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"According to my research, 'metamorphic' means 'change'."
—In The Battle for Rock Mountain

Dorothy Ann "D.A." Hudson is one of the main students in the class, voiced by Tara MeyerMSB/Gabby ClarkeRA.

Personality[]

Dorothy Ann is a seen as a true bookworm, often times she's seen with a book, usually providing facts or right knowledge on certain aspects. She often gets into conflicts with Carlos due to his hand-on-learning strategy rather than doing actual research. Despite her intellect, she's not above making mistakes and she herself sometimes can get her facts wrong on some occasions.

In the books[]

Appearance (At the Waterworks - Inside a Hurricane)[]

Before “Inside a Beehive” and its successors, Dorothy Ann had blonde hair worn with two long bun pigtails held with pink-red elastic hair ties. She wears a yellow sweater with a pink plaided skirt. She wears white tights and two saddle shoes.

Appearance (Inside a Beehive–present)[]

Starting in Inside a Beehive, Dorothy Ann now wears a pink short-sleeved t-shirt, but retains the same legwear.

Storyline (book series 1986-2021)[]

Dorothy Ann has always been the class bookworm, reading books and defining words on different field trips, the latter of which she does on her reports. She is one student of the main class who appears in the two TV shows, alongside Arnold.

Inside the Earth[]

The class has been given an assignment to find a rock and bring it to class the next day. Dorothy Ann found a rock, but her dog ate it. Arnold found a Styrofoam "rock", and Alex brought a damaged 7-UP bottle, but Phil found a real one.

And the Climate Challenge[]

After getting back from the field trip through the ozone layer, Dorothy Ann tells the class how to recycle things correctly.

In the main series (1994-present)[]

Throughout the series, Dorothy Ann is the class bookworm, always looking for a fact in one of her books to help her classmates. She loves astronomy as seen in "Out of this World," and she has a telescope on the balcony outside of her bedroom, but later gets a new, high-powered one in, "Sees Stars". She also has an interest in physics. She tends to have an argumentative personality and has clashed with the others from time to time, most notably Wanda in the final episode of the original series.

Appearance (Original series; 1994-1997)[]

Dorothy Ann has fair blonde hair, blue-colored eyes, and fair skin. She wears a violet turtleneck sweater, a turquoise pleated skirt, violet ankle-length socks (white tights in some books of the series), and maroon and white sneakers (saddle shoes in some books). Her signature colors are violet, blue, pink and white.

Appearance (Modern series; 2017-present)[]

Dorothy Ann retains the same blonde hair, but she now wears her hair in a tomboyish ponytail style. She wears a violet blazer that replaces her sweater. Under it is a light purple shirt, blue jeans, and orange ballet flats replace her sneakers.

Other outfits[]

In the original series, she not only wears her school outfit but she wears various outfits in certain episodes.

For sleepwear, in the episode "Out of This World", she wore aqua blue pajamas with violet slippers. But in "Sees Stars", her top pajamas have purple fringes and a pink and violet shooting star, and she also wore pink slippers.

For winter wear, she wears a green hat, her violet turtleneck, her turquoise skirt, a pink jacket, rose trousers, and violet boots.

For beach wear, she wears a one-piece violet swimsuit with a blue lining and a violet pleated skirt.

For rain wear, she wears a turquoise rain hat, a violet raincoat, and turquoise gumboots.

For formal wear, she wears a pink long-sleeved blouse, a blue sleeveless vest, a blue knee length pleated skirt, white tights, and blue shoes.

For sports wear, she wears a violet basketball jersey, turquoise and pink shorts, purple socks, and maroon sneakers.

For space wear on the International Space Station, she wears a thin jumpsuit in her signature colors.

Animated canon[]

The Magic School Bus[]

Season 1 (The Magic School Bus)[]
MSB S1 E10 036

Dorothy Ann shows her baseball book report in Plays Ball.

Dorothy Ann was first introduced along with the rest of the class in the series pilot, "Gets Lost In Space", but her researching habits are never shown until "For Lunch". Her first focused episode is "In the Haunted House" in which she's conducting the class as they perform her "Concerto for Invented Instrument". She's seen doing a chemistry experiment while the class bakes Ms. Frizzle a birthday cake in "Gets Ready, Set, Dough". Her last focused episode of the season is "Plays Ball". Excited to show off her new physics book, she's disappointed when the class only cares about the baseball game they were playing. She is more disappointed when Ralphie leaves her book on the field, but they end up inside it, playing a friction-less baseball game.

