The Love Bug (1968)

Review number 100! And thank goodness, it’s a movie people have actually heard of! It’s on Disney+! And I didn’t even have to screencap it myself! Oh, sure, it’s another Dean Jones and his ___ movie, but there’s got to be a reason people remember it, right? Let’s get off to the races!

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This is probably the millionth time I’ve called a movie the last movie Walt had personal involvement in. All that means is that they had multiple projects going at the same time, but here we go again. Screenwriter Bill Walsh pitched the idea for a serious story about the first sports car to arrive in America. Walt wisely vetoed that idea and suggested that they adapt Gordon Buford’s book Car, Boy, Girl, which was published seven years earlier and which I could not find. He passed away before the film started production, but even that small touch is often credited as the reason that Herbie became so immensely popular and enduring. Personally, I credit the people I call the Mary Poppins Gang: Walsh and Don DaGradi make an excellent writing team, and Robert Stevenson is by far the best live action director the studio has seen on the list so far. It’s not the first time he’s taken a ridiculous premise and made gold out of it– even his dull comedies are at least entertaining!

The Love Bug was a smash hit of course, making a killing at the box office and garnering mostly positive reviews. It still has a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, and even people who have never seen the film can recognize good old Herbie. Okay, that’s not entirely because of this film, but in a way, that just proves how enduring the story and characters are. There are no less than four theatrically released sequels, plus a television series and a TV movie. So we’ll definitely be seeing this little guy again!

Having a unique-looking car definitely helped Herbie stand out. Who doesn’t love a cute little Punchbuggy? Several different cars were considered to play the title character, but the studio ended up with a Volkswagen Beetle because it was the only one that the crew wanted to reach out and pet. Eighteen different Herbies were created for the film, each designed for a specific special effect. For example, one car had a Porsche engine to allow it to go fast enough for the racing scenes, and another could open its doors by itself and squirt oil. Dean Jones actually ended up taking that last one home with him! The beloved car inspired Disney to hold a promotional “Herbie Day” at Disneyland, where guests could decorate their own personal Bugs and parade them down Main Street. Even so, due to rights issues, Herbie is never referred to onscreen as a Beetle, nor is the Volkswagen logo visible except in two split-second shots. I’ve heard that that’s not true of the sequels, so I guess Volkswagen lightened up after this movie was successful!

STORY

Right out of the gate, we’re treated to Robert Stevenson’s trademark touch of whimsy, combining stock footage of a demolition derby with a parody of Strauss’s Tik Tak Polka, orchestrated with crashes and screeching tires. Incidentally, that stock footage comes from a Chevrolet promo called Impact 66 and a film called Fireball 500, the latter of which starred our old friend Annette Funicello! Everything has a Disney connection, even before they literally owned everything. The symphony of carnage ends and our hero, Jim Douglas, rolls out of the wreckage, frustrated, dirty, and disheveled and may I say, much better looking for it. Sorry not sorry. He’s seriously annoyed about losing that race, but his agent won’t let him try again. Jim’s getting too old for this, and if he keeps it up he’ll probably get hurt.

And the agent isn’t the only one noticing that Jim’s in a really bad spot. His friend and roommate, Tennessee Steinmetz (which is quite a name for quite a character) offers some advice in his own new age, wackadoodle, hippie-esque way. Though Jim tries to brush him off, he plows ahead with his rambling tales of his own trip to Tibet, a meditative journey of self-discovery that helped Tennessee find true happiness and inner peace. But Jim has no time for this. He just wrecked his car, and now he’s got to get a new one. But how’s he going to get there, now that Tennesee’s made a sculpture out of his car?

There’s nothing else for it. Jim walks down to the nearest dealership in search of a new car and finds the best ad an arrogant skeeze could ask for. A pair of shapely legs struts their stuff under a sign announcing “May We Direct Your Attention to These”, and naturally, Jim’s attention is indeed directed. This doesn’t bother me as much as it should because it’s already been established that Jim isn’t as clean-cut as most of Dean Jones’ other characters- like, it’s supposed to be kind of gross. The legs belong to a young woman named Carole Bennett who works at the dealership. She’s trying to hang a sign for her employer directing customers’ attention to the beautiful European cars behind her, but catches Jim staring. He jumps when he notices and smacks his head on the glass pretty hard, so she invites him inside to make sure he’s not hurt.

