Ein Käfer geht aufs Ganze

As in Dudu - which is the German name of the movies main "character" ... the car that is. So no pun intended - after Herbie was successful worldwide, Germany thought "hey we can do this also" ... well they could ... sort of. The first of the series is really quite weak and I am really understating here ... you could also say it didn't age that well.

Apart from stereotypes ... which I reckon you can forgive or not (depending on your own views), the movie has so many flaws ... and uses stock footage every other minute. It is not just technically bad ... every aspect is as cheap as they come. Which is no wonder since this really did not have any respectable budget at all.

The main actor remains throughout the other movies - the car(s) will change ... they even change here! The main car gets swapped - and I reckon most didn't car or paid attention back in the day. It is the same with stunt men back then - nowadays you can tell and see (also wires) differences ... but you were taken aback I reckon ... so much so, that you didn't look for things.

Quite the wonder this spawned another 4 movies ... and two of them were also made between the first and second Herbie movie - maybe the US took a page out of the success of the German movie.

Language is supposed to be German, but it does sound and feel dubbed in a way ... maybe spoken over the actors ... doesn't help that some of the roles are being portrayed by very well known dubbing actors of Germany .... you just have heard the voice so many times before.

Anyway, I may be nitpicking here, but this was not good - I would be lying if I said otherwise. I don't even think too many kids would be entertained ... well maybe the very little ones ...

I remember seeing all of the Käfer-movies when I was a kid, and vaguely recall them being about a guy with his car Dodo or Dudde. This car has a computer controlling it, which means it talks, and drives a bit as it likes. I also remember I thoroughly enjoyed them, even though they were dubbed to english from german, because they were mad and had a lot of fun gags.

This film is the beginning of the mythic "Dudu-series"! Tansania, Africa is the location where Ben (in the following Dudu-films he's called Jimmy Bondie) meets with his ADAC*-Bug!

Why Tansania? It has been a German colony far in the past. In the 70ies there had been many so called "East-African-Safaries" and this film deals with one of those Ralleys through the whole country! Now there appears a greedy and ambitious Baron who is obsessed with winning the race for any price. His stupid wife, brought him "the fastest car in the world", the cheep Hollywood requisite "Herbie"!!! (here is built the connection between the famous 50ies/60ies "Herbie-Films" from Disney) But the Baron is disappointed, because the white bug with the number 53 only has scrap value! Anyway the Baron makes a road test through the Serengeti with the bug after having painted it yellow. But ex-Herbie has its own head and does what he wants, especially when it is insulted.

Dudu crashes against Ben's bike and stops when Ben shout "stop"! The Baron apologizes himself and changes the bug for the bike. Since then Ben is the new owner of Dudu, what means "bug" or "little insect" in Suaheli, the native language of Tansania. Ben decides to participate in the rally, but he only becomes the "Service-Car" of Mr. Buttler, a Scotsman who wants to win the race with a hovercraft! And because both motors are from Volkswagen Dudu is accepted to be the service car (therefore the allusion of ADAC, the famous German car insurance-company) Many times there appear some scenes of animal and rally documentations, which are mixed with the actual film. But I think that's done in a relatively good way although it often makes you smile anyway!

Maybe the plot is seems to be confusing, but in the German version it is almost clear and entertaining (later Dudu gets involved in a diamond smuggling problem etc.).

The cool thing is that Dudu becomes in the further films an own character or identity. He does not maintain the Herbie-Soul, but becomes a computer controlled car so that he stops being a total copy of Herbie!

The first of five movies director Rudolf Zehetgruber made about a yellow Volkswagen beetle with many gadgets. He played the driver himself, called Ben in this movie, but Jimmy Bondi in the sequels. Another difference is that there are considerably less gadgets in this first movie yet. This is a rather simple story about a race in Africa, entirely shot on location in Tanzania, where film-making was an adventure in itself almost 50 years ago. A hovercraft shall race against several racing cars, although it is obviously slower, but it is allowed to short cut the racing track across water to even the chances. Dudu, the yellow VW beetle, is only permitted as a support car, not as a full participant in the race, but the little car bravely faces the challenges of the African wilderness. This is a nice little race movie with some comedy elements, clumsily narrated and except for the Tanzanian locations, offering little to remember. Most of the sequels improved the concept a lot, I voted 4-7-6-5-3 for the five movies.