Season 2 (The Magic School Bus)[]
MSB S2 E11 023
Screenshot 2018-08-22 at 4.22

Dorothy Ann in Blows Its Top.

The season opens with a Dorothy Ann-focused episode, "Blows Its Top". She and Carlos argue over discovering a new island until she loses her books to the ocean. Feeling lost and empty without them, she begs Ms. Frizzle to help her get them back, "Please, Ms. Frizzle! I'm nothing without my books! Me, books...books, me!" In "Butterfly and the Bog Beast", her mascot suggestion is a broccoli, and despite her choice of mascot, she was with the others against Phoebe's butterfly idea. She speaks on "behalf of the court" during Ms. Frizzle's trial in "In a Pickle," and she's embarrassed by Carlos' little brother, Mikey, when he brings up a heat rash she once got in "Getting Energized". In "Out of This World", she discovers an asteroid was about to destroy Earth, more specifically, Walkerville Elementary and she gets the class and Ms. Frizzle to help her destroy it.

Season 3 (The Magic School Bus)[]
MSB S3 E5 275

In "Show and Tells," Dorothy Ann and Arnold are representing Walkerville in the 10th Annual International Show & Tell Competition, and after researching Arnold's rare pumice collection, she's upset that he opted to bring an artifact she knows nothing about. She fights with Carlos again in "Makes a Rainbow" over her book, (he explains it's purple while she says it's violet), and which is bad enough for Wanda to comment, "This could get ugly." She's made a rainforest investigator with Tim as her assistant in "In the Rainforest" when they try to find out why Ms. Frizzle's cocoa tree didn't yield a good harvest.

Season 4 (The Magic School Bus)[]

Mr. Ruhle puts Dorothy Ann in charge of taking care of his pet, ''Giblets'' a Rhode Island Red rooster, in the episode, "Cracks a Yolk," but she loses him once his master is gone. She celebrates her birthday in "Sees Stars," in which the class goes on a field trip before getting together for her small party to find her a star as a gift. As she was sick, she stayed home, but Liz is with her, eating cake and looking in her new telescope. She and Wanda clash in the final episode, "Takes a Dive" when she wants to work as partners, but Wanda wants to go solo (work on her own).

The Magic School Bus Rides Again[]

The Magic School Bus Rides Again Dorothy Ann

Dorothy Ann's appearance in the reboot

Season 1 (The Magic School Bus Rides Again)[]

In "Hides and Seeks", Dorothy Ann and the other kids participate in a game of Extreme Hide and Seek. But this reminds her of the previous time they played—when she lost to an unnamed girl, the unbeatable seeker. She's back for this round, and now she and a few students go to the rainforest and study camouflage while Ralphie and some others challenge the seeker using the skills they've learned from her. she is selected to tell an earth-shattering story in the Climate Challenge tie-in, The Tales Glaciers Tell, but all she's got is nothing. The class travels to the Arctic, and then back in time through the history of climate change as Dorothy Ann gathers a bunch of data. After the trip, when they reach the modern-day, her FrizPad breaks, causing her to panic. So the class grabs an ice core from a glacier so she can tell her story. In The Battle for Rock Mountain, she and Wanda both play the roles of the Tectonic Duo.

Season Two (Rides Again)[]

Her most focus episode in this season is Waste Not, Want Not, in which the kids go to her scientist uncle's lab's greenhouse to plant orchids for the school musical. But one thing the orchids need is fertilizer - made from feces. Actually, the Friz takes the kids to the sewers to get some, and then scoops it back to the lab.

Season Three (Joanna Cole specials)[]

In The Frizz Connection, she, Liz, and Arnold are stranded in one-third of the Bus when it gets split into three - with a rather safety-conscious version of Ms. Frizzle. They learn about the Coriolis effect through the use of holographic books.

Relatives[]

Dorothy Ann's parents both appear in "Going Batty" and "Rocks and Rolls", and her mother appears again in "Out of This World". She has a younger sister named Evan, who is blonde like her and their mother. Her parents reappear in a flashback in "The Tales Glaciers Tell", where they are revealed to be wonderful story tellers, and they appear in present at the presentation at the end.

