The Magic School Bus + Rides Again Wiki
The Magic School Bus + Rides Again Wiki
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Mesmerglobber

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A Mesmerglober (as of the captions for "Making Magic"; spelled Mesmerglobber in The Magic School Bus) is a device inside vehicles that run MagicWare, such as the Bus and the Motorbike. First used in The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth, it allows a vehicle to transform into anything imaginable, such as another method of transportation (such as a space shuttle), a living organism (e.g. a frog), or an object.

Description[]

The Mesmerglober is the part of the Bus and the Motorbike that is mainly used to transform them into different things at the will of their drivers. On the Bus, it is activated through its touchscreen control panel or the handle found on the dashboard. Like the other features, such as the Shrinkerscope, the bus's Mesmerglober can be controlled via the Bus Remote. The Mesmerglober can also be used on human beings as well, allowing them to transform into different living things or objects to get to understand their behaviors better (Going Batty). When the Mesmerglober malfunctions, the Bus, its passengers, or both may start erratically shapeshifting (Flexes Its Muscles, In the Zone).

Initialization sequences[]

When the Mesmerglober is activated, like the size-changers and the Warp Drive, an animation plays in which the Bus erratically spins, shifts, and deforms, entering its new shape. In the majority of the first season of the 1994 series, an alarm blares before the sequence once these devices initialize.

The Bus’s shifting animations have varied over the years, usually staying consistent. While this animation debuted in airing order during “Gets Lost in Space,” it has seen more solidified variations in later episodes.

  • “For Lunch” introduced the ‘90s Season 1 animation—the Bus stretches and compresses before spinning and shifting into its new form or size. In production order, this animation started with “Gets Eaten.” The S1 sequence has also seen some variants, such as it jittering in “For Lunch,” not spinning in “Meets the Rot Squad,” the stretch/compress being reversed in “Hops Home,” or not compressing in “Gets Ready, Set, Dough.” The animation was perfected in “All Dried Up.”
  • In “Blows Its Top,” the stretching part was reanimated, now with a vertical stretch added before the horizontal one. This episode also starts the trend of the Bus disassembling and reassembling itself to enter its new form. This would go on to be the Mesmerglober sequence for the rest of the 90s series, also seeing some reanimations throughout the later seasons.
  • The sequence was remade again starting in “Pigs in the Wind” to go along with the new art style, and it would be used for most of the first season of Rides Again. In this one, the Bus does not stretch horizontally, instead jumping up and compressing itself à la the latter half of the previous two animations before rearranging itself into the new form.
  • For the next season, starting in “The Land Before Tim,” the Bus now slightly flattens itself before spinning and transforming/shrinking. In certain episodes from this season, like when Ms. Frizzle activates the plane form in “Waste Not, Want Not,” the Rides Again Season 1 sequence is repurposed.
  • In Season 3, in “The Frizz Connection” and “Goldstealer,” the sequence was changed again. It is a hybrid of the MSB ‘94 Season 2 and Rides Again Season 1 animations, with the Bus stretching horizontally as in the ‘90s before jumping up and deforming itself. The sequence was changed to a version of the RA Season 2 sequence for a few times in “In the Zone,” now adding a glitch effect per the Bus’s condition in that episode.

Bus only[]

Passenger Transformation Sequence[]

List of alternate Bus forms[]

For a list of the Bus's alternate forms organized by type, see List of Mesmerglober transformations

Trivia[]

  • The Mesmerglober was given its name in "Gets Ready, Set, Dough", but the fact that it is what transforms the Bus was not revealed until "Flexes Its Muscles".
    • In the description for "Flexes Its Muscles" on the Season 2 (The Magic School Bus) Activity Guide, it is spelled "Mesmerglobber" with two B's. In the captions for "Making Magic", the second B is omitted, rendering it "Mesmerglober".
  • The only time it was mentioned by name in The Magic School Bus Rides Again was in "Making Magic" when Jyoti referred to it during Mr. Ruhle's "safety test" on the Bus.

See also[]

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