As Carole fusses over Jim, she notices the big old scrape on his cheek from his accident yesterday. Before he even says he’s fine, his attention is directed to something even more beautiful: a sleek, bright yellow sports car dubbed the Thorndyke Special. The owner of the dealership catches him practically drooling over the car and instantly jumps into salesman mode, offering Jim a drink and haggling over price in the same breath that he introduces himself as Peter Thorndyke. At least, he’s in salesman mode until Jim reveals he has no money. Then he goes berserk and throws him out. When he turns to leave, Jim feels a little nudge at his leg. It’s a pearl white Beetle, so at odds with the fancy sports cars on the showroom floor that Thorndyke goes ballistic at the very sight of it. He’s so angry that he tries to kick the poor car while howling for his henchman Havershaw (the first Disney appearance of Joe Flynn, who will become a very familiar face over the next decade) to take it away. Jim might not be the nicest guy around, but he’s not about to watch an innocent thing take abuse. It’s at that moment where the Beetle takes a liking to him, which we find out all through a very well-placed shot of the Beetle’s curved grille… almost like a smile.

His good deed for the day is done, so Jim hopes the next trolley back home. Unbeknownst to him, the little car bounces free from Havershaw and his friends’ grasp to follow Jim home. He has no idea about his new friend until a policeman wakes him and Tennessee to arrest him for grand theft, courtesy of Thorndyke. For some reason or another, the cop takes him to Thorndyke’s garage instead of the police station (that’s right, it’s a Dean Jones movie with no jail sequence!). Jim and Thorndyke scream insults back and forth, flinging accusations of the craziest sales scheme ever and social incompatibility. It gets so intense it actually started distorting my speakers a little bit- did Disney+ even remaster the audio? Ah well. Carole, the singular brain cell in this movie, steps in with a solution: since Thorndyke doesn’t even want the Beetle, Jim can buy it for a series of monthly payments. He still feels strongarmed into taking it, but he needs a car and it’s better than going to jail.

Everything seems normal when Jim first starts driving his new car home. Then the crazy California traffic spooks the car. Jim flies into the backseat, legs dangling helpless out the window, as the Beetle launches backwards at top speed and swerves all the way back to the dealership. It bounces off Thorndyke’s Rolls Royce like it’s made of rubber just as he’s inviting Carole to dinner. Naturally, Jim thinks the car has been tampered with, and also naturally, Thorndyke has no idea what’s going on, so naturally, they both start screaming at each other again. Carole steps between the two to shut them both up and offers to take the car for a test drive to prove that there’s nothing wrong with anything but Jim. She seems to be right, because the Beetle behaves perfectly normally with her behind the wheel. What’s more, she recognizes Jim as a man who’s wrecked every car he’s ever raced, and she doesn’t think much of a man who would disrespect a car like that.

This conversation is over, so Jim and Carole switch spots so he can drive her back to the dealership. As they do, two hippies pull up, taunting Jim to race them. The Beetle hears that and can’t resist the challenge, rearing up onto its back wheels and leaving the hippies in the dust. By the way, the female hippie is Nicole Jaffe, who would soon go on to voice Velma in Scooby Doo! She and her friend are thrilled, but Carole assumes that Jim’s just trying to show off and opts to take a cab back to Thorndyke’s. Nope. The Beetle refuses to open its doors or even slow down, and the brake pedal and ignition key are totally worthless. All Jim can do is hang on tight as the Beetle blazes past Thorndyke’s place, almost splattering him on the pavement in the process. And Carole still doesn’t believe Jim’s not responsible!

Late that night, the Beetle finally stops at a drive-in restaurant and we get a sequence that reeeeally hasn’t aged well. Carole screams and begs the waitress and a couple of hippies for help, begging to be released from what she percieves as a maniac holding her hostage in his car. No one could possibly care less. Oh, sure, the hippie’s (an unrecognizable Dean Jones) line is a comedy highlight, but come on people. Like, if you were at work and a woman came up locked in a car against her will and screaming for help, I’d hope you’d at the very least call security. Nah. All this chick can be bothered to do is to suggest they take their antics up to Makeout Point, which is pretty much the opposite of helpful. I mean, I know the whole thing is a misunderstanding and Jim’s innocent, but it looks bad, okay?

