MSB S4E01: Meets Molly Cule

I'm ready to take chances, make mistakes, move onto Season 4! First up, we're going to see things that are made of atoms. Let's meet Wanda's favourite music star. Blog, do your stuff!

40. Meets Molly Cule.
Topic: Molecules.
Written by: Ronnie Krauss.
Guest star: Wynonna Judd as Molly Cule.
Aired: 5 October 1997.

Wanda's favourite music star, Molly Cule, is coming to Walkerville. Wanda wants to have the great honor of washing her car. The class set up a car wash. Molly Cule miraculously chooses theirs over automatic car washes. The reason for this is explained when Molly Cule says that she cannot afford to have her hood ornament get wet. When Arnold asks what it's made of, she says, "That's my little secret, Sugar." She continues to call Arnold "Sugar" for the remainder of the episode. After they clean the car, she found a tiny blot of tar on the car using a "megamagnifier." The class shrinks down to the size of molecules to find it, and clean it off. However, when they get back Wanda accidentally knocks Molly's hood ornament into a bucket of water. It occurs to Arnold that her hood ornament is made from sugar, from what she said when he asked her what it was made from. The class shrinks down to the size of molecules to rebuild the hood ornament. After they start, the sugar molecules begin to crystallize, the ornament gets put back together before Molly returns. The class then gets to participate in Molly's concert.

Arnold wants to talk to Wanda, but here, she's too busy listening to a Molly Cule song via her Walkman to pay any attention, as Carlos explained to Arnold.

Even Liz was frustrated by Wanda listening to her Walkman. Maybe because she wants her to pay attention to Arnold? And of course, Arnold wanted to ask her about cleaning The Magic School Bus.

How does Ms. Frizzle do that?! And her outfit's pretty groovay!

Look at all those car washes in Walkerville.  And even The Magic School Bus is dancing to the beat. Further showing it is capable of dancing while moving as shown in the intro.

"Way to go, Bus!"

That is one funky looking Bus! The way it moved its eyebrows and cracked a smile further showed the reason I got into this franchise as a kid. 

And we say hello to the one and only Molly Cule, and she's once again meeting Ms. Frizzle, or as she called her during their days as The Frizzlettes, Val-Gal.

Nice to see Wanda meeting Molly Cule in person. She even called her "Gumdrop". 

That's one strange guitar watch. If the concert was to start in 1 hour, then the concert was on at 4 o'clock.

See this hood ornament? It's made out of something. It's her little secret, Sugar.

"Is it just me, or did one of the hottest music stars around just call you 'Sugar'?"

Funny Arnold should blush since Molly is a hot music star, and she called him "Sugar". Even Ralphie noticed. 

I see what Liz is trying to do. She's using an umbrella to stop Molly's hood ornament from getting wet. Funny Liz should wear a raincoat. Leaving me with a headscratcher I'll go over when I get to it.

"You need water and soap to lift the dirt away!"

Well sung, Dorothy Ann! Telling Ralphie what he needs to clean the wheels and the fender covering the wheel. 

Now this is what we need to see teeny tiny things. A Mega Magnifier!

"Why me?"
"Because she's sweet on you, Sugar!"

Now Ralphie's just mocking Arnold. 

The Magic School Bus has never been this small! Look at all those tiles. Well, it's actually red paint.

Cute that Wanda should use her imagination involving William and building his block tower.

It's strange that Wanda would mistake those green molecules for tar molecules, especially considering tar is either black or a really dark brown.

So these are tar molecules. And even Wanda got a suggestion she got from Dorothy Ann! She's telling Carlos and Keesha how to do it.

Bus, spill your stuff! It's spilling yellow soap molecules and light blue water molecules.

Uh-oh. Wanda made a mishap! She accidentally swung the hood ornament and sunk it into the water in that bucket.

So these are the white molecules of the hood ornament. As it turns out, the reason Molly didn't want it to get wet is because it's made out of sugar, hence the reason she called Arnold "Sugar".

There. The sugar hood ornament is fixed and good as new!

Time for Molly Cule to perform on stage! She's calling for Ms. Frizzle's class to join in!

And the class did just that! They're joining Molly on stage!

As Ms. Frizzle said, Hooray for Molly Cule! And for molecules.

Even the Producer is at Molly Cule's concert. And he said this series is called "Molly School Bus".

This is how I'd react to anyone on the phone whether I'm in a cinema or at a concert.

And even Molly Cule's in the segment.


This is the 2nd episode in a row to have a country star as a guest star. Molly Cule is voiced by none other than Kentucky-born country sensation Wynonna Judd.

There is a little voice error in the beginning. Just as Molly Cule's song starts playing, you can hear Dorothy Ann saying "A million zillion trillion 20 billion and 3" and the entire class singing "I love you" in the song, yet they don't sing the song until the end of the episode. Maybe they could've fixed this error if they had Dorothy Ann move her mouth when the audio is heard.

This episode kind of feels like a musical, especially considering the guest star is a singer voicing a singer.

This is the 2nd episode in a row where Arnold blushed. In the previous episode, he blushed upon knowing Wanda liked his geode, and in this, he blushed upon Molly calling him "Sugar".

There is a little headscratcher I have with this. Why would Molly Cule have an ornament made out of sugar? I mean it's a substance that dissolves in water. What's she going to do if it rains?

This also shows that everything is made of molecules. 'eck, even this review is made of molecules.

Well, in spite of the voice error and the headscratcher, it was a very musical way to learn about molecules and that atoms make them. And this is the smallest The Magic School Bus has ever gotten! We got a country-singing guest star, and the parts where Arnold got called "Sugar" was funny. And it was funny to see Arnold trying to stall Molly, just like he stalled Mr. Ruhle in Makes a Rainbow. And to wrap this review up, hooray for Molly Cule! And for molecules. I've finished this review, down to the very last bit! Yeah!

My rating: 9/10.

Season 4 scorecard:
1. Meets Molly Cule: 9/10.

Season 4 so far: 9/10.