International[]

Localization Dorothy Ann's name Origin Notes Voice Actors in TMSB and RA
Spanish (both series) Dorothy Ann The names Dorothy and Ann/e Same as original name
French (both series) Anne-Sophie The names Ann/e and Sophie/Sofia/Sophia Similar to German, her first name is Ann. This time it is spelled with an E at the end.
German Ann-Kathrin The names Ann/e and Catherine/Katherine/Katrin/Kathrin Similar to French, her first name is Ann. It is now spelled as in English and Spanish.
Arabic TMSB: Dalia (داليا)

RA: Dorothy Ann

Dalia probably was chosen because of it starting with a D (or in the case of the Arabic alphabet, the letter د) Her English name is used in Rides Again.

Devices[]

  • Violet MSB phone
  • Violet MSB laptop

Trivia[]

  • Rarely, her pigtails stay up without rubberbands. [1]
  • She knows enough about music to know how to keep time as a conductor.
  • On the cover of the 2004 release of the Bugs, Bugs, Bugs! DVD and in the Rides Again series, she has blue eyes.
  • She is very reliant on her books, thus referring to her as the class bookworm. In the new series, she became reliant on her purple "Friz" tablet
  • Dorothy Ann owns a violet-colored FrizTab® computer. In Season 3 of Rides Again, it was replaced by the FrizPad.
  • In "Meets the Rot Squad" she wanted to build an amusement park on the abandoned lot on Decatur.
  • She is highly knowledgeable in astronomy, enough to accurately track an asteroid. [2]
  • She explains her book is "violet" as opposed to "purple". This is due to the fact that red and blue make purple and that purple is really violet streaked with red contrary to popular belief. [3]
    • It's was implied that violet is D.A.'s favorite color.
  • Despite seemingly hating baseball, she is later revealed skilled enough to hit a home run that causes the ball to rip open.
  • She celebrated her birthday in "Sees Stars", and is the first student to do so, followed by Arnold's birthday episode.
  • She is the only main kid to have kissed someone on-screen. She kissed Arnold in "Cracks a Yolk".
  • Throughout the books and television series, she is often referred to by her initials (D.A.).
  • Dorothy Ann is the second major character who is shown to have a sibling, the first being Carlos, and the third being Wanda.
    • She and Wanda are the only female major characters that have siblings (Evan and William).
  • Dorothy Ann is one of two major character with seven letters in the name, the other being Ralphie.
    • Thought, Tim's full name, Timothy, is counted.
  • It's been ironically known for quite sometimes over the years that fans believe that Dorothy bears a strong resemblance to Linka on the 1990s cartoon Captain Planet and the Planeteers, thus, a theory began to happen that Dorothy might have grew up to be her.
  • Dorothy Ann is right handed. [4]
  • Dorothy Ann's favorite subject is math. [5]
  • She is one of few students to not be subjected to the "Carlos!" gag despite making at least one pun in the course of the original series, which happened in Rocks and Rolls.
    • Her sole pun resulted in a high five from Carlos.
  • Except for the one time she made a pun, Dorothy Ann does not make much for jokes. The reason for this is never revealed, though it is possible she tends to be on the serious side of things.
  • Dorothy Ann dislikes slow Wi-Fi. [6]
  • Dorothy Ann is the only student to have a sister rather than a brother. [7]
  • Dorothy Ann's signature color for her field trip suits is violet.
  • Fans theorize her love interests with Carlos, Arnold and Tim.
  • She's one out of the "1994-2017 eight" students that has made a pun, other than Tim, Arnold, Carlos, Ralphie, Keesha, Wanda and Phoebe. [8]
  • She is the only student in the TV class to have blonde hair.
  • Dorothy Ann is the only student in the original series did not to have an instrument. (she was the conductor) [9]
  • Just like Keesha, she seems to like taking selfies as she does so in Pigs in the Wind with Ms. Frizzle's brick contraption.
  • Dorothy Ann is the only female student not to cry in a episode
  • In the original series, she had a mild British accent, which is most noticeable in the way she pronounced "re-SEARCH" in the original series.
  • Her skin tone in the original series is similar to Ralphie's, implying partial Mediterranean descent.
  • Dorothy Ann's favorite flowers are Vanda orchids. [10]
  • In her winter attire in Rides Again, she's the only student to not have a beanie. Instead she has Earmuffs like Ms. Frizzle.
  • She and Carlos have narrated the most chapter books out of all the students with a total of 4.

References[]


* Débuted | ** Briefly | --- Formerly
Hudson Family
Dorothy Ann HudsonMr. HudsonMrs. HudsonEvan Hudson
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