I might cringe at the idea of direccting a woman in distress to makeout point with the man who’s apparently kidnapping her, but the Beetle likes the idea. After all, the very title comes from its goal to play matchmaker, whether they like it or not. So that’s where they’re going and no input from Jim can change that. Jim reminds us that he’s no angel even if he did stand up for the car, and starts messing with Carole, stroking her face and making cracks about taking advantage of being here in such a romantic spot. Yeah, that goes over about as well as you’d expect. Finally, he chuckles and decides to call a cab. While he’s gone, Carole checks under the Beetle’s hood to see what’s going on. It behaves fine when she gets back behind the wheel… at least, it does until she passes Jim. It just can’t stand to leave him behind, so it lurches backwards to get him.

Now thoroughly enraged, Carole storms out to give Jim a piece of her mind. She has no idea that the Beetle is still following them as they argue. At long last, someone notices that this is no romantic date- a cop checks in to make sure Jim isn’t harassing her. Took them long enough. For some reason she says no and he switches gears to scolding them for not having their parking brake on. That’s the logical explanation. Surely a car can’t just follow people on its own. That would be ridiculous. Either way, he lets them off with a warning. The Beetle, however, is a spiteful little brat and shoves the squad car into the pond.

By the next day, Jim is convinced there’s nothing weirder about his car than a whole lot of coincidental mechanical issues. Other than that, all he has in front of him is one heck of a good racecar. Tennessee is a lot more open-minded (or crazy, depending on how you look at it). He launches into a monologue about how humans created artificial intelligence and now the machines are taking over and oh boy Tennessee if you could only see the state of things in 2021. All hail Alexa, our benevolent overseer. When Jim leaves the room, Tennessee gives the Beetle a little pat. I mean, if you’re going to have a sentient metal death machine in your life, you should at least be nice to it, right?

He catches the car playing with the neighborhood dogs later, and pleads with it to be nice to Jim. He doesn’t need any more trouble in his life right now. And when Jim takes the car (and Tennessee) out for a test drive, it actually behaves! Things are looking up! Tennessee declares that he’s named their new automotive friend Herbie, after an uncle whose broken nose looked similar to a Beetle. For the most part, Jim only agrees to humor his odd little friend, but hey, who doesn’t name their cars? He stops to grab a bouquet of flowers to apologize to Carole for the fiasco last night, but Herbie only stays long enough to drop them in her hand and terrify Thorndyke before he leaves them in the dust.

That’s enough shenanigans for now. Some conspicuous True Life Adventures footage sets the scene for Jackrabbit Springs. It’s been a while since this has happened, but those prairie dogs are definitely from Vanishing Prairie. Herbie’s got a brand new iconic coat of paint for his very first race, and Jim has a whole new confidence. It’s a win win! Even Carole and Thorndyke turn out to watch the little Beetle go. On Tennessee’s advice, Herbie plays it cool and doesn’t show what he can really do at first. Once Tennessee gives the signal from the pit, he opens her up and wins the race! As he accepts his friends’ congratulations, Jim admits that driving Herbie brought back a spark that’s been missing for a very long time. So naturally, Thorndyke shows up to ruin everything. Now that Herbie’s proven to be worth something after all, he wants him back.

Naturally, Jim refuses, but he doesn’t understand why Thorndyke had such a sudden change of heart. How could the car win the race all by itself? Surely that was Jim’s incredible skill. Surely. Before the two men can start screaming at each other yet again, Carole the voice of reason comes up with a compromise. Thorndyke is taking part in a race at the end of the month- what if Jim joined up, and whoever wins takes Herbie! Jim has his doubts and Tennessee has even more doubts, but ultimately the bet is on. And then something momentous happens! We get our first ever non-stereotyped black character! It’s a very, very small role, just announcing the start of the next race, but it’s a huge step forward from some of the other movies we’ve seen. There’s still a very, very long way to go until these movies are truly inclusive, as we’ll see later in the movie, but this still felt like something worth mentioning. Progress is slow. But it’s starting.

