Customer Reviews

The Love Bug (Special Edition)

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jim Douglas (played by Dean Jones) is a broken-down, has been racecar driver. But, when he finds himself saddled with an innocuous little Volkswagen Beetle, he suddenly finds that he can get a lot more out of it than anyone thought possible. Jim's kooky friend Tennessee Steinmetz (Buddy Hackett) keeps trying to tell him that this car is special, it has a heart and feelings, but Jim knows that a car is a car, is a car, right? And now that he is winning races, his chief competitor, Richard Thorndyke (David Tomlinson), is out to get that inexplicable little car! [Color, released in 1968, with a running time of 1:47.]

This is a fantastic movie, and a real family classic! I loved this movie as a kid, and couldn't wait to introduce my children to it. As expected, they loved it, especially the scenes where Herbie seemed to swallow Thorndyke and when he "oiled" on his leg! The DVD set is excellent, containing a nice Disney cartoon short, and lots of other neat extras. My family and I all love this DVD set, and highly recommend it to you!

I've been a fan of Herbie, the Love Bug since 1984 and the dream of having the original classic put on DVD has finally become a reality! Loaded with features only The Disney Company could create!

Audio Commentary With Dean Jones, Michele Lee, And Buddy Hackett

Cartoon: "Susie -- The Little Blue Coupe"

That Lovable Bug

The Many Lives Of Herbie

Herbie Mania

Lost Treasures: Searching For Herbie

1969 Disney Studio Album

Production Gallery

Behind-The-Scenes Promo

Love Bug Day At Disneyland

The Man Who Gave Herbie His Voice

Deleted Scenes: "Used Car Lot" & "Playground"

Theatrical Trailer

DVD Credits

Radio Spots

Sound Studio 1: "Herbie On The Rocks"
Sound Studio 2: "Thorndyke And The Bear"

Production Stills: Production Photos, Concept Art, Storyboards

Comic Book

Biographies: Dean Jones, Michele Lee, Buddy Hackett, David Tomlinson, Robert Stevenson

Advertising: Publicity, Posters, Merchandise, Press Book
Documents

Screenplay Excerpt: "Herbie Goes Over The Edge"

1.75:1 Aspect Ratio

Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

With THX remastering as well! Fasten your seatbelts because on May 20, the BUG is coming Back!

This 1969 hit introduces the world to Herbie, the living VW. He "runs in" to down-on-his-luck race driver Jim Douglas (Dean Jones) and the story begins. Jim's friend Tennessee (Buddy Hackett) suggests that he race Herbie in a local dirt track race. Herbie of course wins and starts a winning streak. But look out as Thorndike enters the plot. He will give anything to get rid of the VW and tries to on numerous occations. The big road race at the end called The Eldorado is the best part of the movie. Sadly, this film was followed by a sappy sequal, but in 1977, Dean Jones and Don Knots returned to make the hilarious film, Herbie goes to Monte Carlo. The Love Bug was my favorite movie as a kid and I still enjoy it.....

My six-year-old enjoyed watching Herbie run around and do things without a driver that "real" cars can't do with a driver. There was enough action and laughs to keep her entertained through out the entire 108 minutes. Dean Jones and Michelle Lee work so well together. The comedy is suitable for all ages.

With the release of "Herbie: Fully Loaded" coming out shortly, I think now would be a good time to revisit the film that began it all: the 1969 family classic "The Love Bug". Without a doubt the best live action movie Disney ever made, this film was for quite a while my favorite movie ever and still remains in my top five.

"The Love Bug" tells the story o Dean Jones, a down on his luck racing driver who's broke and lives in a run down with his best friend Tennesse Steinmetz (the always hilarious Buddy Hackett). Once at the top of his game, Douglas is now a loser in ever sense of the word. Then one day, while shopping for a cheap car, he meets Carol Benett (Michelle Lee), a leggy, beautiful saleswoman who capture his heart. Then a small Volkswagen Beatled drives into his life (without the aid of a human driver), and Douglas's luck begins to change. Once he works out the many kinkds involving Herbie, he once again by a champion racer, much to the dismay of evil car salesman Peter Thorndyke (David Tomlinson), who will stop at nothing to make sure Douglas's reign will come to a bitter end.

This film encapsulizes verything that Disney is: warm, sweet and outright hilarious. It also has some amazing racing sequences that rank among the best ever shot. As for it not being animated, who cares?

