Review: Herbie Goes Bananas (DMC #72)
Welcome to the ‘80s! Herbie is back in Herbie Goes Bananas! This is the fourth film about this lively love bug and the seventy-second film in our Disnerd Movie Challenge. If you need a refresher, our synopsis is below, otherwise skip ahead to the review!
Synopsis
Jim Douglas’s nephew, Pete, and Pete’s best friend, D.J., arrive in Puerto Vallarta to pick up Jim’s old racecar (Herbie) which he’s decided to give to Pete. A young pickpocket named Paco overhears the Americans talking about how much money they have on them and offers to help the guys with directions as a ruse to steal their wallets. Meanwhile, three smugglers, Prindle, Shepard, and Quinn, discuss a roll of film that reveals what may be an undiscovered ancient Incan city. The smugglers plot to raid the city for valuables before anyone else discovers it. When Pete and D.J. arrive to pick up Herbie, they’re initially disappointed by the old VW beetle, but the car runs and they’ll need transportation, so they agree to take it. However, D.J. soon realizes that his wallet is missing—they can’t pay the mechanic the storage fee for Herbie. Instead, the guys take off under the ruse of taking the car for a test drive so they can track down Paco. Meanwhile, as the smugglers leave their hotel, Paco picks their pockets and comes away with one man’s wallet which has the strip of film depicting the Incan city inside it. Before the smugglers realize what happened, Paco runs off and starts shuffling through the cash in the two wallets, but Pete and D.J. discover him, give chase, and eventually get D.J.’s wallet back before ditching Paco. Just then, the smugglers realize their wallet is missing and chase Paco alongside the police. Herbie sees Paco in trouble and opens his trunk for Paco to hide inside. However, just as Pete and D.J. get into the vehicle, the smugglers and cops notice Paco and give chase. Herbie drives like mad to evade them, startling and impressing Pete and D.J. who decide to enter the car in the upcoming Brazil Grand Primeo formula one race. Herbie, with Paco still in the trunk, is loaded onto a ship bound for Rio de Janeiro.
Captain Blythe, the captain of the ship, regales his dinner guests with scary pirate tales. Most of the guests are startled, but Aunt Louise, having dinner with her niece, Melissa, overhears from a nearby table and is smitten with the captain. Though Aunt Louise tries to encourage Melissa to seek romance on their trip, Melissa is far more concerned with her studies as an anthropology doctoral candidate. Pete and D.J. join Aunt Louise and Melissa as dinner companions for the evening, while below decks, Paco, with Herbie’s assistance, steals dinner from an Italian worker named Armando Moccia. Armando, convinced that the car ate his dinner, is shocked when the car begins to drive all on its own. He reports the escaped car to Captain Blythe, who doesn’t believe Armando and comes down to the cargo hold to see for himself. Herbie, after destroying cargo amid a chase, is finally roped in and captured, and Paco is discovered in his trunk. Pete and D.J., as the owners of the car, are reprimanded by Captain Blythe for the damages caused by the vehicle and kidnapping or stowing away the boy. Pete refuses to pay for the damage he didn’t cause, so Captain Blythe takes possession of the car until Pete is able to pay for it. Pete and D.J. decide they need to find a financial sponsor for the car to get it back, and D.J. decides Aunt Louise is just the person they need. If Pete can woo Melissa, D.J. can convince Aunt Louise to sponsor them. At that evening’s costume party, Pete tries to woo Melissa by dancing with her while D.J. talks Aunt Louise’s ear off about racing. Though Pete compliments Melissa and even gives her a kiss goodnight, he later tells D.J. that he doesn’t like playing Melissa this way, but D.J. reports that Aunt Melissa has agreed to sponsor them. Pete just needs to keep up the act until after the race. Back in the cargo hold, Herbie sneaks out of his blocks to check on Paco who’s in a holding cell. Herbie steals the keys and passes them to Paco so he can escape, but Armando catches them in the act and alerts the crew. Paco jumps into the front seat as Herbie drives away from the sailors. Meanwhile, Aunt Louise is still at the costume party, trying (unsuccessfully) to woo Captain Blythe when Herbie crashes the party. The next day, the enraged captain has his crew set Herbie upside down on a large plank to send the little car overboard. Despite the protests of Aunt Louise, Pete, D.J., and Paco’s tears, Herbie is tossed into the sea where he appears to sink.
