The Love Bug

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A series of Disney live-action films (the first in the series was one of the last movies personally overseen by Walt Disney) concerning the adventures of Sentient Vehicle Herbie, a '63 Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own.

The series consists of:

• The Love Bug (1969) -- Down-on-his-luck racing driver Jim Douglas gets more than he bargained for when he acquires a second-hand Beetle. The car is named "Herbie" by his mechanic, Tennessee Steinmetz, who is the first to realise that the car's odd behavior is more than just an idiosyncratic collection of mechanical faults.
• Herbie Rides Again (1974) -- Herbie is left with Tennessee's aunt while Jim and Tennessee are out of the country, and helps save her home from an evil property developer.
• Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) -- Herbie and Jim reunite for a career comeback in a French car rally. To add to their troubles, jewel thieves hide a stolen diamond in Herbie.
• Herbie Goes Bananas (1980) -- Jim's nephew, Pete Stancheck, takes Herbie to South America for a big race. They encounter gold thieves, bull fights, a heartwarming orphan pickpocket, and some bananas.
• Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) -- Herbie is bought from a junkyard as a college graduation present for Maggie Peyton, the youngest member of a racing family, and maneuvers to become a racing car again.

Herbie also made two forays into television:

• Herbie the Matchmaker (1982) -- Only lasted six episodes. Jim Douglas runs a driving school and romances a divorcee.
• The Love Bug (1997) -- TV movie. Repeats the basic "Herbie helps out a down-on-his-luck driver" plot of the original (it's not a reboot, but more of an example of how events tend to repeat themselves). Bruce Campbell stars and Jim Douglas makes a cameo. An attempt is made to explain why Herbie is alive, but it's nonsensical. This movie is contradicted by Herbie: Fully Loaded, but you can read about it at The Other Wiki here.

Tropes used in The Love Bug include:

• Affectionate Pickpocket: Paco in Herbie Goes Bananas.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Tennessee's conversation with Mr. Wu in the first film.
• Baguette Beatdown: In Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, there is a scene where Herbie is waiting at a stoplight at an intersection when a truck driver gets a French woman carrying some groceries angry at him. She proceeds to pound on the side of the truck with a baguette, causing no obvious damage to the bread or to the truck. It does result in the Love Bug getting dirty.
• The Big Race: Often the climax or a pivotal plot point.
• Biker Babe: Maggie in Fully Loaded.
• Bilingual Backfire: In the first film, Tennessee speaks to Mr. Wu in Chinese (or an approximation of it), and Jim asks Tennessee to ask Mr. Wu if he would let him drive Herbie in the El Dorado race, with the condition that Mr. Wu will keep the winnings. This prompts Mr. Wu to say, in English, "Now you speak my language!".
• Bungled Suicide/Interrupted Suicide: At one point a despondent Herbie attempts to leap off the Golden Gate Bridge, a feat made more difficult by the fact that his round wheels don't help him climb very well. His struggle lasts long enough for Jim to find him and talk him down.
• Chekhov's Exhibit: The Etoile de Joie diamond in Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo is on display in a museum before it's stolen.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: At the end of the original Love Bug Jim and Carole marry and leave for their honeymoon. By the end of Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, however, Jim is dating fellow race car driver Diane Darcy with nary a mention of Carole, despite her being a major character in the first film, and, oh yeah, his wife.
  • Maybe they got divorced?
• Cool Car: Herbie.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Evil property developer Alonzo Hawk in Herbie Rides Again.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Trip from Herbie: Fully Loaded felt compelled to ram Herbie into the wall even though he was in the lead, causing him to crash spectacularly and allowing Herbie to win the race.
  • This goes all the way back to The Love Bug (the first one), when Thorndyke and his co-driver Havershaw stop to change a road sign, leading Herbie and the rest of the race cars to travel down an old mine. Another time is when Thorndyke rolls a tree in Herbie's path, and ends up stuffed into his trunk.
• Dog Food Diet: The Love Bug (the first one) has Jim Douglas rooting through the cabinets looking for something to eat. He wonders why they have bird food when they don't even own a bird. He ends up eating pressed kelp.
• Doomed New Clothes: In The Love Bug, the Irish Coffee-inebriated Herbie projectile-coughs whipped cream all over Thorndyke's freshly-pressed driving uniform. Mind you, it was Thorndyke who poured Irish Coffee into Herbie's system in the first place.
• Epic Race:
  • The El Dorado race at the climax of The Love Bug.
  • The Paris-to-Monte Carlo race in Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.
  • The California Speedway battle for Herbie: Fully Loaded.
• Everything's Worse with Bears: In The Love Bug, as Thorndyke's car is stuck in mud and and Havershaw is pushing it out, a bear makes it way into the car, enticed by their food. Because his driving goggles are covered with mud, Thorndyke doesn't realize the bear is in the car until he strikes it and it growls, making him faint.
• Evil Knockoff: Herbie has one briefly in the form of Horace from the TV movie.
• Flash Back: Herbie's racing career is seen in a Flash Back Montage in Herbie Rides Again.
• Fortune Teller: In Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, Herbie rampages through a Gypsy camp. A Gypsy fortune teller tells a horrified client that "Darkness is about to fall on you." The next instant, Herbie hits the tent, collapsing it.
• Gretzky Has the Ball: Fully Loaded takes place in what is clearly NASCAR, where Herbie wouldn't have qualified as a pace car.
• Hypocritical Humor: All through the El Dorado race in The Love Bug, Thorndyke goes out of his way with cheating in order to make Jim lose. But towards the end, Herbie is leading but also literally falling apart, and is blocking Thorndyke's car, making him say "Rotten sportsmanship if you ask me!".
• Implausible Boarding Skills: Herbie goes surfing in Herbie Rides Again and imitates skateboarding tricks in Fully Loaded
• Incredibly Lame Pun: From Love Bug;