Highlights of the next race include Tennessee’s incredible enthusiasm, the incredible oddity of hearing David Tomlinson giggle, and Herbie squirting Thorndyke with oil as a little middle finger. Of course Jim and Herbie win, which sends Thorndyke into a fit of uncontrollable rage. He screams at the officials to check under Herbie’s hood because the car must have been tampered with, but no dice. A whole bunch more races blow by in a montage of victory for Herbie and frustration for Thorndyke, culminating in a race through every stereotype of Mexico you can possibly imagine. Look, I told you we were getting better at diversity, I didn’t say we were exactly good yet. Also, those cacti they blow up are definitely made of foam.

Herbie’s winning streak starts to take a toll on Thorndyke’s health. He’s barely holding it together, but not to worry, he has a plan. Or maybe we should worry, because that plan revolves around him skeezing on Carole. Before he can get very far, the office phone rings. Even before Carole tells her boss who called and why, it’s easy to figure out that it’s Jim asking Carole on a date. Thorndyke takes this suspiciously well, because of course his whole plan was for Carole to spy on Jim and find out how he’s winning all these races in a VW Bug. He even invites her to drive the pretty yellow Thorndyke Special that Jim just can’t resist. Nothing suspicious about that at all.

The second Jim’s out the door, the bell rings. It’s Mr. Thorndyke, eager to have a look at the car that’s defied so many odds. Tennessee, bless his heart, suspects not a thing and offers him a drink of his mother’s Irish Coffee (featuring O’Gill’s brand whiskey in a very clever little easter egg). He brews the coffee with a blowtorch, as you do, while Thorndyke sneaks around looking under Herbie’s hood and being totally not suspicious. The alcohol quickly goes to Tennessee’s head, getting him so completely sloshed he doesn’t notice Thorndyke dumping every drink straight into Herbie’s gas tank! Oh no!

Meanwhile, Carole lets Jim drive the Thorndyke special so I guess their date is going well. He whines that he feels emasculated by having to drive a Beetle and he needs a real car like this to be a real racecar driver even though dude you’re doing pretty well with that sentient car of yours. Before long, they pull up to Makeout Point again. This time, it’s intentional. They pretend the doors and windows are stuck, a joking recollection of their first meeting, and share one of the better kisses I’ve seen in a Dean Jones movie. These two actually have chemistry, and Jim is an interesting character, making it feel a lot less shoehorned than something like Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit or Blackbeard’s Ghost.

Thorndyke feels pretty good about the next race day. He’s got an inside scoop on Jim Douglas’s mind and he knows Herbie’s miraculous speed won’t be an issue. Actually, Herbie does pretty okay at first, but after a few laps he starts gurgling, bouncing, and dropping speed. The effects they use to create the illusion of a drunk car are brilliant- it takes talent to make something that absurd seem not only believable but sympathetic, and this team pulled it off beautifully. Poor drunk Herbie pulls in for a pit stop and splorts whipped cream all over Tennessee, who immediately knows what happened. But it’s too late to stop it. Thorndyke wins the race… At least Herbie gets to spew globs of Irish coffee all over him and ruin his moment of triumph!

Feeling absolutely horrible, Tennessee nurses Herbie back to health with help from Carole, but where’s Jim? The two commisserate over their shared roles in the tragic loss, and Herbie divulges that he believes the car is alive. At first, she just thinks he’s personifying the car because let’s face it we all do that, but Tennessee truly believes that they have Herbie to thank for the drastic improvement in Jim’s mental health. He’s so earnest that Carole starts to come around. But then Jim comes home, pulling up in a cherry red Lambourghini, the “real car” he’s always wanted. He says some pretty nasty things about the little Bug that’s helped him so much, even as Tennessee and Carole snap at him to not be a jerk. Mr. “I’m Here To Ruin Everything” himself, Thorndyke, calls and offers to buy Herbie for a hefty sum since Jim doesn’t need him anymore, and Jim agrees without hesitation.

Both of Jim’s remaining friends turn their backs on him after this, but he can’t figure out why they’re acting like this over an inanimate object. Also, why is Carole here at all? She must be spying on him for Thorndyke again. Tennessee retreats to his art studio to drown out Jim and Carole screaming at each other, but even his metal sculptures can’t ease his mind so he tosses his hammer down and retreats downstairs. But the banging and scraping noises don’t stop. In fact, they’re louder than ever. Everyone rushes outside and finds a jealous Herbie ramming into what’s left of the Lambourghini.

