Wayside: The Movie

2005 AnimationFamily 48 minutes Directed by Riccardo Durante

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About Wayside: The Movie

Todd transfers into Mrs. Jewls’s class at Wayside, a grammar school built thirty stories tall because the contractor stacked the rooms. A check goes by his name on the discipline list, and another disruption means the kindergarten bus. During Principal Kidswatter’s PA speech the walls close in. Todd yells, and Mrs. Jewls sends him home early, where he meets Wetnose. He dodges Miss Mush’s Mushroom Surprise, misses a class election, shouts at the walls again, and is sent home once more. The next vote collapses into dodgeball, which Dana wins, and the walls move a third time. Todd sneaks back, learns the room is a trash compactor, and with Louis melts the locked door using the Mushroom Surprise. The class gets out. They give him a new desk. He throws it out the window.

Cast & crew

More about Wayside: The Movie

Riccardo Durante directed. John Derevlany developed the film from Louis Sachar’s Wayside School books as a 2004 pitch to Teletoon. Nelvana produced it. Teletoon aired it on 19 November 2005. It runs 48 minutes. The network then ordered 26 episodes across two seasons, broadcast in 2007 and 2008.

Themes

  • A school built on its side
  • A discipline list and an early bus
  • A classroom that is a trash compactor
  • Wayside
  • Todd
  • Mrs. Jewls
  • Kidswatter
  • Mushroom Surprise
  • Louis Sachar
  • Teletoon
  • Nelvana

Making

Derevlany used the movie to show Teletoon the sideways school. The 26-episode order followed in 2007–2008. Todd’s desk going out the window is the last beat of the pilot, not of a later episode.

Notes

  • Michael Cera voices Todd. Kathy Najimy is Mrs. Jewls. Kedar Brown is Principal Kidswatter. Jayne Eastwood is Miss Mush.
  • Sergio Di Zio is Louis. Denise Oliver is Maurecia. Martin Villafana is Myron. Lisa Ng is Dana.
  • The school’s mistake is architectural: rooms stacked instead of set side by side.
  • Dana becomes class president by dodgeball after everyone, including Kidswatter and Miss Mush, tries to run.
  • The series order came after this pilot film, not before it.

Scenes

  • The walls creep in while Kidswatter talks on the PA, and Todd is sent home for warning the class.
  • He ducks Miss Mush’s Mushroom Surprise and misses the election.
  • Dodgeball decides the presidency. Dana wins.
  • Mushroom Surprise eats through the locked door of the compactor, and Todd throws his new desk out the window.

Influenced by

  • Wayside School (Louis Sachar)

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (Wayside- A Special Series - KEEP IT WEIRD.webm)