The Love Bug 1968 Review

Disney fans you've seen me review alot of the companies classic animated film and yes there will be more to come heck you've even seen me review some of their latest live action films however you've not seen me review one of their classic live action films. Well that is something that is going to change and well as I was struggling to think of a review for you guys I thought let's review a racing movie and so here is my review of the 1968 original The Love Bug.

The plot of the movie is race car driver Jim Douglas buys an unusual Volkswagen Beetle and wins a ton of races which causes jealousy from pompous car dealership owner Peter Thorndyke and so he does everything he can to either own or destroy the car while Jim does everything he can to win races. What i just described was my best attempt of summarising the film's story because if we're being honest the story is the weakest part of the film but what little story there is is full of charm and that's the best thing I can say about the plot.

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Starring in the film was Dean Jones as Jim Douglas , Michele Lee as Carole Bennet , David Tomlinson as Peter Thorndyke , Buddy Hackett as Tennessee Steinmetz , Joe Flynn as Havershaw , Benson Fong as Tang Wu , Joe E. Ross as Detective , Barry Kelley as Police sergeant , Iris Adrian as Carhop , Gary Owens as Announcer , Chick Hearn as Announcer , Andy Granatelli as Association President , Ned Glass as Toll Booth Attendant , Robert Foulk as Bice , Gil Lamb as Policeman at Park and something that would be interesting to Scooby-Doo fans the original voice for Velma Dinkley Nicole Jaffe as Girl in Dune-Buggy.

The acting in the film is honestly rather fun you get a strong sense that the actors involved know that the script and are just having fun with it because of that fact. Due to that all of the actors give an over exaggerated performance that oddly works for the film and for their character and for me the best performer in the whole film is David Tomlinson who is just a joy to watch and actually got a lot of laughs out of me.

It goes without saying who the true of the star of the film is and that's the car Herbie while this car isn't one i'd personally like. I can see why people would like a car like that since it is nice to look at but that's really it at least for me anyways I very much prefer a sixty nine dodge charger which to me while not the most stunning car in the world that honour goes to the Aston Martin DB5 it's just such a cool car where as Herbie who is a Volkswagen Beetle just really doesn't do anything for me personally.

I will admit that this car does have alot of charm at least in this film and that does help sell Herbie as a character. You know from how he acts if he's sad , happy , angry or playful and that really does make him feel like a three dimensional character and they did all of that without giving him any lines of dialog of facial expressions it was all down to how the car acted and now i'm wondering why did they give Herbie facial expressions in Herbie: Fully Loaded because there not really needed in my opinion.

Now as a film fan there was one thing that was really bugging me about the film and it's how in the hell did they film this movie. By that I mean how did they film the scenes with Herbie driving because you can clearly see there's no driver in those scenes of course if this film was made today they'd just use CGI to remove the driver but in 1968 or 67 that wouldn't have been possible so I have to know how they filmed those scenes because I have no idea.

Another criticism that I have with the film is that the love angle comes out of know where and it adds nothing to the film. I wouldn't have minded the love angel coming out of know where if it at least added to the overall story in some way but it doesn't and so it feels like they were trying to pad the film out for some unknown reason and while the characters do kind of go on a date very early on that's the only date that they go on since the next time there alone together she's just there to try and sell him a car.

Let's take a second to talk about the pacing because my god is it bad this film an hour and forty seven minuets long and it feels so much longer then that. It honestly feels like the film makers were trying to cram so much in and just didn't have the heart to take it out again and because of that the film does become boring at times it honestly would have helped the film alot if they cut out alot of the pointless scenes and just focused on telling a great story but they didn't and so we're left with a badly paced film.

It's honestly hard to see how this film became a franchise not because it's bad film far from it but because the story being told was all wrapped up at the end of this film. So I have to give the team behind these movies credit for somehow finding away to continue the franchise and produce four sequels and I honestly wouldn't mind if we got to see another sequel and I know I might get some hate for this but I wouldn't mind seeing another remake either as long as it kept the charm that this film has of course.

This film is really freaking funny like I honestly laughed alot more then I was expecting to and that's a testament to how well the jokes in this film stand up. I will admit that some of the jokes could be seen a childish but even those jokes got a smile out of me due to how charming they are and that's the one thing that this film has in spades every scene with the car or every joke with the car is just charming and it's not often that I get to say that and because I do here then you know it must be true.

Overall while I can't say that this is a great movie and because I never grew up with this film I don't have any nostalgia goggles. I can however say that it's a charming film and it's because of that charm that the film gets a 7.5 out of 10 from me. #Herbie #TheLoveBug #HerbieTheLoveBug #GiveTheLoveBugAnotherSequel #RemakeTheLoveBug