La coccinelle à Mexico

This third and last theatrical sequel to the classic Walt Disney Production The Love Bug (1969) brought the enormously successful franchise about a magical Volkswagen to a screeching halt. Herbie deserved a better send-off.

There's just no love left in the poor little disrespected cash-car. Filmed on the cheap in Mexico, this entry has none of the quality and charm of its original and trashes all that was good about the preceding sequels. Vincent McEveety, the weakest of Disney's three main directors during this period, was assigned the project after having done a fair job with Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, but makes no effort to elevate the project above the level of its poor script.

The frenetic, maudlin result is one of the worst Disney films. Talented comic performers Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman and Charles Martin Smith are wasted on unfunny material. Only the clever stunt and effects work save this mechanical destruction derby from oblivion.

The Love Bug was eventually revived for a brief TV series and made-for-TV movie, but Disney was flogging a dead V-Dub.

Couldn't they just have let poor old "Herbie" go get pampered in a motor museum somewhere? Plenty of Castrol GTX and some luxury screen wash? Nope - we had to drag him along to get involved in some dodgy Mexican counterfeit malarkey. He's been inherited by "Pete" (Stephen W. Burns) who is frankly a little disappointed that he's not a Ferrari. Together with his pal "D. J." (Charles Martin Smith) they soon discover that "Herbie" is a car with a mind of his own, and so determine to enter him in a race in Brazil. It's on their way that they get hustled by the hugely annoying "Paco" (Joaquin Garay III) and in trying to get their wallets back, discover they are now immersed in a crime ring led by "Prindle" (John Vernon) who is after a secret photograph the got pinched by the same urchin from his own wallet. The fleeing child takes refuge in "Herbie" who takes refuge on an ocean liner heading to Panama. This voyage gives "Aunt Louise" (Cloris Leachman) a chance to pair off handsome "Pete" with her bookish neice "Melissa" (Elyssa Davalos) and pretty soon we are all juggling way too many plates as this glorified edition of the "Dukes of Hazard" fails to get out of second gear. There are a few moments that raise a smile from the Bligh-esque ship's captain "Blythe" who has a hang 'em and flog 'em ethos that could have been usefully used on the writers of this banal and unnecessary outing for our VW that I found really struggled. It's peppered with the usual car chase and slapstick antics, but please now, no more....

This was the last Herbie movie to my knowledge. If it wasn't the last, it was defintely the worst. What else do you call a movie when a Mexican child calls Herbie "ocho" ( he adds up Herbie famous number "53" and gets eight). Then this Mexican child does a horrible paint job and starts using Herbie to run a taxi service. In my humble opinion the only reason to watch this film is to see what sort cellouiod trash Disney was putting out before Michael Eisner took over.

It was thought the Herbie phenomenon had finally run its course with Herbie Goes Bananas. It turned out only that the franchise just took a quarter century hiatus.

In this film Herbie has been given over to Stephen W. Burns and his mechanic Charles Martin Smith by previous owner whom we all know was Dean Jones. Of course he did it without telling nephew Burns or Smith about Herbie's capabilities. A bit of time with him and they really do believe that he can win the Grand Prix at Rio.

But before that the little bug gets involved with some counterfeiters played by John Vernon, Richard Jaeckel, and Alex Rocco, a little boy who calls him OCHO played by Joaquin Garay, and the pretentious captain of a cruise ship in Harvey Korman who has the best performance in the film. Burns gets himself involved in a shipboard romance with Elyssa Davalos who is accompanied by her chaperon aunt Cloris Leachman. Korman and Leachman get a little something going themselves though what she sees in him is beyond me. Maybe she just likes the uniform.

Herbie Goes Bananas has some nice location cinematography in the Panama Canal, Tijuana, and Guadalajara in Mexico. And it has two good scenes with Herbie walking the plank as per Captain Korman's orders and later on in a corrida facing a bull with Leachman and Korman inside. The rest of the time it moves at a snail's pace, odd for a Volkswagen that's supposed to win Grand Prix events.

By the way little Joaquin Garay calls him Ocho because he adds the five and three painted on Herbie's side and that's eight in Spanish. So why didn't he just call him Cincuenta Y Tres?

The formerly jaunty little bug is dragged out for another run, this time a very feeble attempt at a franchise cash-in. It appears that the suits at Disney knew Herbie was due for the parts yard, and spent as little as possible to churn this out, hoping to make a quick buck off the few people who would see it on name recognition alone. Make the kids watch something else.