The 411 - Herbie

Herbie is a fictional character, a Volkswagen Beetle, which "stars" in several Disney motion pictures from 1969 onwards. The car has a mind of his own and is capable of driving himself, and his abilities far exceed those of other cars, which makes him a serious contender in auto racing competition. He is distinguished by red, white and blue racing stripes and has a racing-style number "53" on his front hood, doors, and engine lid.


The car is given its name by an enlightened mechanic named Tennessee Steinmetz (Buddy Hackett) in The Love Bug after his uncle "Herb", who was a middleweight boxer. His uncle had a perpetually broken nose which resembled a Volkswagen Beetle.

Herbie is "played" by an L87 pearl white 1963 Model 117 Volkswagen Type 1 Deluxe Sunroof with yellow-on-black California license plates OFP 857.



Whilst the cars used in all the films were painted an original Volkswagen L87 Pearl white, the interiors of the cars (in all films bar from the 2005 Herbie: Fully Loaded) were painted in a non-reflective grey. This was to prevent the reflection of studio lights whilst filming.

The Love Bug (1969)
In the original 1969 film, The Love Bug, the original stripes differ from those in later movies; the stripes do not cover the valances or louvers of the car and the blue is a lighter shade. Also, Herbie features colour-keyed running boards, while in later films the running boards are standard black. During the film, depending on the scene, the wheels change from standard VW wheels (although fitted with plain hubcaps with no VW logo) to specially widened wheels on the racing Herbies. One of the modified racing Herbies featured a Porsche 356 engine, brakes and Koni shocks. All Herbies in The Love Bug had the VW badges removed from the hood and featured plain non-VW hub caps. If you examine these cars closely you will see that the hood-mounted VW logo was replaced with a plain body coloured disc of the same diameter.


Herbie Rides Again (1974)
In Herbie Rides Again, the car features the revised stripes (the blue was switched to a navy) with the addition of a hood mounted spot lamp, and the running boards were now the more conventional black. After the success of the first movie, the film was heavily endorsed by Volkswagen (whose sales of the Beetle were lagging) and the logos reappeared. Additionally, Herbie was running on standard wheels yet again. Volkswagen also promoted the film by having a Type 1 Beetle complete with Herbie livery in every showroom. There are various model errors in this film, such as the later "big window" (post-1964) Beetles being used. Also of note is the "cut-n-shut" engine cover after the warehouse is broken into. The Beetle used was a late model, having a more bulbous flat-bottomed lid with an earlier rounded bottom edge welded on.



Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977)
In Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, the car is again fitted with wide racing wheels (Goodyear GT radials), and also has an external fuel filler cap. The filler cap was fake, being added for the film's storyline. With the addition of the fuel filler, the antenna was now a retractable unit fitted on the front cowling (near the windscreen wipers). Herbie still sports a hood-mounted spotlight, but this time also features a black "Carello" cover. Herbie also now has custom high back seats, being fitted to better conceal the back seat driver. Note the cut-n-shut engine cover again, this time in the scene with flowers. Throughout this film, Herbie has a later asymmetrical shaped door mirror rather than the round mirror correct to this model year (1963). The "wheelie" Herbie in this film is a special fiberglass car. If one examines the paused picture, it can been seen that the car is much shorter than a standard VW, having a fiberglass body mounted atop a tube chassis and an 1835cc performance VW engine (these cars were built by Speed Unlimited in Glendale, California). Interestingly, the Laser 917 GT Coupe driven by Von Stickle in the film was actually a VW based kit car. There were a total of nine VW's used in Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo. Many of these cars would be recycled for use in Herbie's next feature film, Herbie Goes Bananas in 1980.