Peter Thorndyke: What part of Ireland did you say your mother came from? Tennessee Steinmetz: Coney Ireland. [starts laughing]

• Intelligible Unintelligible: Herbie's only method of communication is honking/beeping. Understood by specific people: Tennessee in the first movie, Grandma Steinmetz and Nicole in the second, Jim in the third, Paco in the fourth.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The 1997 version was only released on VHS in the United States. Torrents exist and various video sites host it, though.
• Land Poor: Mrs. Steinmetz in Herbie Rides Again.
• Large Ham: Almost all the villains in the films, with particular reference to Peter Thorndyke and Alonzo Hawk from the first two films.
• Love Imbues Life: Tennessee's theory as to Herbie's origins, made "canon" in the 1997 TV movie.
• Made of Iron: Pun aside, Herbie takes a lot more damage than you'd think a Volkswagen Beetle should be able to.
• Magic Bus: Herbie.
• Mean Brit: Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug and Simon Moore III in The Love Bug (1997).
• Mole in Charge: The police detective leading the hunt for the missing diamond in Monte Carlo is also the one backing the crooks who stole it.
• Motorcycle Jousting: The Knights in Herbie Rides Again, who joust in cars.
• Multi-Track Drifting: Herbie in Herbie: Fully Loaded, most especially the final NASCAR racing sequence where the anthropomorphic Volkswagen was seen climbing onto the fence above the wall, trying to avoid being trade-painted.
• My Car Hates Me: One of those cases where it's more than just a metaphor. Herbie refusing to start at a really inopportune moment because his feelings have been hurt happens at least once a movie.
  • Which begs the question of why he allowed himself to be stolen by Alonzo Hawk. Was he just curious?
• Nightmare Sequence: Alonzo Hawk's crazy dreams in Herbie Rides Again.
• Not Actually the Ultimate Question: In The Love Bug, when Jim and Carole find out that the VW Bug has a mind of its own, and it won't let either of them exit the car, Carole tries to call for help from some hippies in the van parked next to them:

Carole: Help, I'm a prisoner! I can't get out! Hippy: We all prisoners, chickee-baby. We all locked in.

• Nothing Can Stop Us Now: The Love Bug features the villain's henchman telling him "You can't lose, sir! You can't possibly lo...", trailing off as he sees that Herbie (half of him anyway) is passing them right before the finish line. Later the villain tells him "Couldn't lose, I think you said."
• Oil Slick
• Product Displacement: At least in the early movies, there are no VW emblems anywhere on Herbie and the words "VW" and "Volkswagen" are never uttered.
• The Renfield: Havershaw in The Love Bug, Loostgarten in Herbie Rides Again.
• Road Sign Reversal: In Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, the misdirecting arrow sends our heroes onto a very narrow cliff edge and almost causes them to die via avalanche.
  • Happens in The Love Bug as well, sending Herbie (and everyone behind him) into a mine instead of along a mountain road.
• Scenery Porn: Paris in Monte Carlo.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Tennessee Steinmetz from Love Bug, in the scene where he and Carole are trying to keep Herbie balanced after he (Herbie) lost a tire.
  • Thorndyke. Particularly when he encounters the bear in his car.
• Sentient Vehicle:
  • Herbie
  • In Herbie Rides Again, every Volkswagen Beetle in the city comes to help out at the climax.
  • The Lancia later named Giselle Herbie falls in love with in Monte Carlo.
  • The TV movie introduces (and disposes of) Herbie's evil counterpart, Horace.
  • Sally's New Beetle
• Spanner in the Works: Most of the villains are utterly ruthless, pragmatic, No-Nonsense Nemesis types. But it is hard to adjust your plans to compensate for a sentient VW that no one's quite sure how exists.
• Suppressed Mammaries: Lindsay Lohan's bust was digitally reduced for Fully Loaded to avoid 'offending' audiences.
• This Is What the Building Will Look Like: The Hawk Plaza in Herbie Rides Again.
• Those Wacky Nazis: The 1997 TV movie had Herbie face-off against a "Hate Bug" in all-black which resembled a KdF-Wagen with wartime blackout lights.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Herbie does not have tinted windows and it's clear as day when he's driving without anyone behind the wheel. Only that French waiter in Monte Carlo ever noticed.
• What a Piece of Junk!: Herbie
• What the Hell, Hero?: In The Love Bug, Carole gives one of these to Jim about his racing success, which was actually Herbie's doing.
• Wrote the Book: In Herbie Rides Again, Alonzo claims to have written the book on harassment.