The Love Bug (1997)

“The Love Bug” is a 1997 TV Movie remake of the original “The Love Bug.” The original film was the film that introduced the character of Herbie the Volkswagen Beetle. Herbie subsequently went on to have its franchise, three sequels, a TV series, and another film that we will look at tomorrow.

Moira said in her review, “This version of The Love Bug was one of a spate of remakes of their live-action classics that Disney conducted for tv during the mid-90s. Although, The Love Bug 1997 bills itself as a remake of The Love Bug 1969, it is not so much a remake as it is yet another sequel in the series. The plot has vague similarities to The Love Bug 1969 – down-and-out racing driver inherits Herbie and goes on to win races – but not that many. Dean Jones, star of The Love Bug 1969, also turns up playing his original character of Jim Douglas.”

The good thing is that this film is one of the better films and a whole lot better than anything that has been made in the franchise since at least “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.” Moira said, “Indeed, it is the first of the Herbie films to throw some interesting conceptual spins on the series.” For the first time, Herbie is given an origin story that tells how a German scientist was employed by the US military to make a ‘people car’ (Moira noted, “an amusingly literalistic confusion of the English translation of ‘Volkswagen’)” who brings it to life when he drops a photo of his wife in the ingredients.

We find out that Herbie is also an empathic car that feels the thoughts of its owner. We even get a bad car made as a villain to race against Herbie. This film puts the Herbie idea through more of an abstract workout than the other Herbie films combined.

Moira credited, “Bruce Campbell, known from various Sam Raimi productions and horror films, is surprisingly well suited to playing a standard Disney comic hero with his lantern jaw and cartoonish mock serious expressions. On the minus side, we do not get much of the cute car antics that were the mainstay of all the other Herbie films until almost right at the end. Certainly, when it gets there, this version does have some wonderfully dotty images in the tradition of the other films, like the two halves of a bifurcated Herbie racing for the finish line. If The Love Bug 1997 had been made on the theatrical budget that was wasted on the useless Herbie: Fully Loaded, it could have been a reasonably good film.”

As a television film, this isn’t all that bad. I actually thought this was a nice, enjoyable entry in the series. If you want to see this, you can watch it on YouTube. Check it out, especially if you haven’t been impressed with some of the other entries in the franchise.

Look out tomorrow when I look at the final film in the Herbie franchise in “Disney Month 2023.”