Herbie Goes Bananas (1980)
The car featured in Herbie Goes Bananas is generally identical to the one featured in Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo but with the fake filler cap removed. The cars still featured a cowl mounted aerial. The rust seen on the car in this film is painted on. Unfortunately, the car that "walks the plank" in the movie was never recovered from the sea. It was tossed overboard from the SS Coromuel ferry ship (not The Sun Princess cruise ship). The car is somewhere between La Paz and Baja. The restored Herbie seen at the end of the movie is a later 1965 model; notice the larger windows and wing mounted turn signals. This film also featured the same later model door mirror as Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo. Herbie set a Guinness World Record as the first car to go through the Panama Canal during filming in 1979. One of the floating Herbies used in the movie survives to this day and is owned by a Herbie enthusiast in Florida. A total of 26 VWs were utilized in the filming of Herbie Goes Bananas. 17 of those cars were auctioned off in August 1980 for as little as USD $25 each. Today, fewer than half of the cars from Herbie Goes Bananas are accounted for.{fact}


Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005)
In Herbie: Fully Loaded, there are a multitude of continuity errors with the car when compared with the previous films. The numbers are in a different font than that used in the previous films, and the car has reverted to having a standard (body coloured L87 Pearl White, not grey) interior with standard seats. The aerial has now returned to its original front quarter plate mounting and Herbie has lost his front license plate. The glass of the headlights has also been removed and accessory chrome "eyelids" which have the ability to blink have been added. Herbie's front bumper also can change shape to smile or look sad and the sun visors are used to produce a frown.

The films:

* The Love Bug (1969) - Directed by Robert Stevenson
* Herbie Rides Again (1974) - Directed by Robert Stevenson
* Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) - Directed by Vincent McEveety
* Herbie Goes Bananas (1980) - Directed by Vincent McEveety
* Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) - Directed by Angela Robinson

There has also been a TV series (of which only five episodes were made, each one hour long) and a TV remake of the original movie in 1997:

* "Herbie the Matchmaker" - original air date: 17 March 1982 (also known as "The Love Bug")
* "Herbie to the Rescue" - original air date: 24 March 1982
* "My House Is Your House" - original air date: 31 March 1982
* "Herbie, the Best Man" - original air date: 7 April 1982
* "Calling Doctor Herbie" - original air date: 14 April 1982
* The Love Bug (1997) made-for-TV movie

The first Herbie film, The Love Bug, was inspired by the book Car, Boy, Girl written by Gordon Buford in 1961.

Herbie is generally considered to be the polar opposite of Stephen King's Christine.

Superbug:

A similar series of five German movies called Superbug starred a Volkswagen beetle. In the first movie, which features a rally across Africa, a rich participant is given a "race car" by his wife, which, as she said: "Won the last by race in the United States". This turns out to be a white Volkswagen beetle that has fallen apart in the middle, sporting a barely visible 53 on it. After a quick repair and a new yellow paint job, it even shows a mind of its own, (though not as distinctive as in The Love Bug) chasing its owner, because he insulted the car. It is acquired by a poor guy called Ben, who gives the car the name Dudu, which is Swahili for bug. Other than the facts that the broken up car in the beginning looks like Herbie and that it has a mind of its own, there are no further connections to the Herbie series. In later movies, the car's mind was written in as an A.I. installed into the car. Although all movies "starred" the same yellow beetle and similar characters, they didn't share the same continuity. For example, the beetle's owner and the female lead were always played by the same actors, yet they had different names and/or personalities in each films (in one movie, the beetle's owner was a scientific genius, while in another he was a bitter alcoholic).

Trivia:

* In 1997, an American named David Evans launched the first Internet web page about Herbie. His site can be viewed at http://www.herbiemania.com
* In November 2000, the first Herbie car show took place in Orlando, Florida, USA. The event was know as Herbie Days at Disney 2000.
* In the summer of 2005, Radio Disney offered a promotional drawing to take possession of Herbie, in connection with the release of Herbie: Fully Loaded. It is unknown, however, as to whether this vehicle is one of those actually used in the film.
* RadioShack marketed a radio controlled ZipZap of Herbie in North America as a movie tie-in.
* The toy distributor Planet Toys marketed a 1:6 scale radio controlled Herbie and VW Bus as tie-in promotions for Herbie: Fully Loaded. These were exclusively sold through Wal-Mart and Sam's Club.
* In the early days of the Disney-MGM Studios park, Herbie was on the Backlot Tour. This Herbie did tricks, but burned in an accident. Now, a Herbie from Herbie: Fully Loaded is on display for the tour.
* Bburago produced a model of Herbie that is based off the New Beetle.
* In the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the lead character, Carl "CJ" Johnson, says he once drove a car named Herbie.
Herbie is the only car in the world with his own passport. Disney Studios actually obtained one for him during the filming of Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo back in 1976.

*From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia