The Love Bug (Herbie)

**Herbie, the Love Bug** is a sentient anthropomorphic 1963 Volkswagen Beetle, a character that is featured in several Walt Disney motion pictures starting with the 1968 feature film *The Love Bug*. He has a mind of his own and is capable of driving himself, and is often a serious contender in auto racing competitions. Throughout most of the franchise, Herbie is distinguished by red, white and blue racing stripes from front to back bumper, a racing-style number **53** on the front luggage compartment lid, doors, and engine lid, and a yellow-on-black '63 California license plate with the registration "**OFP 857**".

Herbie's origins as a racing car are firmly established in *The Love Bug* (1968). Before the events of the film, he was bought from the showroom of Peter Thorndyke (David Tomlinson) by San Francisco socialite Mrs. Van Luit for her upstairs maid, but returned the car shortly afterwards due to reliability problems. He was then purchased by race driver Jim Douglas (Dean Jones), who had earlier stood up for Herbie when Thorndyke kicked him. Tennessee Steinmetz (Buddy Hackett), Jim's best friend and housemate, names the car "Herbie" after his uncle Herb, a middleweight boxer whose nose got shaped more and more like a Volkswagen Beetle, then makes Herbie a racing car.

In *Herbie Rides Again* (1974), Herbie has been left to Tennessee's widowed aunt, Mrs. Steinmetz (Helen Hayes). Mrs. Steinmetz and her displaced neighbor, Nicole Harris (Stefanie Powers), try to save her house from being bulldozed by Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn) with the help of Herbie. During the film, it is explained that after several successful races with Herbie, Douglas entered foreign racing circuits while his sidekick Tennessee is residing in Tibet to help his ailing instructor. During the film, it is revealed that Herbie has befriended other sentient VW Beetles and these team up with him to defeat Hawk, and we learn of the existence of other sentient objects (briefly mentioned by Tennessee in the first film), such as Mrs. Steinmetz's self-playing orchestrion.

By *Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo* (1977), Douglas enters Herbie in the Trans-France Race and recruits mechanic friend Wheely Applegate (Don Knotts) to assist him. Herbie falls in love with a Lancia Scorpion named Giselle (who is also sentient, although Jim, Herbie and Wheely are the first to discover it) and Douglas with her driver Diane Darcy (Julie Sommars). Herbie also finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when the stolen *Etoile de Joie* diamond is hidden in his gas tank.

In *Herbie Goes Bananas* (1980), Douglas has retired from racing after Monte Carlo and leaves Herbie to his nephew, Pete Stancheck (Stephen W. Burns), who plans to enter Herbie in the Brazil Grand Primeo. In the interim, Herbie befriends an orphan named Paco (Joaquin Garay, III), with whom he wreaks havoc on board the cruise ship the *Sun Princess*, prompting the overzealous Captain Blythe (Harvey Korman) to force Herbie to "walk the plank". Having fallen into the ocean, Herbie is rescued by Paco and disguised as a taxi, later to stop a gang of con artists from stealing ancient Inca gold. Early in their partnership, Paco gives Herbie the nickname "Ocho" because he can't understand Herbie talking through his horn. Ocho is the Spanish word for the number 8; purportedly because the digits 5 and 3 in Herbie's racing number, 53, were combined to produce "8" (5+3 = 8) and possibly to rhyme with "Vocho", the Beetle's colloquial name in Mexico.

After the Mexico debacle, Douglas takes in Herbie and opens a driving school in the TV series *Herbie, the Love Bug*. There, Douglas meets a woman named Susan MacLane and her three kids: Julie, Matthew, and Robbie, with the kids become friends to Herbie, But a business man named Randy Bigelow wants to get rid of Herbie and Douglas and get Susan back since they broke up during their wedding.

Hank Cooper (Bruce Campbell) becomes the owner of Herbie in the 1997 made-for-television movie *The Love Bug*. In this alternate sequel to the original film that ignores all others, Herbie's origins as a sentient Volkswagen Beetle are that an elderly German engineer named Dr. Gustav Stumpfel was building Herbie when a picture of his deceased wife fell into a vat of molten metal; with Stumpfel's love for her animating Herbie. During the film, Stumpfel is forced to build an evil Volkswagen counterpart to Herbie, "Horace the Hate Bug", from a sample of Herbie's original metal. Horace's personality is influenced by the narcissism of Herbie's former owner Simon when he has a picture of himself dropped into the metal vats, and kills Herbie during the film. Cooper buries Herbie, but the return of Jim Douglas sets Cooper to rebuild the fallen Love Bug (with the help of the repentant Dr. Stumpfel) and have him race against Simon and Horace. In this race, Herbie ultimately divides himself in half (as in the original film) to win the race.

Over the years Herbie is passed down from owner to owner (including someone named "Maxx", who left his driver suit inside the hood), competing in many races, until he starts losing constantly to newer and faster cars, and later found by a tow truck driver in a garage and carried to Crazy Dave's scrapyard and, later, bought by Maggie Peyton (Lindsay Lohan) in *Herbie: Fully Loaded* (2005). He is later modified, becoming a 2002-cc-engined car and participating in various races, from a demolition derby to the final race of the Nextel Cup Series. Herbie eventually falls in love with a Volkswagen New Beetle (which, at the end, is revealed to be a sentient car too).

## Trivia

He is a movie star

He is friends with Volt

He worked in Area 51 for a bit

He is currently Married to a 1969 Volkswagen Van named Rose.

Herbie has his own hotel at Disney, which he runs in the post nuclear earth.

In beetle mode, Volt is able to make the same expressions as him.