Pluto is a dwarf planet bordering the solar system, and is where Ms. Frizzle's class lands on and find her and Liz in The Magic School Bus episode, Gets Lost in Space.
Pluto is also one of the solar system's planets that game players could choose to fly to and land on in the PC game, The Magic School Bus Explores the Solar System.
At the time of the production of the Magic School Bus, Pluto was still considered a planet, as dwarf planets hadn't even been thought of as a thing. After the discovery of Eris, Pluto was demoted to the newly-formed category in 2006, while at the same time Ceres, considered an asteroid since the mid-19th century, was promoted to dwarf planet.
Plot[]
Since Ms. Frizzle and Liz are not on any of the other outer planets, Janet tells the class that Pluto is the only planet left. The bus then approaches Pluto and flies over its surface. After they land, the bus shines it's headlights around, then the class suddenly notice a figure. The bus shines it's headlights on the figure, and there was Ms. Frizzle and Liz, looking at the stars through a telescope. The class cheer as they come out of the bus and reunite with their teacher. Keesha sees they could sure see the stars from Pluto and wonders where the sun is. Ms. Frizzle shows Keesha a tiny yellow star and tells the class that's it. (Since the sun is the star seen in the daytime --and when one gets to Pluto-- the sun --from the distance-- if one is on Pluto, it is not big. Because Pluto is far away from the sun, the sun looks like a tiny star from the distance.) They then see why Pluto is so cold and dark. Because the sun is so far away, Phoebe realizes the colder they got, the warmer they got to finding Ms. Frizzle. The bus then arrives and its door opens and several rocks fall. Janet says they are enough for everyone to prove they made to Pluto, but Ralphie and Keesha say that there is no room in the bus since Janet has overloaded it. Janet then disgustedly walks back inside. The next moment, all the rocks, ice blocks, the red dust from Mars, and the bottle with some of Jupiter's red spot in it break out of the bus's backdoor. Janet flies out with her "proof" she collected. She refuses to go back home without all her stuff (saying, "THERE'S NO WAY I AM GOING HOME WITHOUT MY STUFF!"). But Arnold refuses to go home without her (saying to her, "There is no way I am going home without you".). Janet tells Arnold that no one would believe her without all of her "proof", Arnold then tells Janet that he and Janet's school friends will believe her. Arnold then gets fed up about Janet's stubbornness. He (angrily) tells her if she wants "proof", he'll give her "proof". He has a different solution. So he grabs his space helmet and shows her proof of what would happen to her if she stays on Pluto with her stuff. Janet pleads Arnold not to, but he removes his helmet and he freezes in a block of ice. This forces Janet to leave Pluto immediately. Janet gets terrified. In response to that, she gasps, "OH CUZ! BACK TO EARTH!". Then she and the class immediately carry Arnold (with her forgetting about her possessions), quickly get back on the bus, and fly back to Earth. Back on Earth, Arnold gets a cold from what he did and thanks Janet. Janet thanks Arnold back and tells him if it wasn't for him, she'd still be staying on Pluto with all her stuff. Janet then tells the class she doesn't need to prove anything and that was the most amazing field trip ever and if Janet's class doesn't believe her, that's their problem. Ralphie then does a prank and makes the class think the principal is telling them scientists made their first contact with an alien from outer space, saying the alien from Pluto is complaining about a pile of litter that was dumped on his planet. But Liz then pushes a cardboard box out of the way showing the class it was just Ralphie pranking them and they all laughed.
In the Producer Says segment, it is revealed (by the caller --to the male producer) that if an astronaut makes it to Pluto, they must never take off their helmet. (When the caller shows that on the TV in the said segment, it shows the scene where Arnold took off his helmet and it froze his head --to demonstrate to Janet what would happen to her if she remains on Pluto.) The producer says "You'd think they'd end up with more than a cold, huh?", and the caller says that they'd end up being a block of ice, or worse, which then reminds the caller why she called in the first place. And the caller says she's still waiting for someone to get the pile of (planetary) litter off her planet. (That is, as she says, "I'm still waiting for someone to get that pile of litter off my planet!".) This reveals that the caller is an alien, providing she's from Pluto, Ralphie's prank is more accurate then we thought and that the Friz and her class' solar system field trip actually happened.
The Magic School Bus Explores the Solar System[]
Pluto could be one of the planets of the solar system that the players could click on to fly to and land on. On Pluto, the player controls Arnold on that planet while searching for the Ms. Frizzle token, which will give the player a clue of which planet or moon she's on. Arnold also does her report on Pluto.
Trivia[]
- If Orcus, which the IAU has not officially recognised as such as of 2024, is counted as a dwarf planet, Pluto is actually the third dwarf planet from the sun, as Orcus, which is also in the Kuiper belt, is slightly closer to the sun than Pluto.
- Even though the Plutonian aliens say that someone should go back to their planet and get the pile of planetary litter off of it, the pile of litter may have been there for good. And it should be on display at a space museum (through pictures).