Horrified to find his expensive “real car” as a twisted pile of metal, Jim smashes at Herbie with a shovel to get him to knock it off. Tennessee begs him to leave the poor thing alone, which gets Jim to finally admit, in the heat of the moment, that Herbie won all the races, not him. The weight of that realization stops both Herbie and Jim dead in their tracks. It looks like they’re about to make amends… but then Thorndyke shows up to ruin everything. Again. And Jim’s had enough of it, so he slams him against the wall demanding to know why he wants Herbie so badly. But it doesn’t really matter. Herbie’s run away. Jim runs after him, desperate, but of course he can’t catch up to a car on foot. Thorndyke, however, has a car, and a car phone to call for back up. His goons easily catch up with Herbie and tow him to Thorndyke’s garage. The poor little car trembles in terror as Thorndyke gives the order for him to be ripped apart, then floors it to crash through the wall and disappear into the San Francisco fog.

Remember when I said this movie made progress in terms of race? Well, we’re still early enough that I cringed pretty bad when Herbie runs to Chinatown to hide under a dragon in a parade. Jim spots his wheels and Herbie tears off to continue his despondent rampage, smashing up the fruit stand outside a grocery store owned by Mr. Tang Wu. And for this scene they have that overwrought accent again so I facepalmed. But I won’t get into too much detail on that… yet. First, Jim finally catches up with Herbie on the Golden Gate Bridge, in case anyone forgot this movie took place in San Francisco.

Did you know the Golden Gate Bridge sees the most suicides of any location in the world? Cuz it does. I was not expecting a movie about a cute little VW Beetle to involve said Beetle trying to kill himself, but I guess that’s where we’re at now. It’s so incredibly bizarre it avoids even being in poor taste and just comes off as one giant Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Jim begs Herbie not to do it, clinging to his fender until he falls over the side. Herbie suddenly realizes that if he goes through with this Jim will go down with him, and he can’t kill his friend. He reverses, and the cops watching note that the car saved his life…. wait. And then we get a drug reference. This movie is nuts, ya’ll.

Down at the police station, Mr. Wu and his employee inspect various cars in search of the one that smashed up their store. It only takes one sound of Herbie’s distinctive horn for them to know they’ve got their man. Unfortunately, Jim can’t afford to pay Mr. Wu damages, so he’ll have no choice but to sell the car. Or will he? Tennessee steps in to reason with Mr. Wu, using the Chinese he learned while in Tibet. It turns out that Mr. Wu is a big car buff and he recognizes Herbie from the races. He’s so excited that he wants to keep him, so Jim asks Tennessee to make a deal with him. Mr. Wu can have Herbie if he lets Jim race him. If he wins, Mr. Wu has to return Herbie. With money and an exciting wager on the line, he smiles and says in fluent English that they’re speaking his language, and boy are their faces red. Guys. This scene had the potential to be really, really bad. Like, really bad. But you know what? It’s not! Sure, the music is pretty stereotypical, but according to IMDB Buddy Hackett is actually speaking Cantonese, albeit with some awkward pronunciation and a strong accent. So that’s pretty nice, compared to other films where Asian languages are reduced to random gibberish. Also, the ignorant white dudes, not the Asian man, are the butt of the joke. Again, not a perfect scene, but man, at this point, I’ll take it.

Yet again, the day of the big race arrives. This time, there are no rules. Literally, that’s what the announcer says. Um, okay. Thorndyke sleazes up to Mr. Wu to try to make another deal, but Mr. Wu is wise to his tricks. He agrees to the bet anyway, and the two men go their separate ways, each convinced the odds are in his favor. Jim and his driving team of Carole and Tennessee are a little less confident. Herbie was in such bad shape after his escapades the previous night that Tennessee actually had to cut him in half to fix him! I’m sure that won’t come back to bite them. And then the whole race turns into freaking Mario Kart.

