Series Overview:
The thing I appreciate most about the six Herbie movies: Their continuity. Aside from the obnoxious origin story stuff in the TV movie (which is often ignored anyway), each film seems to follow the last with a clarity and ease that most long-running film series seem to have to bend over backwards to achieve. Also, I just like the character. A dog-like car what can drive itself is fun, and the VW Bug is so small and cute and culturally present that one can almost believe that it could be alive.
And whither Herbie today? Some enterprising collectors have versions of The Love Bug. Herbie still lives on as a minor character in the Disney canon, and I suspect that he will eventually have a cameo in a Cars movie. I’m guessing that any more live-action Herbie films just cannot be made. True, there are still some road-worthy Type-1s on the road (I see them around town to this day), but a time will come when the model is no longer available. All the 2003 models will eventually break down, and The New Beetle or even the 2013 New New Beetle will take their place. The New New Beetle looks even less like the Type-1 model than the 1998 version did, as it seems to have elongated into a regular sedan at this point. Could a New New Beetle be a Love Bug? Certainly not. It’s not cute or alive the way Herbie was. My guess if a reboot to the series ever happened, the name would have to be changed to something like The Love Renault or The Love Fiat. And those don’t really roll off the tongue.
No. I think Herbie was a car-cultural phenomenon that couldn’t be recreated at any other time with any other model of car. There’s a reason little kids invented the Punch Buggy game. Bugs are both common and unique, and they look like cute li’l faces on wheels. No other car model has a children’s punching game as far as I know. Herbie, then, is unique to history. A little peek at what roads and highways looked like from 1963 all the way until the mid 1980s.
I drive a 2010 Volkswagen New Beetle now. Thanks to Herbie, I have a little pride in it.
Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, co-host of The B-Movies Podcast and co-star of The Trailer Hitch. You can read his weekly articles B-Movies Extended, Free Film School and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
