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"What kind of storm happens in the mouth? A tongue twister!"
—Wanda in the CD-ROM, Explores the Human Body

Wanda Li is a student in the Frizzle class. She was voiced by Lisa Yamanaka in the classic series and currently by Lynsey Pham in The Magic School Bus Rides Again.

Biography/Family

Wanda has three siblings[1], with two of the three interacted with so far. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Li, Henry’s younger sister (from Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Imperial China), Bo’s cousin (from Explores Human Evolution) and William’s older sister (from Under Construction). Her other sibling is unnamed and not mentioned outside of the book, Meet the Class.

In the books

Appearances

Wanda is a Chinese-American girl with pale skin, black (brown when lit) eyes, and short black (dark brown in lighting) hair. In older books like At the Waterworks, she has worn a pink short-sleeved shirt with magenta overalls (patterned with the tulip-shaped "W" logo). Since In the Time of the Dinosaurs, she wears a pink shirt, a maroon vest with two yellow flowers (representing the "W" in her name), red-rinse black jeans, white socks, and black Mary Jane shoes.

In the TV Series

Personality

Wanda is the class tomboy, and the most adventurous student. Always happily ready to jump into adventure and going where "no kid has gone before," she serves as a foil to Arnold and Carlos. She wants to solve all problems that face her, even an animal in need of rescue.

Appearance

For normal wear in the original series, she wears her same outfit as her book canon's attire in In the Time of the Dinosaurs. Since Rides Again, she has a new outfit: a blue button-down jacket, and she rolls up her jeans to her ankles. She then replaces her Mary Janes with sockless sneakers.

She now has long black hair, which is held by a hairband in Rides Again. In later episodes of the aforementioned series, the lighting makes it dark brown.

For winter wear, she wears a yellow and green hat, a green jacket with a pink collar, red-rinse black jeans, and yellow boots in the original series. In Rides Again, it is a sky-blue winter coat, green mittens, and a darker blue cap. It has the MSB logo, like her rain gear in "Gets Swamped."

For swimwear in the original series, she wears a maroon and pink two-piece bikini with a yellow flower and a yellow spot on the back on the top. In Rides Again, it is a light blue one-piece swimsuit that is dark blue from under the chest and armpits all the way down.

For rain wear, she wears a yellow rain hat, a yellow raincoat, and pink gumboots. It features the Magic School Bus logo like her winter gear from "In the Zone."

For formal wear, she wears a white long-sleeved shirt, a pink vest, a pink neck piece, blue trousers, and dark pink shoes.

For sports wear, she wears a pink basketball shirt, maroon trousers, pink socks and pink sneakers.

The Magic School Bus Rides Again Wanda Li

Wanda, as she appeared in the first two seasons of The Magic School Bus Rides Again.


TV Storyline

The Magic School Bus

MSB S1 E6 032

In Gets Lost in Space, Wanda (on a rescue mission for finding Ms. Frizzle) becomes in charge of the bus. She (about Arnold's cousin Janet) angrily tells Arnold, "Okay Arnold! But it is your duty to keep your crazy cousin under control!". By that, she makes Arnold sit on Janet's lap in order to control her (and to prevent any dangerous acts with their rescue mission for finding Ms. Frizzle). Despite having told her he is not good under pressure, Wanda has Arnold try to break a gum chewing record for her in "For Lunch". Since she has a new filling, she can't do it herself, but she wants the prize for breaking the record: two free tickets to Action Mountain. She has a pet bullfrog named Bella that she seems to spoil in "Hops Home", but Bella gets loose, and when Wanda finds that she's happy in her natural habitat, she leaves her there. She wins a class rot competition in "Meets the Rot Squad", which her prize was a baby tree. She wants to plant it on an abandoned lot (which she plans to turn into a park called "Wanda World"), but after touring the rotted log, she regrets calling Larry's Log Away.

MSB S2 E13 133

Wanda's love of flying and dream of being a pilot is shown in "Taking Flight". After hearing about a sea monster at the bottom of Walker Lake, she decides she must dive in to find it ("Ups and Downs"). As it turns out, it's a hoax created by local TV reporter, Gerri Poveri, much to her disappointment.

MSB S3 E1 016

In "In the Arctic", she mentions her hatred for the cold weather. Instead of going on a field trip to a bridge being built, the class ends up shrunk in her house in "Under Construction" when her younger brother, William, gets a hold of the Porta-Shrinker. She wishes recycling had never been invented in "Holiday Special" after her favorite toy soldier is accidentally recycled.

MSB S4 E6 065

When Wanda's favorite rock singer, Molly Cule, is in town, she proposes the class set up a car wash, as Molly gets her car cleaned before every show ("Meets Molly Cule"). She's thrilled to find out Molly and Ms. Frizzle are old friends. She wants to help Arnold find out why he's orange in "Goes Cellular", and in "Takes a Dive", she refuses to work in partners, wanting to go solo as a pirate during a treasure hunt, much to Dorothy Ann's dismay.

The Magic School Bus Rides Again

Wanda spent her summer at the animal rescue and it started to develop her love for animals, just like her former classmate, Phoebe (Frizzle of the Future). She befriended a fish whom she calls Becca Blue (a reference to her former pet, Bella) on a field trip to Hawaii (In the Swim). She and Carlos adopt Ratney from the animal shelter (Carlos Gets the Sneezes), but Carlos keeps it after he struggles to convince Mr. Ruhle that she should be an official class pet due to sneezing and allergies.