The bonus dvd is loaded with goodies, including interviews with a "Herbie" historian, a makingof documentary, a look at "Herbie" and its sequels (inclduing a highly entertaining compare and contrast) as well as many other goodies that hardcore Herbie fans (I call them Herbie-vores) will delight in.


This is definitely a must have film. This is an essential dvd and high quality entertainment.

If you would say in 1969, that a VW bug would become one of Disney beloved characters. you might have been laughed it. However that VW bug (Herbie) has become loved as one of Disney's beloved (dare I say) Human characters.Other than Davy Crockett or Zorro, can you really name another?

The Classic Love Bug is pure Disney Magic. I feel it still had WALT DISNEY's imprint on it. It was done long after his death, but you feel Walt's magic touch. The DVD version is with its extra make this timeless classic worth seeing again and again, unlike its current remake Herbie Fully Loaded.

One of the greatest and smartest things on this DVD is the audio commentary track from actors Dean Jones, Michelle Lee and the late Buddy Hackett. The track gave you insight into the actors mind set and the movie itself. Sometimes it viers into more entertainment stories, like when Hackett reveals he was offered to become one of the three stooges after the original Curly died or Michelle Lee pointing out a film flub involving earings and the art of DISNEY kissing.

The other features are pure Disney magic for true film buffs, so I suggest don't show them when smaller kids are around, it will bore them to tears. Well maybe share the Love Bug sunday strips which ran in 1969.

Gawd I wish they would do more films like this one. A classic with extras everyone will like

1969's "The Love Bug" is without a doubt the greatest live action movie of all time, and along with "Wayne's World", is my all - time favorite movie. The acting is superb, the directing is flawless and the sound effects are as good anything heard in today's films.

In this classic story, down - on - his - luck race car driver Jim Douglas (Dean Jones) is broke and living with his hippie mechanic friend Tennesse Steinmetz (Buddy Hackett, who is hilarious). While walking down the streets of San Francisco one day, he notices a "special pair of vehicles" at a car dealership, and walks in. There he meets the lovely and intelligent Carol Bennett (Michelle Lee), whom he is immediately smitten with. He also clashes with the owner of the store, Peter Thorndyke (David Tomlinson of "Mary Poppins" fame). Before he leaves, he comes across Herbie, a seemingly ordinary Volkswagon. The car follows him home one day, so Jim buys the car to avoid grand theft charges. Soon, Jim realizes the car has a mind of its own, but also realizes it has great speed. He eneters it in races and becomes a winner, angering fellow racer Thorndyke. What ensues is a hialrious series of events that are really too funny to describe in words.

"The Love Bug" stands as one of Disney's crowning achievements. Buy it today and watch it with your family. Also, be on the look out for the latest sequel, "Herbie: Fully Loaded", starring Lindsay Lohan (she so beautiful), Matt Damon and Michael Keaton and coming to a theater near you June 24th.

This review contains some vague spoilers.

Herbie (the car) is lovable from the start, we all want him to win and be loved by his owner. The charm of the cute little car can't completely make up for the film's many flaws though. The production seems very cheap, and suffers from all the cheap tricks used in film-making at the time. Only the acting of Buddy Hackett stands out as being good, whereas Dean Jones' is truly quite bad. It is completely unrealistic that Jones' character Jim doesn't realize his skills aren't winning the races, and that a Beetle can't go much faster than more powerful cars.

I think it's also worth pointing out that the film isn't suitable for toddlers or young children because of the suicide scene, many insults between characters, and the violent intent of the villain.

Jim Douglas (Dean Jones) is an aging race car driver who hasn't had much luck in recent years. He keeps wrecking cars and loosing sponsors. Walking by the show room of a specialized dealership, he notices the beautiful secretary, Carole Bennett (Michele Lee) hanging a sign and decides to go inside and flirt a little. Their conversation is interrupted at first by Ms. Bennett's boss, Mr. Peter Thorndyke (David Tomlinson) and then by a little Volkswagen Beetle deluxe ragtop sedan. Mr. Thorndyke verbally abuses the little car, but Jim sticks up for it. Unbeknownst to everyone, the little car has a head and heart of its own and follows Jim home. His partner and mechanic, Tennessee Steinmetz (Buddy Hackett) immediately falls in love with the car and names him Herbie (in real life the screenwriters took the name Herbie from one of Hackett's comedy routines so it was right that he bestowed the name Herbie upon the car). Jim soon discovers that Herbie isn't like a typically car and eventually enters some races with Herbie and starts winning again. Things start looking up, but Jim's pride and vanity get in the way and threaten to ruin everything, including his racing career and his budding romance with Carole.

