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"You're saying "time zones", but I keep hearing "calzones". MMMMM!"
—Ralphie in "In the Zone"

Ralph Alessandro Giuseppe Tennelli (spelled Tinelli prior to "Going Batty"), known as Ralphie since The Magic School Bus On the Ocean Floor, is a student in Ms. Fiona Frizzle's class at Walkerville Elementary School.

Appearance[]

Ralphie is a heavyweight kid with brown hair that falls across his forehead. He is known for his signature red baseball cap, which he wears either backwards (books, MSB) or forwards (Rides Again).

In The Magic School Bus, he wore a lime green T-shirt with red "R" symbol on the front, green-rinse black jeans, and a pair of red and white sneakers. His original signature colors from the original series are green and red.

In the first two seasons of Rides Again, he wore a white shirt with blue long sleeves, gray shorts, and red sneakers. His cap is now forwards.

In the Joanna Cole specials (Season 3), since "The Frizz Connection", his shirt has changed - he now wears a white short-sleeved T-shirt (based on his "70s look" from "The Tales Glaciers Tell") with blue rims on the neckline and sleeves, to make him closely resemble how he looked in The Magic School Bus.

For winter wear in "Rocks and Rolls", he wears a green turtleneck, a red jacket, green-rinse black jeans, and green boots. In "In the Zone", the colors are changed to blue and red to match his modern color scheme from "Holiday Special" and "Goes Cellular" onward, alongside a red beanie that matches his hat. The MSB logo is embroidered on the coat as well. This is based on his raincoat from “Gets Swamped.”

For beachwear in "Goes to Mussel Beach", he wears red and green stripe trunks and white and green flip-flops. The version from "In the Swim" and "DA and the Deep Blue Sea" consists of a short-sleeved blue and white wetsuit based on his outfit in early Rides Again seasons.

For rainwear, he wears a lime green raincoat and matching boots. Like his winter coat from "In the Zone", his spy outfit from "Goldstealer," and his field trip suits, the rain jacket is adorned with the Walkerville logo.

For formal wear in "Goes Cellular," he wears a navy tuxedo, a white shirt, a red and blue striped necktie, and black casual shoes. This color scheme also happens to predate his modern colors. The outfit is similar in "Goldstealer", except his tie is solid red and it bears the Walkerville logo, and he wears the high-tech "Hat Camera" assigned to him by Liz in place of his unmodified hat.

For basketball wear, he wears a green basketball shirt, dark green shorts, lime green socks, and red Converse sneakers.

Personality[]

Ralphie loves sports, daydreaming, and snoring the loudest in his sleep. He's outgoing, kind, imaginative and fun loving, and on rare occasions, he can be cowardly. He enjoys a day off from school, but he does respect Ms. Frizzle and enjoys being in her class.

Background[]

Ralphie is the class athlete, sleeper, and daydreamer. He plays a lot of sports, and when he's not, he's dreaming about playing sports. He is of Italian descent, and he once mentioned that his mother's calzones "go down like rocks." He has a distaste for anchovies, which his father puts on pizza to keep him from eating it. He mentions in "Kicks Up a Storm" that he despises roller coasters more than anything and shows to have a weak stomach in "For Lunch". Despite his occasional machismo, he has no hesitation showing when he's afraid. He loves superheroes and comic books, and he appears to be a science-fiction fan (as shown by his pajamas). However, he might be reading too many before bed, as he thinks that Professor Frizzle is a vampire.

Storyline[]

The Magic School Bus[]

Season 1[]

Ralphie-tennelli-the-magic-school-bus-9

Ralphie faking being well while he has a fever and sore throat

Ralphie is upset he hasn't come up with an idea for Broadcast Day as he types on his computer, and he's even more upset when his mother tells him he's staying home due to having a fever and sore throat ("Inside Ralphie"). The class comes to his house, and their Broadcast Day becomes about his sick body. Irritated when Dorothy Ann interrupts the class baseball game to talk about her physics book, he sees it would make the perfect home plate ("Plays Ball"). They continue to butt heads when Professor Frizzle takes the class inside the book to play a frictionless baseball game, but they stop their fighting long enough to get the bus unstuck when the wind blows the book shut. He comes up with a superhero persona named "Weatherman" in "Kicks Up a Storm". He and Keesha argue over who knows how thunderstorms are made and using the bus, he eventually makes one, realizing he may have made a huge mistake.

Season 2[]

Ralphie01

Ralphie daydreaming about the creation of Ralphiebot

Tired of having to do class chores, which keep him from playing sports, Ralphie decides to build a robot to do all of the chores for everyone "Flexes Its Muscles". When the bus acts up, he gets his chance when Professor Frizzle takes the class to her mechanic. In "Going Batty", he is convinced she is a vampire due to many coincidences, and he fears she plans to eat their parents during the parent-teacher conference, which is taking place not only off-campus but also at night and he frequently argues with Keesha who knows that vampires don't exist. Six hours before the "biggest soccer game of the year", he is aggravated when Phoebe wants to name the team the Butterflies ("Butterfly and the Bog Beast"). He's the last in the class to finally agree to it, though at one point he said he'd rather play for the other team. In "Cold Feet", he is transformed into a turtle when he, Professor Frizzle and some of his classmates help Phoebe rescue Liz from Herp Haven.

