinds of different moths than butterflies according to her book of butterflies and moths. As the class continues to try to decide on one, Phoebe suggests they name the team the Walker Elementary School Butterflies. She's immediately shot down by everyone but Arnold. Phoebe says butterflies are full of surprises, to which Carlos questions, as does Janet, who suddenly shows up. She brings everyone to her side when she reveals the game is against Phoebe's old team, the Bulldogs, and she suggests they name the team the Bog Beasts. Everyone but Arnold agrees; he questions what a bog beast is. Ms. Frizzle appears, and asks the class what a bog beats is. Dorothy informs that a bog is wet like a swamp, prompting Ms. Frizzle to take the class, plus Janet, on a field trip to Butterfly Bog.
During the ride, Phoebe asks Ms. Frizzle if the swamp has butterflies, to which Ms. Frizzle responds that the swamp has "all sorts of surprises." The Bus transforms into an airboat and swims through the bog. When a number of butterflies fly out of nowhere, Wanda says that she thought they were flowers. Ms. Frizzle states that looks can be deceiving. Some blue jays then swoop down to eat some of the butterflies and Janet compares it to the mascot that would be a butterfly to what the Bulldogs would do to it. Carlos learns that every animal can spot them due to their pretty colors. When a butterfly lands on Phoebe's finger, the rest of the class wonder why a butterfly stays beautiful. Janet attempts to use a net to catch it and the net ends up on Arnold's head.
Once the class makes it to the land, Dorothy Ann tells the class that the best way to catch a bog beast is to use a bait. Janet jumps out of the Bus to go look for butterflies to use as bog beast bait, with Liz tagging along. Phoebe tries to shrink her with a ray-gun like device that Ms. Frizzle hands her, the Portable Shrinkerscope (also known as the Porta-Shrinker). When she shoots the Porta-Shrinker at Janet, it reflects off of Liz's necklace and backfires on the Bus. As Phoebe goes to try and stop Janet, despite now being smaller than Janet's footprint, the rest of the class follows her as they come across a giant swallowtail caterpillar.
Ralphie is convinced that the caterpillar is a bog beast. But Ms. Frizzle tells him otherwise, explaining that he has never seen a bog beast. The class then learn what it is and follow it, only to come across a praying mantis. They watch in delight as the caterpillar scares away the praying mantis and Carlos learns that this is called tricking the enemy by pretending to be something they're not. When Dorothy Ann comes across a swallowtail caterpillar in her book, Wanda decides to name the school team that. Ralphie rejects this, claiming that the team will just get laughed at in the game. Ms. Frizzle tells Ralphie that caterpillars are tougher than he knows and Phoebe then learns that if a caterpillar keeps feeding itself, it will turn into a chrysalis and transform into a butterfly as well.
Just then, the class notice Janet attempting to catch the butterfly and watch as she struggles to catch the flying insect. The class then notice that the butterfly uses its wings to disappear out of sight so that Janet can't see it against the log. Phoebe watches in horror when the butterfly finally appears in Janet's view as the latter attempts to catch it. Janet swings the net and knocks Liz into the mud, the impact causing the mud to fly on the Bus, which is now a jeep. Janet brings Liz along with her to continue chasing after the butterfly.
Arnold attempts to resize everyone back to normal to avoid being stepped on by his cousin. As Arnold pulls a lever that activates the Porta-Shrinker, the first six notes of "Ride on the Magic School Bus" plays in a music box soundfont. Ms. Frizzle tells everyone that this is the Dew Dinger, which sounds when the Porta-Shrinker is soiled, meaning that the class is stuck being small until the Porta-Shrinker dries out. So Arnold uses the hairdryer Ms. Frizzle offers him and Ralphie accuses Phoebe for the predicament. Phoebe is finally fed up with being rejected about her choice of butterflies as the mascot and berates her classmates for turning against her and siding with Janet, and Ralphie for being selfish. Meanwhile, Janet is frustrated about being outwitted by the butterflies she had been trying to catch. When she stepped in a puddle, a huge swarm of butterflies flew around her, disorienting her when she tried to catch only one. When the class hear Janet's scream, they run out of the Bus and come across a zebra butterfly. They then learn that butterflies trick, hide from, and scare their enemies for survival. Ralphie, however, still refuses to call the Walker Elementary School soccer team the Butterflies. The class come to what appears to be a bog beast, but is really a butterfly with spots shaped as eyes to fool the enemies. Ms. Frizzle arrives and the class finally acknowledge the fact that butterflies are new, exciting, and surprising. So they agree with butterflies, even Ralphie who finally gives up being tough, and hop onto the bus. Ms. Frizzle transforms the Magic School Bus into a butterfly and it flies off. Janet takes a glimpse of the Bus and attempts to catch it, thinking that it's a real butterfly much to the class' horror.