I never saw THE LOVE BUG when it was first released in theatres. I wasn't even born, yet. I do know that at an early age in an era before cable and VCRs my brother and I happened to see the Herbie movies and fell in love with the cute little car. THE LOVE BUG was made at a very interesting time, both at Walt Disney and the world at large. Originally released in 1969, the film became the highest grossing movie of that year. Walt himself had died just a few years before and there were many at the time who questioned whether the studio would be able to survive intact. THE LOVE BUG was one of those films that seemed to show the world that even though the founder and creator was dead, his dream would go on. The film represents everything good that Walt Disney tried to portray in all of his movies. For example, that the best things in life don't necessarily come in the biggest and brightest packages, that even though life is difficult you shouldn't give up hope, and that love is a very powerful force of good. It's not hard to see why people flocked to the movie. Just a year before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated and Chicago erupted in a riot at the Democratic National Convention. People were tired of seeing dark and dreary things. Went they went to the movies they didn't just want to escape. They wanted to be told stories that filled them light, hope, and love.

In the post-modern era we have inherited and are continuing to build, pictures like THE LOVE BUG can be overlooked and thrown to the side for being too innocent. As a whole, we've become much more jaded and cynical and that's not really a good thing.

I like THE LOVE BUG because of those things and I wish filmmakers would make more pictures like it now and again. The world's a dark enough place already. It'd be nice to watch a light-hearted family comedy now and again that wasn't just escapist fare, but reminded us of the best things in life.

Film-buffs should see THE LOVE BUG for a variety of reasons. Besides being the #1 grossing film of 1969 the film is notable for its contribution to the film industry in special effects. THE LOVE BUG was created in an era were there was no such thing as CGI. All of the special effects in THE LOVE BUG were done the old fashioned way and it is amazing how well done they are. These effects might seem old and outdated by a child raised by computer-graphics, but in the era that the film was released the special effects are extraordinary.

THE LOVE BUG Special Edition is a great DVD to own, especially if you are fans of the film. There are two discs all total. On the first disc, in addition to the usual commentary (in this case with Dean Jones, Michelle Lee, and Buddy Hackett), there is a short Disney cartoon entitled "Susie--the Little Blue Coupe". This cartoon is a delight to watch and was in the inspiration for the characters in the Pixar film CARS.

The second disc is loaded with special features. There are several featurettes including "That Lovable Bug", "The Many Lives of Herbie", "Herbie Mania", and "Lost Treasures: Searching For Herbie". "That Lovable Bug" is my favorite of these featurettes. It's basically a documentary about the making of THE LOVE BUG, including interviews with Dean Jones, Michele Lee, and Buddy Hackett. "The Many Lives of Herbie" is a run-through of how Herbie changed throughout the various films he has been a part (excluded is HERBIE FULLY LOADED which was released after this DVD was made). "Herbie Mania" is basically a long interview with a couple of guys who own their own Herbie recreations, one that is complete with oil spills and doors that open automatically. "Lost Treasures: Searching For Herbie" is more or less a combination of information included in other special features that ends by showing where the first trick Herbie now resides. A couple other extras I enjoyed were a "Behind the Scenes" promo that had been culled together from archived footage and "Love Bug Day at Disneyland" which is archived footage of the Love Bug Day that was held at Disneyland in 1969; it must have been incredibly difficult to choose a winning entry from all the cars that were there that day. I also enjoyed "The Man Who Gave Herbie His Voice" which is a documentary tribute to Jimmy McDonald, the sound effect supervisor on THE LOVE BUG and countless other Disney films and shorts. Other extras include the 1969 Disney Studio Album, production gallery, deleted scenes that were never shot, the theatrical trailer, radio spots, two sound studio exercises, production stills, a comic book, biographies of the film's main actors and director, publicity documents, and an excerpt from the screenplay.

This is one of the best Disney movies of all time. Who doesn't love the idea of a Beetle that comes to life? This movie has quite a few real-life applications, which you'll just have to watch to find out. But, it still is a great story to see in action.