Pete, D.J., Aunt Louise, and Melissa are kicked off in Panama for their connection to Herbie and all the trouble he caused. Aunt Louise admits she knew what Pete and D.J. were up to with wooing Melissa and trying to get her to sponsor them. Melissa overhears Pete admit that he wasn’t really interested in Melissa and gives him the cold shoulder. Paco is kicked off the ship, too, with the intention of returning him to Puerto Vallarta, except the smugglers try to claim Paco. Paco runs away from them. Meanwhile, a rusty, waterlogged Herbie drifts through the Panama Canal and eventually reaches a spot further down the river where Paco is fishing. Paco rushes to the aid of the little car and calls upon the help of some men to haul the car safely to shore. Though at first it appears that Herbie has “died” from the strain of the voyage, the little car perks up and, with Paco’s encouragement, drives off with Paco before the men can come back to tear him apart for scrap. Once they reach safety, Paco paints Herbie to look like a taxi, but the smugglers soon discover the boy and demand the stolen film. Paco admits he doesn’t have it, but maybe it got mixed up with D.J.’s wallet. The smugglers threaten Paco and tell him he’d better find that film or else they’ll destroy Herbie. Meanwhile, Pete and D.J. have found work as bus boys so they can earn enough for passage home. Paco finds them and fake cries as he apologizes to the boys—a ploy to steal the wallet yet again. Pete and D.J. belatedly discover the theft and chase after the boy who rides off in Herbie. Instead of going back to the smugglers, Herbie bypasses them, and the smugglers give chase. Aunt Lousie and Captain Blythe both try to flag down Herbie as a taxi and force themselves inside before realizing they both called the same cab—and that the cab is the same car that was thrown from the ship, with the same stowaway boy as their driver. Herbie locks the passengers in as he drives away from the smugglers. As they drive past Melissa, Aunt Louise and Captain Blythe call out to Melissa to tell them they’ve been shanghaied by the little car. As Pete and D.J. catch up to Melissa, Melissa flags down a bus to pursue Herbie, offering the driver $340 for the whole bus. The bus driver happily agrees and kicks everyone else off the rundown bus. Meanwhile, Herbie leads the smugglers into a bull fight ring where the bull knocks over the smugglers’ car and then has a standoff with Herbie, who eventually emerges victorious. As Paco, Aunt Louise, and Captain Blythe get out of the car to take a bow for the fans in the stadium, the smugglers head for Paco. Paco hops into Herbie and the two race off, leaving Aunt Louise and Captain Blythe behind.
