MSB S1E06: Meets the Rot Squad

Had a day of not using this blog, especially since I was caught up with watching The Magic School Bus Rides Again Season 2, or as I like to call it, The Magic School Bus Season 6. Time to go back to reviewing the old series.

Better have a rotten time with this review on The Magic School Bus. Especially since this episode is about rot. I'm really going to get messy here! Blog, do your stuff!

6. Meets the Rot Squad.
Topic: Decomposition.
Written by: John May and Jocelyn Stevenson.
Guest star: Ed Begley Junior as Larry.
Aired: 16 October 1994.

The class learns about what makes things rot by getting small enough to examine a rotting log up close when Wanda attempts to have the log removed to plant a new tree in its place. Also, Arnold wanted everyone to be part of the "Leave-The-Log-As-It-Is" club.

Wanda imagined opening "Wanda World" upon planning to get rid of the decomposing log. And here, she's imagining herself sitting under a tree with Arnold. I also take this as yet another reason many people who grew up with this series ship these 2.

And this episode shows that Liz has a different point of view of bugs whenever she's no bigger than them. She likes to eat bugs when she's normal size, especially since that's what chameleons eat. Here, she's scared of them when smaller.

I take it Carlos, Ralphie and Keesha don't want to wear these costumes because they would look ridiculous in them? Wanda only wanted them to wear them to scare Larry.

This was a highlight of this ep. The entire class was scaring Larry out of not cutting up the decomposing log. And ironically, Larry's voiced by Ed Begley Junior, who's a vegan. 

As Ms. Frizzle always says, it doesn't have to be delicious to be nutritious. It was funny when the kids thought they were going to eat the rot when Wanda and Arnold were feeding the rot to Wanda's tree she won at the beginning for rotten stuff she showed.

It's funny that they didn't feature worms in this, even though worms are an important organism to decomposition. Liz looked hungry for this worm, but the Female Producer took it off her.

I take it that whatever rotten stuff Wanda had at the beginning was in her fridge 4 or 5 years prior to the events of this episode considering this series is supposed to be Grade 3.

The kid who called the producer at the end was right. You can't ignore earthworms. Funny how Liz tried to eat it, yet the producer took it away from her.


There are some disgusting moments here apart from Ralphie's rotten orange, Phoebe's rotten banana and Wanda's rotten stuff. There were some bugs pooping in the log. Shows that animal poop is important in nature, requiring plants to grow.

Well, maybe not to us, but rotten logs are restaurants, theme parks and Wanda World to various animals. 

One thing I find ironic about this episode is the guest star and the character he voiced. Ed Begley Junior voiced Larry, who's job is to get rid of unwanted logs by chainsawing them. Ironically, Ed Begley Junior is a vegan and he would never have done that. 

While this episode may have had a few disgusting moments, it was still a good way to teach kids about how things rot, and that mushrooms use their roots to dig through the rotting log as Dorothy Ann demonstrated. And even Arnold and Keesha demonstrated through rap how logs rot. But it was kind of strange that Ms. Frizzle used The Magic School Bus to serve food that's not people food, but to teach kids that animals in the log eat their own food. Mainly whatever they can find. Another strange thing about this is that Larry the logger was voiced by a vegan. It was funny how Wanda and the rest of the class were dressed as gremlins to scare Larry into not wanting to get rid of the log. But overall, food doesn't have to be delicious to be nutritious.  

My rating: 8/10.

Season 1 scorecard.

1. Gets Lost in Space: 9/10.

2. For Lunch: 10/10.

3. Inside Ralphie: 9/10.

4. Gets Eaten: 8.5/10.

5. Hops Home: 10/10.

6. Meets the Rot Squad: 8/10.

Season 1 so far: 9/10.