In "Claw and Order", she tries to convince everyone that Marty (a magpie she befriended) did not wreck the classroom and works to clear his name only for her classmates (mainly Keesha and Carlos) to turn on her, except for Arnold who was the first to believe Wanda's story when the classroom gets wrecked again, and since Marty was in the Magic School Courthouse when it happens. Once it turns out that it was a cardinal and a duck that caused the mess in the classroom, Marty's name was cleared.

In "Kids in Space", she meets a tardigrade she calls "Pinky". After Ralphie accidentally grows it with the PortaShrinker (and loses the Shrinker), it's up to her and the others to find the device and shrink Pinky. In "The Frizz Connection", Wanda appeared in Peru with Tim, Jyoti, and Fiona.

Relatives

Devices

  • Baby Blue MSB phone
  • Baby Blue MSB tablet
  • Baby Blue MSB laptop

Trivia

Any mentionings of various episodes

  • Wanda is the only student in the TV series class with black hair. However, it is often lightened to brown. In the book series, she, Molly, and Michael have this hair color.
  • Wanda is the only student whose father was never mentioned.
  • She is officially the happiest member in the class. For example, in Wet All Over, she is overjoyed that she'll stay in the water cycle forever. In "In the Swim", she is excited to read about various endangered species that need saving.
  • Wanda was officially considered the cutest in the class.
  • Wanda can jump the highest in the class. [2]
  • Her most well-known catchphrases are "Wahoo!", like the Frizzle sisters, when she's feeling extremely happy (as heard in "Wet All Over"), "What are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do?" when she doesn't know what to do, and "Come on, you weaselly wimps!" when she's showing her aggressive side. She is the only student to share a catchphrase with Valerie Frizzle and Fiona Frizzle (that being "Wahoo!")
  • Wanda enjoys flying with her jetpack. [3]
  • Wanda's favorite rock star is Molly Cule. [4]
  • Wanda has many pets at home.
  • Wanda prefers hot weather over cold weather [5]
    • Arnold prefers the cold.
  • Wanda's favorite season is Summer. [6]
  • Due to being the strongest member of the class, Wanda can pull handles off of very large doors, such as in the bat castle. [7]
  • Wanda shares some physical characteristics with Jyoti, as they both have aggressive sides and are very strong, she also shares some of Phoebe's views on animal welfare.
  • Wanda has aspirations of becoming a pilot and an actress. [8]
  • Wanda's favorite color is red.[9] [10]
  • Wanda's favorite sport is basketball. [11]
  • Wanda's favorite foods are bananas [12] and tomatoes. [13]
  • Wanda is the first main character to cry. [14]
  • Wanda does not like working with partners. [15]
  • Although Wanda and her family are Chinese-American, her original voice actress, Lisa Yamanaka, is Japanese-Canadian, while her Rides Again voice actress, Lynsey Pham, is Vietnamese-Canadian.
    • Lisa Yamanaka even admits to being nothing like her. [16]
  • Wanda's voice actress, Lisa Yamanaka (now Lisa Jai), prior to the show had voice Isabelle from Babar, and would later voice Yoko in another Nelvana/PBS series, Timothy Goes to School. She would also voice Sherry Birkin in the video game Resident Evil 2.
  • In the German dub, Wanda name is Connie. In French, she is known as Veronique.
  • It is very heavily implied that Wanda has a crush on Arnold. In "For Lunch" (Arnold was the best field trip she's ever been on), "Meets the Rot Squad" (She fantasized herself sitting under a tree with Arnold), "Holiday Special" (She was Arnold's secret Santa), "Hops Home", "Gets Charged" (At the end of the Producer Says segment, Arnold and Wanda are both dressed as Cupid/Eros and attempt to shoot love spells at each other), and in "Making Magic" (she complimented Arnolds bravery when he went in the sun to recharge the magbatt and being the first one to hug him in his return).
  • In Carlos Gets the Sneezes, it is implied that Wanda has a crush on Carlos.
  • Wanda is a middle child of three siblings. [17]
  • Wanda is the third student in the class whose siblings were revealed (Henry and William). [18] The first three were Ralphie (a younger brother and stepbrother), Carlos (Mikey and Maria) and Dorothy Ann (Evan)
  • Wanda never gives up, on her teacher and her classmates.
  • Wanda plays the trombone. [19]
  • Out of all of the females in the TV class, Wanda is the tallest female student [20].
  • The members of the main eight (from tallest to shortest) are: Tim, Carlos, Wanda, Keesha, Jyoti, Ralphie, DA, and Arnold.
  • Along with Keesha, Wanda is one of the only students in the class to have any experience with ballet. [21]
  • Wanda is one of few students to never be subjected to the "Carlos!" gag despite making at least one pun in the course of the series. [22]
    • Wanda's sole pun has a universally positive reaction.
    • Wanda does end up on the receiving end once, but for an inappropriate remark. [23]
  • As of 2017 and onwards, Wanda is now the tallest kid in the class, after Carlos.
  • Wanda is the first Asian American student to enroll in the class. She is from China. The second is a new student Jyoti, who is from somewhere around India.
  • Wanda's most often shown to be the shortest in the class in the books and 1994 TV series. In the Rides Again series, she is now just as tall if not taller than Carlos.
  • Wanda has a cat that has parasites. [24]
  • She, Ralphie, Carlos and Phoebe are the only students who have pets.
  • Wanda has two brothers, William from the TV series (younger) and Henry from Ms. Frizzle's Adventures (older).
  • Wanda's field trip suits are baby blue and green in Rides Again.
  • Her known love interests are Carlos and Arnold.
  • Her MI5 alias is Agent 00Goode.

References


* Débuted | ** Briefly | --- Formerly
Li Family
WandaMrs. LiHenryWilliamBo
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