Pete, D.J., and Melissa in the bus come upon Aunt Louise and Captain Blythe at the side of the road and pick them up as they continue their rather slow pursuit of the love bug. Meanwhile, the smugglers take to the sky in a small plane to search for the car. The bus breaks down in a small village where Pete struggles to make repairs. When the bus finally gets going again, it doesn’t get very far before the engine explodes. While Paco examines the film that the smugglers seem to want so bad, the smugglers spot Herbie from the sky and get ahead of Paco. When Herbie and Paco stop to rest, Paco is summoned to the cantina for his taxi services only to discover it was a trap set by the smugglers so they could capture him. Herbie is unable to stop the men from taking Paco with them on board their plane, but Herbie manages to find Pete, D.J., Aunt Louise, Melissa, and Captain Blythe and rallies them to help Paco. Meanwhile, the smugglers take Paco with them to the site of the Incan city in the middle of a storm where they collect a large gold artifact and abandon Paco in the middle of the jungle in the pouring rain. Herbie soon finds Paco and Paco tells the rest of the group about the smugglers and the Incan gold. Herbie chases after the smugglers and grabs the Incan artifact in the maw of his trunk before driving off. The heroes manage to disguise Herbie under a camouflage of bananas so as not to be seen from above by the smugglers’ airplane as they make their way to an expert on Incan artifacts. As the heroes arrive to deliver the Incan artifact to this professor, the smugglers reveal themselves—they suspected the heroes might take the artifact here, and they’ve already laid claim to it. They tie up everyone and leave with the gold, but Paco, selling bananas off of Herbie, hears the smugglers’ plane engine start up. He and Herbie chase down the villains, launching bananas at them, and chasing their plane across the airfield, ultimately destroying the plane before it can take off. The police soon arrive, flagged down by Aunt Louise, and arrest the smugglers. Back on the ship, Captain Blythe is happy to be at sea once again, though, much to Aunt Louise’s disappointment, he has more love for the sea than for Aunt Louise. Pete, D.J., and Melissa admire a polished up Herbie as Aunt Louise joins them to see Paco, dressed like a racecar driver, takes his place at the wheel. Pete admits that Paco gets more out of the car than he does, so Paco will be the one to drive Herbie in the upcoming race in Rio. The film ends as the ship sails off to Rio.
Thoughts Before Watching
Megan: I’m going in with pretty low expectations. I’m pretty sure my first introduction was probably an episode of the TV show rather than any of these movies, because none of them have been familiar, and the premise of this one isn’t ringing any bells either. Based on the previous Herbie films, I’m assuming this won’t have much of any continuity with the other films, but hopefully it’s not nearly as bad as The Black Hole.
Kevin: Yeah, I doubt this can be as bad as The Black Hole. Herbie is at least funny. That said, the previous film in the Herbie series was rather dull, which we thought was disappointing given that the first two films were quite solid. I’m also just a bit tired of seeing Herbie; I guess I just don’t really know how he got so popular that Disney made three sequels. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that this is at least better than the last one.
A visual representation of how the writers treated Herbie in this movie!
Thoughts After Watching
A Herbie film in name only
Kevin: For being the fourth film in a series about the love bug, there’s very little about this film that features Herbie. In fact, the film doesn’t feel like Herbie should be in it because it has nothing to do with what Herbie actually does best—racing! I seriously think the writers of this film had no idea what to do with Herbie and just wanted to capitalize on his popularity. It didn’t help that Herbie wasn’t referred to by his name, at least not that I remember. Paco instead comes up with his own name for the love bug. By that point, I was so disconnected with the story that “Ocho” felt like a totally different character than Herbie. Also, the throwaway plot thread of entering him into the Brazil Grand Premio comes off as a tacked-on way to remind the audience “oh, this is why Herbie is in this movie!” And where was the classic musical theme?! I was waiting to hear that tune come up at some point whenever Herbie was driving around. There’s a small reprisal of it at some point in the film, and the melody sounds inspired by Mexican culture, so that was at least refreshing and new. Still, the lack of that theme music and Herbie himself makes this film feel totally disconnected from the rest of the series. It seems like a lot of the same story beats could have played out had Herbie instead been a lovable puppy. Or, if the writers really wanted this to be about a racing car, they could have swapped Herbie out with just any other unliving car and the film could remain relatively unchanged Sure, there are some very specific moments that rely on Herbie himself being in the movie whenever he does something quirky, but they didn’t have much to do with the actual plot. With just a few tweaks this film could have been just another silly Disney comedy, and just as forgettable if not more so than the real film.