Season 3[]

MSB-35 Ya Gotta Have Muscles

Ralphie explaining to Dorothy Ann that Professor Frizzle has "gotta have muscles" to beat Mr. Sinew. However, that's not the case.

On a field trip to the Arctic Circle, Ralphie is trapped on an ice flow with Liz, Phoebe, and the bus, and he worries that he'll never hear another bad joke from Carlos and never go on another field trip ("In the Arctic"). In "Goes Upstream", he's in charge of bringing fish to the school's annual fish fry. Unable to catch any salmon at the spot he and his uncle used to fish, the class finds out that the salmon have migrated. Up until realizing what a hard journey it is, he is determined to bring back some fish to the school. He is Professor Frizzle's trainer for the Teacherathlon in "Works Out". Seeing that her competitor is another school's heavily muscled gym teacher, Mr. Sinew, he wonders how she will ever beat him.

Season 4[]

MSB S4 E6 009

Ralphie worried about Arnold, who has turned orange from high carotene intake

The bus turns into a planet. When it was small it looks like Ralphie, and the rest of the class lost weight, but when it was big, they gained weight ("Gains Weight"). The class is enjoying a nice afternoon at the beach, but Ralphie wants to move away from their peaceful spot to a more crowded one ("Goes to Mussel Beach"). They find out later that the reason he chose it was so they'd be first for ice cream when the truck came. In "Goes on Air", he's upset that their contribution to the Walkerville space capsule is an empty jar of air. When the bus turns the class into wild animals, he becomes a Virginia opossum, along with Wanda and Keesha, in "In the City".

The Magic School Bus Rides Again[]

Season 1[]

The Magic School Bus Rides Again Ralphie Tennelli

Ralphie with oatmeal on his shirt during his first day in fifth grade

Ralphie and Arnold debate on which of Tim's comic book characters is the best: Weatherman or Captain Rock Man. ("The Battle for Rock Mountain"). He organizes a variety show at Walkerville Elementary School, but after the class shrinks to subatomic size and explores atoms, he wants the show to focus on magnetism, and the class dances on the ceiling wearing magnet suits, dubbed "The Magnetic Mambo".

Season 2[]

2017 Ralphie

Without the visual mathematical aid of Matthew "Math" Matthews, Ralphie may never be able to understand how to do a trapeze act. During his worrying, he starts to become accustomed to the math and see it in his head.

In "Ralphie and the Flying Tennellis", Ms. Frizzle escorts him and the rest of the class to Budapest, Hungary, to see a circus show featuring his trapeze-artist family, the Flying Tennellis - consisting of his "zia" (aunt) and two cousins, Tina and Tony. When Tony severely injures himself after falling off the trapeze during a practice run, Ralphie offers to replace him. But trapeze work involves serious understanding of math, such as in how many seconds the flyers need to jump off.

Season 3[]

EP79 Woo-hoo

Ralphie getting used to the low gravity of the International Space Station.

In "Kids in Space", Ralphie accidentally uses the Portashrinker to turn a tardigrade into a monster. After the mission, he fell asleep on the way home. "The Frizz Connection" pits him with Carlos, Keesha, and Ms. Frizzle in the Banana Bus. During the lesson on time zones, he relates, saying his grandmother lives in Italy (whom he calls "nonna" in Italian in a similar vein to Jyoti's using "नानी nani"), which is a different time zone from Walkerville in "In the Zone".

Relatives[]

  • Ralphie's mother is a doctor and appears in "Inside Ralphie", "Going Batty", and briefly in "Rocks and Rolls". She appears to have a playful relationship with him, such as remarking, "Even your jokes are sick," when he makes a lame joke when he's sick and telling him with a smile to stop being "a pain in the neck" before she goes to talk to Ms. Frizzle. He seems to take after her, especially with "Is it just me, or..." He mentions her in "Ups and Downs", "Frizzle of the Future", "The Magnetic Mambo", and "Kids in Space".
  • He mentions his father in "Gets Eaten," telling about how he puts anchovies on pizza to keep him from eating it, and he mentions him again in "The Good, the Bad, and the Gnocchi".
  • His grandfather is mentioned in "Inside Ralphie", being at the house while Ralphie is sick, and his mother is at work. He is the first major character whose grandparents were revealed, the second being Keesha.
  • In "Shows and Tells", he makes a side comment around a photo of his Uncle Ed in his house, as he says, "Whose Uncle Ed's head is kind of pointy."
  • In "Goes Upstream", he mentions going fishing with his Uncle Brian.
  • He has a pet dog named Noodles.
  • The Flying Tennellis consist of his aunt and two cousins, Terresina and Tony.
  • In "In the Zone", he mentions his grandmother, whom he affectionately calls his nona.
  • His stepbrother is mentioned in "Meet the Class".

