fine whine

So I've been thinking. I may have been overly critical of Herbie rides again before when I wrote that it was "so ridiculous it’s not even funny". Bearing in mind that it was created to appeal to children (and grownups with a sense of whimsy and fondness for VW bugs), I managed to find a couple noteworthy points here and there.

It does, in fact, have some subtle touches that can go unnoticed unless you're paying attention. Early on, when we first meet Willoughby Whitfield (Ken Berry), we see clues to his zen-like aloofness whereby he is not flummoxed at all by Herbie rolling onto his foot. His utter nonchalance at his foot pinned under the car's tire betrays a total inner calm, an otherworldliness that allows him to be neither concerned about his toes being squashed or anything like that; nor does he think too long to determine that somebody must've left the parking brake on, leaving the little car to roll just far enough to stop him in his tracks. For him to take something like a car rolling itself around, over a foot, on what looks to be level ground, without questioning too much, must be a sign of his true enlightenment.

But Herbie rides again isn't just about enlightenment. It's about redemption, too. When sort-of-sentient streetcar #22, laden with Mrs. Steinmetz's (Helen Hayes) possessions, hurtles down San Francisco's famous hilled streets, a drunken rancher, in a ten-gallon hat, who looks to be passed out from a couple gallons of booze, hops on for a ride. Sobering slowly but amiably, Mr. Judson (John McIntire) strikes up a conversation with the knitting widow, and before long they are fast friends. They are also fast heading into the bay, which provides more of the tension than anything between them, sparks-wise. It isn't until he appears later at her firehouse, heroically wielding a firehose in her defense and otherwise protecting her and her ersatz fortress, that he truly shines. He's actually a rough and tumble guy, ready to fight for his woman and his rights, no longer the washed-up drunk we saw when first we met him. Willoughby goes through a similar arc, from being pushed around (he calls himself a rabbit) to pushing back, and in like fashion Nicole (Stefanie Powers) transforms from judgmental hothead to sentimental sweetie, but neither in so quick a timeframe as their cowboy pal, and more predictably so.

Also, I think that cinema in general needs more scenes of groups of suited lawyers being chased, whether by Beetles or otherwise.

So it has more than I had, at first, thought going for it, but when I weigh everything I like about it against everything I don't, the latter wins out. The bad stuff is just too bad to outweigh the good. Take the DVD cover, for example. Disney must've thought that the car, with Ken Berry perched in a silly pose atop it and Stefanie smug inside, flying in front of the Golden Gate must not have conveyed well enough the sense of whimsey, so an artist added big blue doe eyes to Herbie. Girly looking doe eyes, I might add. This is entirely unnecessary! A VW Bug is already rather anthropomorphic, Herbie doubly so, and for this sequel to apparently need to stress that is a sign of desperation or something worse. It's another extraneous addition that only compounds the rest of the extra (bigger, better, more) junk that outweighs what really made the first film so fun: its heart. Not gags. Not more sentient machines, just heart.

And footage of fast cars*.

* This may be the reason they found fit to include, as a dream sequence for Herbie, several minutes lifted directly from the first film.

This dream sequence was much better executed than Alonzo Hawk's (Keenan Wynn), wherein he is first chased by (obviously model) Bugs with chomping toothed hoods and then encircled by feathered-headdress-wearing, tomahawk-chopping mini Herbies apparently readying to burn him. Other cheesy model sequences in the film proved less silly but just as distracting, as though they couldn't afford a convincing enough scale model and instead opted for what looks like a dime store toy. Even as a kid I think I knew it was faked.