The class asks Ms. Frizzle to do something. But Ms. Frizzle tells them that the port-a-shrinker is still wet. The Bus flies away, with Janet chasing after. When Ms. Frizzle reminds the class "When you're a butterfly, do as the butterflies do", Phoebe comes up with an idea. She uses the camouflage switch to transform the Bus's wings into leaves so that it would blend in with the leaves on the tree of a branch. Janet loses sight of it, but not when Arnold pulls the lever (thinking the Porta-Shrinker is dry and Tim was too late to point out that it isn't dry), turning on the Dew Dinger as Janet finally catches the Bus, which she thinks is a real butterfly. Phoebe uses one of the buttons to changes the wings colors into red, yellow, orange, and blue and gives them eyes as well. Janet takes a look at this and gets so scared she falls backwards into a mud puddle. Arnold ends up hitting the lever and returning everyone to normal, as the Porta-Shrinker is finally dry. Janet tells them what happens and finally learns that the "Bog Beast" she almost caught was a butterfly. Phoebe then states that the school team should be named the Walker Elementary School Bog Beast Butterflies, which Janet finally agrees to.
During the soccer game, Janet is the Bog Beast Butterfly mascot (with the same wings the Bus had) and Phoebe scores the winning goal for the team. The other team cheers for Phoebe, and Ms. Frizzle states that "there's no surprise like butterflies".
Trivia[]
- During the producer's segment, Janet's character is described as "insensitive and inappropriate."
- This is Janet's second appearance in the original series.
- When the Bus leaves to go to the swamp, clips from Season 1 of The Magic School Bus are used. These clips are: "All Dried Up," "In the Haunted House," "Meets the Rot Squad," "Hops Home," and "Inside Ralphie." The latter three are mirrored.
- This isn't the only time MSB Season 1 assets have appeared in the series post-1994. The shot of the school from "Kicks Up a Storm" appeared in "Goes Upstream," the class's unison "field trip" voice clip from "For Lunch" appeared in "In the Swim," and the "yeah-ha-woohoo-yay/all right" voice clip from "Gets Ready, Set, Dough" appeared in "In the Swim" and "Janet's Mystery Gene."
- This is the first and only episode of the original series in which Janet is seen without her glasses.
- Liz even wears them at one point.
- Arnold reveals that Janet is his only cousin in this episode.
- The title is a spoof on Beauty and the Beast, which is the reason why the title isn't formatted "The Butterfly and the Bog Beast".
- Going by production order, this is the third episode of Season 2. Also, this episode is the first to be switched in streaming order.
- In this episode, the school is finally given a name: Walker Elementary School. It is named after Craig Walker (in-universe, it is named after Captain Walker), who inspired Cole and Degen to create the franchise.
- The city does not get its name, Walkerville, until Shows and Tells, and the school is renamed to "Walkerville Elementary School" in The Battle for Rock Mountain. The town is also named Walkerville again in Rocks and Rolls, when viewers also hear its demonym, "Walkervillian."
Goofs[]
- During Ralphie, Tim, and Phoebe's unison line, "Janet's gonna feed us to the Bog Beast!", Ralphie's mouth isn't moving although his voice can clearly be heard.
- When Ralphie gets out of the Bus once the Shrinkerscope starts working, there's a duplicate of him.
- When The Magic School Bus drives through the mud, the class get dirty. Yet after they escape from the mud, they are clean. This goof also happens in "The Magic School Bus in the Rainforest".