This last race goes on for quite a while, but at least Thorndyke and Havershaw’s sabotages are entertaining. The oil slick and tossing Herbie in the water are pretty standard wacky races stuff, but then the bear happens. And David Tomlinson’s reaction to finding that the creature that wiped his glasses and listened to him yelling is not, in fact, Havershaw is priceless. Bonus points, it seems like the bear is chromakeyed in rather than just stuck next to a man! Progress! Next, Herbie runs out of gas and somebody just happened to replace their gas can with water. But it’s okay! The Tang Wu Clan shows up out of nowhere to lift Herbie onto a litter (yes, they lift a car) and carry him to their family-owned gas station for a quick refill! And their leader, Mr. Wu’s nephew is hot. Meanwhile, Thorndyke gets stuck the oldest man in the world filling up his tank as slowly as possible. The ancient Chinese proverbs and dropped articles and gong noises get really bad in this scene, but I get the feeling the character’s being stereotypical on purpose to be annoying, because the guys filling up Herbie speak perfectly clearly.

Once everyone’s back in action, Thorndyke pulls ahead and works with Havershaw to change all the road signs and trick everyone else into driving through an old mining tunnel. The only way out is an elevator too small for Herbie to fit. It looks like Thorndyke’s got this in the bag, so he and Havershaw celebrate with champagne. In the car. While driving. They did say there are no rules, I guess. But wait— here comes Herbie plowing down the hill behind them! It seems Jim and his squad somehow turned Herbie on his side to fit up the elevator. But the bad guys have a back up plan: they loosened one of Herbie’s wheels at some point, and cut up the spare for good measure. One good impact knocks the wheel off completely and almost knocks the whole crew off a cliff. As they banter and do their best to hold the wheel on with their hands, Thorndyke crosses the finish line of the first leg of the race. Herbie finishes dead last, well after the reporters have called it a night, using an old wagon wheel as a placeholder.

Tomorrow’s race is the real decider, but even though there’s still time, morale is pretty low. Even Mr. Wu thinks it’s over. At least he’s apologetic. He thought Herbie would win for sure. Jim muses on the love between a man and his car. It might actually be a real thing this time, but why would Herbie choose him? Carole answers that question: he was kind to him. He wasn’t such an egotistical jerk after all. They share another kiss until Thorndyke shows up once again to ruin everything and gloats that he’s going to rip Herbie to pieces, because he bet Mr. Wu that whoever won kept Herbie! Fed up, Jim slugs him and the two fist fight until Herbie chases Thorndyke down. It takes the combined efforts of Jim, Mr. Wu, and Tennessee to get him to stop and save it for the race, but they realize that they can’t give up now.

This is it. The big one. This one’s for all the beans. Winner takes Herbie. When it’s finally his turn to go, Herbie wastes no time in plowing down a shortcut to go off-roading until he catches up with Thorndyke. The two important cars smash up an abandoned mining settlement that looks suspiciously like Frontierland in Disneyland, trying to one up each other and show off as much stunt work as possible. Eventually, Thorndyke rams Herbie off the road and into a tree. He ejects his friends and leaves them clinging to his trunk for dear life because no one wears their seatbelts in 1969. Thorndyke’s starting to get real paranoid, which isn’t helped by a sabotage backfiring and getting him stuck in Herbie’s glove compartment. Somehow. At least the joke lands, which is the whole point, and Carole and Jim let him out on the side of the road.

Team Good Guys are in the lead and the finish line is close, but Herbie’s starting to make some weird noises. Tennessee realizes that his welding job from earlier isn’t holding, and Herbie’s starting to crack apart. He pulls a welding torch from… somewhere, and starts trying to patch it (yes, he’s welding in a moving vehicle. Don’t even ask.), but it’s too late. Herbie breaks clean in half! Tennessee and Carole grab hands to try to pull him back together but it’s no use. Thorndyke comes up behind, but Herbie’s back half swerves violently to keep him from passing. Tennessee, still in the backseat, waves in complete bewilderment as he passes his friends. And Herbie wins first place… and third! Pretty sure that’s not legal, but hey, they won! Jim gets to keep Herbie!

Later on, Tennessee helps Mr. Wu put the finishing touches on his newest business: the dealership he won from Thorndyke! That’s right, Thorndyke was so overconfident he agreed to let Mr. Wu have his business. And now he and Havershaw are relegated to mechanics, bickering and squirting oil at each other. As for Herbie, he rolls up to a fancy hotel, dressed up in a big white bow. Jim and Carole step out dressed in their finest. They got married! And I appreciate that it was apparently a civil wedding. You don’t see too many of those on film. Tennessee officiated, and Mr. Wu witnessed because apparently he’s best friends with them now. Hey, I’m down. The happy couple climbs in the back of their four-wheeled friend, but where they’re going for their honeymoon is all up to Herbie!