Megan: I quite agree. One of the joys of Herbie is that he’s a car who comes to life! The first Herbie film totally nailed it with giving this otherwise inanimate object a real sense of emotion in the way he moved and interacted with the human characters on screen. Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo somewhat failed to portray the subtle nuances of emotion audiences loved in the first film, but at least we still saw Herbie emoting in some way. With Herbie Goes Bananas, we barely get any emotion from Herbie. The only time he seems to show emotion is when he “walks” the plank and then again when he calls out to Paco for help when he appears to drown in the river. In both instances, the emotion comes from the sound of Herbie’s horn, not from any movements on Herbie’s part. It seems like a missed opportunity. However, the story arc of this film also doesn’t give as many opportunities for Herbie to become a fully developed character. He’s frequently used as a device to get Paco out of trouble, but we’re never really sure why Herbie is motivated to help Paco, or what Herbie might want. I personally want to know what Herbie thinks of being abandoned by Jim Douglas yet again!
Why would you abandon a magic car?!
Megan: I don’t understand why Jim Douglas has now abandoned Herbie twice. I mean, come on! This is a magic car that has a mind of its own! And it won several races for you! At the very least aren’t you grateful? Even if Jim had decided to retire (which it’s not entirely clear he did), I would have thought he and Herbie had a stronger relationship than that. Personally, if I had a car like Herbie, I’d be taking much better care of it than Jim, and I’d probably be having way more fun with it. Sure, Herbie does tend to get the heroes into trouble (sometimes through no fault of his own), but he also manages to get them out of trouble in the end. I don’t remember much about Herbie: Fully Loaded, but I’m hoping when we reach that movie that Herbie finally finds himself with a driver who appreciates him the way the little old lady in the second Herbie film did.
One step forward, two steps back
Megan: The first few Herbie films did pretty well with the female characters, but this one seems to set things back in terms of progress. It started out okay with a slim Bechdel test pass for the first conversation between Aunt Louise and Melissa. Technically Aunt Louise isn’t actually talking about the food, she’s talking about the captain, but her words on their own don’t mention a male character so I guess we can let it pass. I also liked seeing Melissa as this smart woman pursuing a doctorate. However, we soon come to find that Melissa falls into that trope of the ugly duckling—the girl who looks unattractive because she’s wearing glasses that are too big for her face, but then lo and behold! She takes her glasses off and lets her hair down and she’s magically transformed into a hottie. Not only that, she’s completely used by the male characters in the story—yet she goes on to team up with them! I guess I just wanted a little something more interesting from this girl who’s daring enough to stand in the middle of traffic, flag down a bus, and pay off the driver to rescue her aunt. Aunt Louise isn’t much better. She spends the entire film pining for the captain—a complete jerk who shows zero attractive qualities and zero interest in Aunt Louise’s advances. I mean were you listening when he was talking at the costume party? What’s worse, did you hear Aunt Louise’s flirtatiously smitten response?
CAPTAIN BLYTHE: In those days a captain was a captain. And a ship was a ship, not a floating carnival. And the only women aboard were dragged their by the scruff of their neck!
AUNT LOUISE: Whoo, gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
CHIEF STEWARD: The captain is just having a little jest with you ladies.
CAPTAIN BLYTHE: I’m only telling it like it was. (Quietly) Or should be.
The Chief Steward seems to be the only sensible man in the room, though why he continuously defends the Captain I’ll never know. I still have no idea what Aunt Louise sees in this sexist captain, nor do I understand why she would throw herself at him “as a desperate, helpless, single woman” (her words, not mine). Thank goodness she finally gives up on the captain by the end of the film, yet I wish she’d realized he wasn’t worth it because he was a jerk, not because he was more in love with the sea than he was with anyone else.
