Herbie
Herbie, the Love Bug is a fictional 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". History. Herbie's origins as a racing car are firmly established in "The Love Bug" (1968). Before the events of the film, he is bought from the showroom of Peter Thorndyke (David Tomlinson) by San Francisco socialite Mrs. Van Luit for her upstairs maid, but who returns the car shortly afterwards due to reliability problems. He is then purchased by race driver Jim Douglas (Dean Jones), who earlier stands up for Herbie after Herbie sustains a kick from Thorndyke. Tennessee Steinmetz (Buddy Hackett), Jim's best friend, mechanic and housemate, names the car "Herbie" after  his uncle Herb, a middleweight boxer whose nose is shaped like a Volkswagen Beetle. Tennessee Steinmetz then makes Herbie a racing car. In the final race of the film, Herbie is damaged and splits in two, but wins when his rear half (with Tennessee inside) beats Thorndyke's Apollo GT. The final scene shows Herbie completely restored, taking Jim and his new wife Carole off to their honeymoon. 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 enters foreign racing circuits while his sidekick Tennessee resides in Tibet. 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 hypothesized 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, it is told, left his racing suit under 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 "" (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). Appearance in media. Herbie has been the central character of five theatrical-release films, a made-for-TV movie, and a short-lived television series. Television series. A television series, "Herbie, the Love Bug", was aired in 1982 on CBS. Dean Jones reprised his role as Jim Douglas for the series. Five episodes were made. Future. In 2017, it was reported that a new Herbie series was in development at Disney XD. The plot revolved around a child named Lili or Landon Reed, "part scientist, part entrepreneur, part daredevil" who  realizes, "when her/his parents go missing, that they've secretly been working on a government project: a talking car named Herbie. Herbie is key to helping the kid reunite with her/his parents, but a gang of criminals also wants to get its paws on the state-of-the-art vehicle." Guises and paint schemes. Herbie's appearance remained consistent throughout the first four film entries as well as the 1982 television series. There were only minor, subtle changes. The 1997 TV movie and "Herbie: Fully Loaded" featured major overhauls in Herbie's appearance, as there were different production  crews working for Disney by this time. In order to create the effect of Herbie driving himself, Disney concocted a detailed system of sprockets and pulleys connected to a second steering column under the front seat for a rear seat driver. There was also a second set of pedal assemblies, clutch cables and a shifter extension. In "The Love Bug", the rear seat driver sat low enough to see over the windshield but still out of the view of the camera. For "Herbie Rides Again" and "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo", Disney installed a hood-mounted Carello fog light that  concealed a small camera which allowed the rear seat driver to view the street and sit lower. Section::::"The Love Bug" (1968). In the original film, "The Love Bug", the original racing 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 color-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. During one scene (when Tennessee is hanging out of the window), the "53" logo (a.k.a. "gumball") on the passenger-side door is missing. The door is also cut along the lower edge at an angle to enable the car to tilt over to the right on two wheels. One of the modified racing Herbies featured a Porsche 356 engine, brakes and KONI shock absorbers. All Herbies in "The Love Bug" had the VW badges removed from the hood and featured plain non-VW hubcaps. The hood-mounted VW logo was replaced with a plain disc  of the same diameter, colored to match the body. All VW logos were removed to avoid any trademark conflicts. Section::::"Herbie Rides Again" (1974). In "Herbie Rides Again", Herbie features revised racing stripes, with the original blue switched to a dark navy. In addition, the stripes were applied over the valances and louvers, and the front hood was recycled for 1982's television series "Herbie, the Love Bug". Herbie also received a hood-mounted Carello fog light, and his running boards were now the more conventional black. 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 break-in. The Beetle used was a late model, having a more bulbous flat-bottomed lid with an earlier rounded bottom edge welded on. After the success of "The Love Bug", the film was heavily endorsed by Volkswagen, which was in financial trouble at the time, when Beetle sales in North America were considerably lower than  in previous decades. As such, the company insisted that the VW logos appear on Herbie. Both the hub cap VW logo and hood-mounted VW logo were reinstated at the company's request. Section::::"Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo" (1977). In "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo", Herbie is again fitted with wide racing wheels (Goodyear GT radials), and has an external fuel filler cap. Post-1967 Beetles did feature the fuel tank accessible on the right side behind the fender; the silver cap itself, however, was fake and added for the film's storyline. With the addition of the fuel filler, the  antenna is now a retractable unit fitted on the front cowling, near the windshield wipers. He has a roll cage again, and he has Monte Carlo racing stickers on his windows (one on the front window, two on the left back window, and one on the rear window). Herbie still sports the hood-mounted Carello fog light with an added black cover sporting the company name. He now has gray bucket seats instead of stitched seats. Throughout this film, Herbie has an asymmetrical door mirror. There were a total of 9 VWs used in "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo". Many  of these cars were recycled for use in "Herbie Goes Bananas". Section::::"Herbie Goes Bananas" (1980). In "Herbie Goes Bananas", the hood-mounted light, the grey roll cage bar, the Monte Carlo racing stickers and the silver gas cap were removed. He still had his gray bucket seats, asymmetrical door mirror and his Goodyear GT Radial racing tires and rims, and Herbie's sunroof was the original light gray rather than the dark gray from Monte Carlo. The rust seen on the car in this film was painted on some of the Herbies. The car that "walks the plank" in the  movie was never recovered from the sea. It was tossed overboard from the "M.N. Coromuel" ferry ship (not "The Sun Princess" cruise ship). The car is somewhere between La Paz and Baja California. The car thrown overboard was not a proper car and had many wooden parts. "Herbie Goes Bananas" 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. Herbie's name is only mentioned 3 times in the film by the garage owner, apart  from the two times Herbie honks his horn at Paco trying to say his name when Paco couldn't understand what Herbie was saying. Some of these Herbie cars were recycled for "Herbie, the Love Bug" in 1982. One of the actual film cars used with its flip wheel chassis in the bullfighting scenes now resides in Sydney, Australia. Another one was displayed in the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum until the museum's closure in 2011. Since then its new location remains unknown. Volkswagen ceased the sale of Beetles in the USA one year before the film's  release. Section::::"The Love Bug" (1997). In "The Love Bug" television film there were some significant changes. The graphics used were copied from the 1974 Volkswagen of America decal kit, and the position on the front hood 53 was higher up. The racing stripes were different sizes, and the shade of blue reverted to the lighter version used in the original 1968 movie. The sunroof was a solid white (vs. gray) and was missing the racing stripes. Herbie's wheels were standard Beetle wheels, instead of the wider GoodYear GT Radial racing tires used in "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo" and  Herbie Goes Bananas, and the seats were regular instead of the gray bucket seats he had previously had. Section::::"Herbie: Fully Loaded" (2005). In "", Herbie, who in this film seemed to be able to show emotions mimicking a face, went through several "costume changes" throughout the movie, changing his style dramatically from scene to scene. More than 30 different Herbies were used during the shooting of this film, and three original cars are known to be on display. There is one at the Volo Auto Museum in Illinois and two other vehicles in California, one fully motorized is preserved at the  Peterson Automotive Museum and a “personality car” at the hobby store Electric Dreams. Both California cars were used during the NASCAR racing segment of the film.