I’m not going to pretend this is the best film Robert Stevenson’s ever done, but it’s such a breath of fresh air to have a movie that’s actually enjoyable. It follows the same template as a lot of the stuff I’ve been getting bored of, but Stevenson’s directorial style tends to lean into the idea of this being a live action cartoon. The result has a whole lot more life in it than similar movies directed by, say, Tokar. It helps that the special effects are really, really good here, easily selling the idea that this car is a living, feeling being without relying on words or facial expressions. DaGradi and Walsh’s script is really clever, too, and every one of the the actors is clearly having a ball. It just felt good to watch!

It also feels like we’re starting to turn a corner in terms of portrayal of other races, which is a very good thing. I know we’ve got some more bad, baaaad things coming up (I’ve heard horror stories of another Stevenson film coming up relatively soon), but this is the first time we’ve really seen people of color portrayed as anything approaching a respectable manner. The music was really the worst thing about the portrayal, featuring a lot of gongs and stereotypical melodies. There’s also a little bit of “ancient Chinese wisdom” spouted so that isn’t great, and even Mr. Wu isn’t immune to the occasional dropped article. Other than that, though? The accents aren’t exaggerated, the characters are competent and helpful, sometimes even more so than the white leads, and they’re as close to well-rounded characters as we’ve gotten in a very, very long time. It’s small progress, but progress nonetheless!

CHARACTERS

Jim Douglas actually gets character development! He starts out as a cynical egotist who only cares about winning, but turns around and learns the value of love and friendship from his little car. That means Dean Jones actually gets a chance to show some range! He’s not just the everyman nice guy whose jerkish qualities are more than just the movie aging poorly! Even when he’s being a jerk, though, we get that nice little pet the dog moment where he saves Herbie from Thorndyke’s abuse. It’s been so long since we’ve seen an arc like this, and it feels so good. Easily the most interesting character Dean Jones has gotten to play since That Darn Cat.

Carole Bennett fills the generic love interest role, yes, but like Jim, she adds some depth to the role. Not only is she a mechanic, making her a woman who’s more competent than the men in a field that’s traditionally male-dominated, but she’s the most intelligent character in the movie. Bar none. Whenever egos start getting in the way, she’s there with a solution. Whenever Jim starts making bad decisions, she’s there to call him on it. She kind of falls off in the last third of the movie, when the movie starts focusing on all the Mario Kart shenanigans, but then again so does Jim. Michele Lee, from Knots Landing and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, gives her a sense of poise and grace that’s missing from a lot of these kind of comedies, which makes me kind of sad that this is her only Disney film.

Tennessee Steinmetz is an absolute joy and we’re all privileged to have him here. Seriously, this guy’s hilarious, a clear parody of new age hippie culture with just enough earnestness to ground him and make him loveable. It’s like they took everything people loved about Baloo, gave him a Brooklyn accent, and brought him to the live action screen. Nearly all of the biggest laughs in the movie come from him, and I’m not being hyperbolic when I say I don’t think Herbie the Love Bug would be so enduring if it weren’t for Tennessee. Buddy Hackett’s so funny and charming that he’d go on to voice Scuttle in the Little Mermaid two decades later. One of his standup bits even inspired Herbie’s name!

Peter Thorndyke is literally just Mr. Banks from Mary Poppins if he didn’t reform, right down to the costume. He’s the stuffy, cutthroat businessman willing to do anything to keep power and control over his situation. Unlike Mr. Banks, though, David Tomlinson gets to let his hair down and really lean into being a villain– and he has a blast with it. The more Herbie beats him, the more scenery Tomlinson gets to chew. And it is glorious.

But of course, the real star of this show is…

Herbie! This little Bug is a marvel of special effects technology. They got so much personality, so much sass, and so much sympathy out of an inanimate object in a way that I don’t expect to be replicated until the Magic Carpet in Aladdin. And they pulled it off without resorting to shortcuts like making him talk or putting creepy off-putting eyes in his windshield (unlike some franchises I could name). It’s all done through motion, like making him shake when he’s scared or try to ram Thorndyke when he’s angry. And it lands every time! Not for nothing is Herbie still a household name even with people who haven’t seen this or any of his many movies. He’s a great character.