Problematic Depictions
Megan: I was a little worried going into this film that it might run into some racist stereotypes. While the film seemed to avoid many racist pitfalls, at the end of the day, it was still a film made by U.S. filmmakers for a U.S. audience, so there’s an unfortunate Americanization of the film. For one thing, all the main characters except Paco are from the U.S. The smugglers, the captain, Pete, D.J., Aunt Louise, and Melissa are all from the U.S. They also go to South America and don’t bother to learn even basic Spanish. Granted, this is probably a very American thing to do—to just travel and assume English will be spoken anywhere—but high schoolers have had to take a second language for quite a long time now. Even though I don’t remember much of the three years of high school Spanish I took years ago, I still remember a few phrases that would have proven helpful to these characters at various moments in the film. At the very least, Melissa, who’s getting her doctorate by studying South American cultures, should have known a bit of Spanish. Instead, we see the heroes trying and failing to speak to locals merely by shouting words in English over and over again and using charades. These characters never rely on broken Spanish to communicate with Spanish-speakers, yet American filmmakers up until this point have been quick to have characters of other nationalities speak in broken English to convey their thoughts. Not a great look. Then, of course, there’s Paco’s character. The kid is incredibly adorable, and I love his relationship with Herbie (a.k.a., Ocho). However, making him a street-wise orphan who turns to pickpocketing feels stereotypical. Yes, I realize this has been (and in some cases still is) the reality for kids in Paco’s situation, but when Paco is the only main character in the film who’s not an American, in a U.S. culture where people of color often are merely a token character, Paco unfortunately becomes representative of an entire culture. With so few films at this time depicting characters who look like Paco, it becomes all too easy for Paco to become the stereotype. I wish the film had led with Paco doing something more enterprising than stealing, like perhaps trying to run a small business along the beach. I mean, he sort of was in that he was shoe shining, but the first action we see him take is to hoodwink Pete and D.J. and steal their money. It’s not until well into the film that we see Paco as a young entrepreneur transforming Herbie into a taxi. By the end of the film, Herbie and the white American characters seem to have “saved” Paco (a bit of a white savior trope), yet they’re really only using Paco to race Herbie for them. My guess is Paco won’t be the one to get the prize money if he wins the race—it will either go to the owners of the car (Pete and D.J.), or be split among the group (and clearly Aunt Louise is well off enough to not need nearly as much money as orphan Paco). Though the film tries to leave us off with a happy moment, I’m left wondering about the less-than-happy consequences to come after the race.
Disney should have put the brakes on this story
Kevin: I get that maintaining a series is hard work. I’m not a writer, but I can appreciate that coming up with sequels takes effort. A series generally has an overarching story and it’s made clear to the audience how each part makes up the whole. I think comedies could work with this type of storytelling, but it has to be done carefully. The Herbie film series doesn’t appear to do this. Each movie is only vaguely related to the one that came before it. I think the first two movies did well because we at least had characters we liked and we had a story that made Herbie necessary. The third film was where things started going downhill. It had none of the humor and fun of the first two, and it looked as if Dean Jones returned to his role as Jim Douglas rather reluctantly. After all, supposedly one of the reasons he wasn’t in the second film was because he had reservations about the script’s quality. Jones is once again absent from Herbie Goes Bananas, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was for similar reasons. I wonder if he realized that Disney was milking Herbie too much? (On a side note, from an “in-universe” perspective, this makes Jim Douglas look like even more of an ungrateful jerk, having now abandoned Herbie twice!). Disney really should have capped this series off after the mixed reviews of Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo. Unfortunately, Disney powered through and made this one. As a result, what once started as an unexpected hit has become a shell of what it once was. The characters are more bland than ever; Pete and D.J. in particular are some of the most uninteresting protagonists we’ve had in a while, and D.J. is also quite sleazy. We’ve given yet another awkward forced romance just because they happen to be in the same room. Paco might be just about the only fun character. Otherwise, we once again have a film where there’s no reason to care about any of the characters, not even Herbie himself. While this movie did deliver on a few jokes and had some amusing moments, much of the comedy was flat and uninspired. This film was reportedly why Disney didn’t attempt another full-length Herbie film until they made Herbie: Fully Loaded. With the notable exception of the 1997 television series The Love Bug, I totally see why the theatrical series stalled after this one. To put it bluntly, it’s just simply not a good movie. Still, it does manage to outdo The Black Hole, but then again, that’s setting a very low bar.