Herbie: Fully Loaded

Disney drove the “Love Bug” franchise into the ground with four sequels of very fading quality. However, in case people have forgotten, the 1969 original was a family classic and a charming movie.

The movie taught everyone it was okay to love a vehicle. You might even say its thick Volkswagen hero, Herbie – who made beeping noises, defied the laws of physics, and had a superior intelligence – predated R2-D2.

The good news about “Herbie: Fully Loaded,” Disney’s 2005 attempt to revive the declining series, is that it returns to the source. William Arnold said in his review, “It doesn't try to rethink the concept for a less naive generation or goose it up with special effects and New Millennium movie crudity.”

Like the company’s successful 1998 remake of “The Parent Trap” – another remade ‘60s comedy, also starring Lindsay Lohan – the filmmakers have carefully looked at the original and tried hard to recapture what made it work: Arnold said, “in this case, a certain wide-eyed innocence.”

The story stays close to the spirit of the original script, only this time the cute 1963 Beetle comes out of nowhere to befriend a recent college graduate (Lohan) from a famous stock-car racing family.

Arnold said, “And the big race that the movie heads toward is a duel with a Snidley Whiplash of a NASCAR champion (Matt Dillon), a race that will emotionally reunite the heroine with her father (Michael Keaton) and force her to accept her destiny as a racing champion.”

To its credit, this is a kid’s movie. It takes place in a place where no one seems to find the entry of a vintage Volkswagen Beetle at the California Speedway unusual, or even notice that the vehicle has expressive facial features and a will of its own.

Arnold said, “But, within this context, the film basically works: It draws us into its somewhat sappy story and makes us feel sympathy for its anthropomorphic hero. When Herbie faces annihilation in a demolition-derby right out of "Gladiator," the heart tugs.”

There are some showy effects (a look inside Herbie’s engine) and some innuendo (Herbie’s antenna shows it getting infatuated when seeing a female Volkswagen), but the film mostly tries to recreate the organized, harmless naturalness of the old Disney comedies.

Arnold criticized, “The human element here is fairly weak. Even though she's considered a hot young star, Lohan really doesn't have the kind of charisma that can carry a picture, and the supporting players -- Breckin Meyer, Justin Long and Cheryl Hines -- are as flat as Kansas.”

The exception is Matt Dillon, who does everything to be arrogant and despicable. Arnold ended his review by saying, “Indeed, building on his scary performance earlier this year in "Crash," he's shaping up to be quite the movie villain: definitely someone you love to hate.”

I will be honest; I didn’t mind this all that much. I noticed that this one wasn’t well received, but I thought it was nice. I would say check it out and judge for yourself if you like it or not. I won’t be seeing the franchise after one viewing, but let’s see what everyone else decides.

Now that we’re done with this franchise, tomorrow I will be looking at a film that I heard a lot about but never bothered to watch until earlier this year in “Disney Month 2023.”