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Dean Jones, Michele Lee, David Tomlinson, Buddy Hackett, Joe Flynn ... see more see more... , Benson Fong , Joe E. Ross , Iris Adrian , Ted Duncan , Alan Fordney , Robert Foulk , Ned Glass , Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez , Andy Granatelli , Chick Hearn , Nicole Jaffe , Barry Kelley , Fred Krone , Gil Lamb , Hope Lange , Gary Owens , Robert Reed , Pete L. Renoudet , Dale Van Sickel , Bert Convy , Bob Drake , Jim McCullough Sr. , Brian Fong , Jesse Wayne , Wally Boag , Gerald Jann , Fred Stromsoe

Those who worried that the Disney studio would collapse without the presence of the late Uncle Walt were put at ease when the profits starting rolling in for The Love Bug. The "star" is Herbie, a lova... read more read more...ble little Volkswagen with a personality all its own. Abused by a bad guy race-car driver (David Tomlinson), Herbie is rescued by a good guy racer (Dean Jones). Out of gratitude, Herbie enables the luckless good guy to win one race after another. The real fun begins when the ruthless hot-rodder connives to get Herbie back through fair means or foul. Based on a story by Gordon Buford, The Love Bug inspired two equally lucrative sequels, Herbie Rides Again and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Flixster Users

63% liked it

39,157 ratings

Critics

75% liked it

16 critics

G, 1 hr. 50 min.

Directed by: Robert Stevenson

Release Date: January 1, 1968

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DVD Release Date: May 20, 2003

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Stats: 850 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (850)

  • aquateen2
    January 30, 2012
    aquateen2
    Herbie is cute and hilarious, the love bug is an example of a non human main character that doesn't need to speak out to be adorable. The slapstick and smart comedy in this film is hilarious and makes this film a great memorable example of a classic disney production made after W... read morealt's death.
  • spielberg00
    July 26, 2011
    spielberg00
    An average, dull start to a somehow "classic" racing car series of Disney craps.
  • ajv2688
    December 11, 2010
    ajv2688
    My favourite kids movie of 68, it was so much better than I expected. It's funny and exciting too. I highly recommend it.
  • mumby1988
    February 9, 2010
    mumby1988
    There are some films which can't be remade, some films which don't need to be remade, and some films which you really shouldn't remake. The Love Bug is all three, but not necessarily in a bad way. It's not that this old-fashioned family comedy is terrible, or unfunny, or particul... read morearly embarrassing. It is just so much a product of its time, in its conventions, its look and its general shiny innocence. The question of re-approaching it has already been answered, both by its original sequels and the more recent Herbie Fully Loaded. The real question is how much of its original appeal remains.

    The Love Bug is notable for two things. One is being the highest grossing film of 1969; in the US alone it beat off Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Midnight Cowboy and Easy Rider. On paper that sounds amazing, but it's less spectacular when you consider that Midnight Cowboy had an 'X' certificate on both sides of the Atlantic, and that Easy Rider's subject matter of druggie bikers was not exactly family fare. The other is that this is the last live-action film in which Walt Disney was personally involved; he died two years before the film's release, but supervised the scripting process and some of pre-production. Leading man Dean Jones would later credit the film's success to its faithful upholding of Walt's legacy and his original instructions.

    As for the main appeal of the film, that also rests on two things: the rags-to-riches story of our hero, and the cuteness of the car. There is a famous story told about how the VW Beetle was chosen as the star. The Disney Company lined up a number of cars, including an MG, several Volvos and a Toyota, and the crew tested them by kicking the wheels and playing with the steering. When they came to the VW, they stroked it gently, treating it as an object of affection.

    This gives you a general idea of how much of the film's appeal rests on you buying in to the cutesy nature of the car. To give it credit, it's not as overbearing as in the sequels; in Herbie Rides Again, for instance, the headlamps actually swivel like eyes. But we still have to endure many scenes which are overplayed just that little too much, like Herbie 'coughing' after Thorndyke puts Irish coffee in the petrol tank, or the scene where he tries to throw himself off the bridge, which slowly goes from being sad to making us feel silly for crying at a car being drowned.

    As many critics have noted, The Love Bug has not aged as well as other Disney fare of the period. Several of the stunts not only look like stunts but they come across as completely out of kilter with the story. I don't believe in Herbie bouncing over the water, even if the resulting joke is funny. The director Robert Stevenson also helmed Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, films in which live-action and animation seamlessly join and whose effects have not dated because the story is so captivating. But when it comes to doing stunts in the real world, rather than animating them around actors, Stephenson seems to come unstuck in a largely unsatisfying way.