MUSIC

Let me start off by saying that Herbie’s Theme is the happiest piece of music I have ever heard. Listen to that without smiling, I dare you. You can’t. It’s not possible. It’s just so darn cheery. It’s incredibly, incredibly ’60s, but this movie is already so deeply rooted in its decade that when you watch it now it comes off as a period piece, so it works very well. Most of George Bruns’s score is like that, playful and teasing to make the film as appealing as possible. It works very nicely, even if there are a few cringeworthy moments like the gong I’ve mentioned a few times that accompanies Mr. Wu or the vaguely mystic windchimes that play whenever Tennessee mentions Tibet. Those are few and far between, though, and the rest of the score stands up with Bruns’s work in Disney’s animated films.

ARTISTRY

Most of The Love Bug’s crew also worked on Mary Poppins, so it stands to reason that The Love Bug uses a lot of the same filmmaking techniques as Mary Poppins. And it does! Peter Ellenshaw’s incredible matte paintings turn a normal studio lot into a dreamlike impression of San Francisco, exactly the same way they recreated London in the previous film. It’s not exact, but it feels like you’re there. And really, isn’t the impression the important part? This has the effect of making the dramatic almost-suicide scene look almost exactly like Mr. Banks’ disgrace, but I don’t think that works against the film in any way. Likewise, the race scenes were filmed around various raceways around the state of California, but the sets are dressed in such a way that they resemble a world tour. Also, I could wax poetic for days on how great the special effects in this movie are, but I won’t. They’re phenomenal.

THEME PARK INFLUENCE

I love coming back to this section after these long stretches of movies no one remembers because they’re terrible. It’s like visiting an old friend. And this particular bit of theme park influence happens to include a place that’s very special to me! Back in the early 1990s when Disney’s All Star Resorts first opened, a common guest question was why All Star Sports didn’t include sections for NASCAR racing or hockey. Well, when All-Star Movies opened, it had a solution! Racing fans could get their fix in the Herbie the Love Bug section towards the back of the resort. It’s not as popular as, say, the Toy Story section, but people still love to get photos with Herbie!

This is no longer there, but Lights Motors Action: Extreme Stunt Show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Walt Disney World) and Walt Disney Studios Park (Disneyland Paris) used to have Herbie do a little exhibition during the intermission, where he demonstrated some of the special effects I’ve been gushing about. He was replaced with the more hip and current Lightning McQueen in later years, until Hollywood Studio’s version was demolished to make room for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Paris’s version kept racing on until March 2020, when it was permanently closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s expected to be replaced by part of the new Avengers Campus area.

Finally, we’re going to take it back to 1969. As part of the marketing for the film, Disneyland held an event called Herbie Day (or Love Bug Day, depending on your source). Guests were invited to decorate their own personal VW Bugs and bring them in for a parade down Main Street! At the end of the event, Dean Jones awarded the winner their very own life-sized Herbie! Nowadays the idea of a private car driving down Main Street is highly discouraged, but I have it on good authority that it’s not uncommon to see VW Bugs with a particular custom paint job rolling along 535 or I-4 on their way to the Disney parking lots!

FINAL THOUGHTS

This movie has absolutely no business being as good as it is. Everything about it fits the same formula as almost everything else Dean Jones has been in. He’s the straight man to some kind of wacky otherworldly being. The stakes all ride on an ultimately meaningless sporting event. The characters are all tropey stock characters: the leading man, the girl, the funny sidekick, the villain. Like, this should have been boring. And it’s not! The characters, even the car, have so much personality, the script is tight and witty- it even obeys that age-old Disney law of “for every laugh, a tear” that’s been missing from so much of this decade. We’re even starting to take small steps away from the race problems that have been bothering me since like Dumbo! It’s one of the best known live-action films from this period for a reason, and I highly recommend giving it a watch. It’s crazy, and it’s a whole lot of fun.

Favorite scene: “Don’t do anything sudden.” “Is it all right if I just cry real soft?” Me too, Tennessee.

Final rating: 8/10. I haven’t laughed this much at one of these lighthearted comedies yet!