Portrayed/voiced by[]

  • Stuart Stone (1994–2017): The Magic School Bus, Fun Kit cassette tapes, CD-ROM games
  • Matthew Mintz (2017–2020): The Magic School Bus Rides Again (2017 era)
  • Matthew Mucci (2020–present): The Magic School Bus Rides Again (Joanna Cole Specials and Goldstealer)

Trivia[]

  • He plays multiple sports (baseball, basketball, soccer, and hockey).
  • His last name has varied in spelling. On the captions for "Inside Ralphie", it is spelled Tinelli, and from "Going Batty" onward, it is spelled Tennelli. Either way, "Tennelli" is a corruption of the Italian surname Tonelli.
  • As of "In the Zone", he and Tim are tied with the second most number of voice actors (3), behind Arnold, who has 4.
    • Another thing he has in common with Tim is both Matthew Mucci (his voice in the tetralogy) and Kaden Stephen (Tim in the classic RA era and tetralogy era) voiced characters in the 2015 Disney Channel series PJ Masks.
  • His signature colors for field trip suits are blue, green, red, and white.
  • He's a believer in aliens and mythological monsters, such as vampires.
  • Oddly, in many episodes, he is dangling upside down when in the bus, but his cap stays on, and completely disobeys gravity. The reason is unknown.
  • He appears to have a weak, somewhat large stomach at times, and his secondary catchphrase in the TV series is "I think I'm gonna be sick!"
  • His most dominant appearances without his cap are in four original series episodes: "Ups and Downs", "Cracks a Yolk", and "All Dried Up".
  • It is implied many times that he likes pizza, but clearly without anchovies. He also appears to like his mother's calzones. He also seems to like sweet things, like candy, ice cream (especially space ice cream), MallowBlasters, cookies, etc.
  • Despite displaying a laid-back and sometimes careless attitude, he is dedicated to his commitments.
  • His real name in English is Ralph, which he was also referred by in the earliest books.
  • In the Latin American localization of The Magic School Bus books and media, his name is Rafa, a diminutive of Raphael. Raphaël is also his name in the French localization, but the only difference is the E has an umlaut.
  • His voice, as well as Carlos' in The Magic School Bus grew deeper in later seasons sounding more teenager-like, despite that they're 8-9 years old along with the rest of the class. This is due to their voiceovers, Stuart Stone and Daniel DeSanto, respectively going through maturity and puberty at the time. In the second season, some of their lines in some episodes happen to be re-recorded which can explain their voiceovers' progression in maturity and puberty.
  • Ralphie's original voice actor, Stuart Stone, previously voiced characters such as Cousin Arthur and Alexander #2 in Babar, Bentley in The Raccoons, Darryl in Wish Kid, and Ramon in Beetlejuice. He would later voice J.T. in Da Möb, Sheldon a Scritter in Cyberchase, Taylor in Braceface, and Carl in Carl Squared. He also plays Jack in The Independent, Einstein in Mutant X, D.J. Tanner in Kickin' It Old Skool, and characters in a few horror films. He would also later be the producer of and have voice roles in Rides Again.
  • He was the first character to speak in the TV series, but in the books, Amanda Jane and Arnold are the first to talk.
  • It's implied in "Kicks Up a Storm" that he has a crush on Keesha, as he blushes over her sarcastically waiting for the thunderstorm.
  • He was the second character (the first being Arnold) to be a body location.
  • He was the only character to have a sore throat, as mentioned in "Inside Ralphie."
  • His superhero alter-ego in "Kicks Up a Storm" and "The Battle for Rock Mountain" is Weatherman.
  • He resembles to Disney's Recess character T.J. Detweiler who wears the red hat in several episodes.
  • He seems to have a crush on Jyoti, as seen in "Three in One", where he keeps trying to help her with her entry on Gizmos That Go: Three in One. This prompts the fanbase to ship them, similar to Carlos and Dorothy Ann.
  • Ralphie is the third major character to have different voice actors due to puberty, happening late in Rides Again. The first being Arnold and second being Tim.
  • Ralphie is the second major character that is shown to have cousins in "Ralphie and the Flying Tennellis", the first being Arnold in the book Lost in the Solar System.
  • It's revealed in "DA and the Deep Blue Sea" that he's 10 years old.
  • Ralphie is the first major character revealed to have grandparents, with his grandfather being mentioned in "Inside Ralphie".
  • He is the first major character revealed to have a stepsibling. That being his unnamed stepbrother in Meet the Class.
  • He is the third shortest kid in the class (in Rides Again), the first being Arnold and the second being Dorothy Ann.
  • He occasionally rivals Carlos when it comes to making jokes.
  • Ralphie is one of two male students to have played a female character in a play, the other being Arnold.[1]
  • As Carlos likes mammoths, Ralphie likes saber-toothed cats

References[]


* Débuted | ** Briefly | --- Formerly
Tennelli family
Major: RalphieDr. Tennelli (mother) • Aunt TennelliTina (cousin) • Tony (cousin) • Noodles (pet)
Minor/Mentioned: Mr. Tennelli (father) • Nonna Tennelli (grandmother) • Grandpa • Brian (uncle) • Ed (uncle) • Ralphie's stepbrother
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