    But like many old films, the stunts are only there as the budget allows them. The main thing we have to focus on are the performances and the story in which we find them. Dean Jones is perfectly likeable if a little bland as Jim Douglas; with his chiselled jaw and warm complexion, he resembles Charlton Heston without the rough edges (or the guns). Buddy Hackett is less successful as Tennessee, retreading the same annoying ground of It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, in which his character quickly runs out of steam.

    The best performance by far is David Tomlinson, who starred as Mr. Banks in Mary Poppins. Here all the convivial and polite orderliness of that character is replaced with a shouty, scenery-chewing villain. His Thorndyke is reminiscent of Jack Lemmon's performance in The Great Race, with plenty of scheming, cunning and a lot of memorable line deliveries. The best moment finds him and his assistant Havershaw drinking champagne in their car, having pulled well ahead. Havershaw is about to make a quip about the drink, when Thorndyke says: "if you tell me that the bubbles tickle your nose, I SHALL PROBABLY KILL YOU!"

    As for the story, it's much of a muchness. We've seen the rags-to-riches tale before, and there's no real attempt in the script to inject with anything more than the charm of the car. The race sequences are well-staged and interesting, but a lot of the dialogue scenes in between are forgettable, and the running jokes don't really work. The twist involving the Tang Wu character buying Herbie isn't played as strongly as it could have been, although it does give David Tomlinson a couple more opportunities to laugh his way gleefully across the screen.

    At heart, The Love Bug is pure escapism. It does not exist to be appreciated artistically, or to be thematically dissected by critics and film historians. It isn't the most original film in the world, and the performances are not award-worthy in either sense. But you would have to have a heart of stone to not be even slightly charmed by the film. It is as manageable in small doses as it is at full length, and contains nothing which will go over the heads of the young children for which it is intended. It's not Disney's finest hour by any real stretch, but as carefree, Saturday afternoon entertainment, in one ear and out the other, you can't really fault it.
  • SirPant
    September 28, 2009
    SirPant
    My favourite Herbie movie!
  • phubbs1
    May 22, 2009
    phubbs1
    Easily the best Herbie flick and one of the best live action Disney films. Great effects, nice acting, Disney pro Dean Jones again with brilliant back up from another Disney pro Tomlinson and a cute story. I loved this as a kid and still do, the final long race is also quite exci... read moreting and good fun. The US DVD is loaded with extras.
  • deano
    November 23, 2008
    deano
    Delightful wild and hilarious roller-coaster ride! Amazing Disney comedy aobut a Volkswagen with a mind of it's own; subtle it ain't, but the slapstick and stunts are great fun to watch.
  • sanjurosamurai
    September 29, 2007
    sanjurosamurai
    great flick
  • garyX
    May 29, 2007
    garyX
    Slapstick Disney fare for (very) young children involving a living VW beetle that has comic misadventures while trying to win a race. Or something. It's very difficult to care if you're over the age of 8.
  • superclerk25
    January 31, 2007
    superclerk25
    You have to love the kids version of the Knight Rider.

View All The Love Bug Reviews

Critic Reviews

March 9, 2009
TIME Magazine

The Love Bug is surely the first film in which the actors...are so meticulously insipid that a car can handily steal the show. Full Review

Variety Staff
May 5, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

For sheer inventiveness of situation and the charm that such an idea projects, The Love Bug rates as one of the better entries of the Disney organization. Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 9, 2005
Vincent Canby, New York Times

Such a vulnerable movie that if it were a little less sappy, one might feel compelled to protect it, as if it were someone under 7 or over 65 -- that portion of the public for which it is intended. Full Review

Dave Kehr
May 7, 2003
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

What this autopopathism means in terms of American culture is a subject I neither understand nor wish to. Full Review

Polly M. Robertus
January 2, 2011
Polly M. Robertus, Common Sense Media

Kids will fall in love with this spunky Bug. Full Review

Ian Nathan
May 5, 2008
Ian Nathan, Empire Magazine

The first of the silly VW Beetle with a cute personality comedies, is as childish dated and occasionally sweet as the others. Full Review

May 5, 2008
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The entire cast give standout performances, but Herbie steals the show in this well-directed, funny picture. Full Review

Geoff Andrew
June 24, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

'Herbie' and his plucky stunt drivers steal the show in this agreeable family entertainment. Full Review

Steve Crum
December 24, 2005
Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com

Suffers now from dated special effects, but still cute.

Rob Thomas
November 6, 2003
Rob Thomas, Capital Times (Madison, WI)

I'm a hopeless sucker for live-action '60s Disney, and this one is a classic.

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  • What disney movie features the last line "goodbye herbie" ?  Answer »
  • In the 1969 Disney movie "The Love Bug" what type of car was Herbie?  Answer »
  • what number and coulor was the love bug  Answer »
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