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DVD Cover Copyright Disney<\/em><\/p>\n The fourth and final installment in the original series of live action flicks featuring Herbie the anthropomorphic Volkswagen Beetle, after The Love Bug <\/em>(1968), Herbie Rides Again <\/em>(1974), and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo <\/em>(1977), Herbie Goes Bananas <\/em>was theatrically released on June 25, 1980. The film, which was followed by a more modern effort, Herbie Fully Loaded<\/em>, in 2005, is ninety-eight minutes in length. As had been the case with Herbie Rides Again<\/em>, Dean Jones, who had played the star driver, Jim Douglas, in The Love Bug <\/em>and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo<\/em>, expressed reservations about the script\u2019s quality and was thus not offered a role in Herbie Goes Bananas<\/em>. (1)<\/p>\n Plot Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n In Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, an orphan boy, Paco (Joaquin Garay III), steals the wallets of two men. The first of the victims is a young man named D.J. (Charles Martin Smith), who is traveling with his friend Pete (Stephan W. Burns), the nephew of Herbie\u2019s famed owner, Jim Douglas, to race Herbie in the Brazil Gran Premio. Meanwhile, the second victim, Shepard (Richard Jaeckel), is on a sleazy mission with two other men, Quinn (Alex Rocco) and Prindle (John Vernon), to attain Incan gold, which is documented on a film strip.<\/p>\n D.J. retrieves his wallet, but he is inadvertently afforded something extra: Shepard\u2019s film strip. With Shepard, Quinn, Prindle, and the police now chasing Paco, the boy jumps into Herbie\u2019s hood to elude capture. Little does Paco know that he is boarding a cruise ship, The Sun Princess<\/em>, bound for Panama and eventually Brazil.<\/p>\n Trapped below deck, Paco and Herbie, who Paco now calls \u201cOcho,\u201d because of the sum, in Spanish, of Herbie\u2019s digits, five and three, wreak much havoc, and an infuriated Captain Blythe (Harvey Korman) throws Herbie overboard in punishment. Now, Pete and D.J. have no car to race, and, to compound matters, an eccentric sponsor procured on the ship, Aunt Louise (Cloris Leachman)\u2014her niece Melissa (Elyssa Davalos), a PhD student of Latin American cultures, is along for the adventure\u2014has wasted her money. Furthermore, Paco must be returned to Mexico, and Shepard, Quinn, and Prindle are intent on reclaiming the film strip. How will this affair end?<\/p>\n The film is fun, though the plot is convoluted and largely undeveloped. The main problem is an excess of subplots, including Paco\u2019s thievery, various romantic relationships, and the simultaneous quests to find Paco and thwart the three crooks.<\/p>\n Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n Newsday <\/em>provided a review from two, at the time, ten-year old girls. Said this duo on Herbie Goes Bananas<\/em>: \u201cIt\u2019s very good! This is the second movie made on the adventures of Herbie [actually the fourth], which is a car. The first [actually the third] was called, \u2018Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.\u2019<\/p>\n Herbie, \u2018The Love Bug,\u2019 is now owned by another relative, who is a race car driver. Herbie is picked up in Mexico and put on a cruise ship bound for the Panama Canal. A small orphan boy named Paco stole some money and tried to hide in Herbie\u2019s trunk. When he looked out, he found himself on the ship. Herbie and the boy, along with the race car driver and his friends, have many action packed adventures.<\/p>\n The scenery was beautiful and the movie was funny. The part we liked best was when Captain Blythe (Harvey Korman) was running after a truck, shouting, \u2018Give me a lift to my ship.\u2019 Needless to say, he was a strange captain and the ship left without him.<\/p>\n This Walt Disney technicolor movie stars Cloris Leachman and Harvey Korman. If we were rating in bananas, on a scale of one to five bananas we would rate this a four-banana movie.\u201d (2)<\/p>\n Harvey Korman<\/strong><\/p>\n In a July 1980 interview with the New York Times<\/em>, Harvey Korman offered his opinion on working at a more family-friendly movie studio than was his norm. As relayed by columnist Tom Buckley: \u201cIt was with a certain amount of trepidation that Harvey Korman, who is virtually a charter member of the Mel Brooks Academy of Inspired Adult Lunacy, slipped into the Disney studio in Hollywood to make \u2018Herbie Goes Bananas.\u2019<\/p>\n Mr. Korman, who played a sadomasochistic psychiatrist in Mr. Brooks\u2019s \u2018High Anxiety\u2019 and the craven villain, Hedley Lamarr, in his \u2018Blazing Saddles\u2019 wondered whether he would be comfortable in that cookies-and-milk atmosphere.<\/p>\n \u2018I had to go down Mickey Mouse Lane and turn right at Goofy Drive to get to the sound stage,\u2019 he recalled the other day over lunch. \u2018I kept asking myself, \u2018What if Mel finds out?\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n \u2018They work differently at Disney than at other studios,\u2019 Mr. Korman said. \u2018Every shot is \u2018storyboarded.\u2019 That means they make a drawing of it before they do it. It\u2019s like part of an animated cartoon. And, naturally, nobody uses bad language or has a conference with an actress in his dressing room during the lunch break. Just the same, it was very pleasant.\u2019\u201d (3)<\/p>\n Car Overboard<\/strong><\/p>\n The Herbie thrown overboard by Captain Blythe was never recovered and still lies at the bottom of the ocean. (4) Numerous Volkswagen Beetles were used during the filming of each of the four movies.<\/p>\n Heart<\/strong><\/p>\n In the opening scene of Aladdin <\/em>(1992), the peddler says of the Magic Lamp, \u201cDo not be fooled by its commonplace appearance. Like so many things, it is not what is outside but what is inside that counts. This is no ordinary lamp! It once changed the course of a young man\u2019s life. A young man [Aladdin] who like this lamp was more than what he seemed: a diamond in the rough.\u201d<\/p>\n Herbie, like the lamp, is unimpressive on the outside to all who encounter him, a seemingly ordinary Volkswagen. When Pete and D.J. arrive at the mechanic shop to retrieve Herbie, the former\u2019s incredulous response upon viewing the vehicle is \u201cThere\u2019s gotta be some mistake!\u201d Also shocked, the latter exclaims, \u201cYou\u2019re telling me that this thing won the Monte Carlo Grand Prix?!\u201d<\/p>\n To those who earn his trust, however\u2014Paco here and Jim Douglas, Tennessee Steinmetz, and Grandma Steinmetz in the earlier films\u2014Herbie fights with all his heart, even when he has seemingly exhausted his willpower. He is like The Little Engine That Could.<\/p>\n True Friendship<\/strong><\/p>\n There is a difference between true friendship, a relationship maintained because of genuine concern among people\u2026or cars, and false friendship, a relationship existing only to aid the aggrandizement of one of the parties. Whereas Paco truly cares about Herbie and the car\u2019s welfare, Pete only dates the shy, geeky Melissa in an attempt to convince her aunt Louise to cover the damage costs for Herbie\u2019s misadventures on the ship and to sponsor the vehicle in the Brazil Gran Premio. Not surprisingly, Melissa is hurt by the scheme, displaying her pain by immediately putting her glasses back on. She had removed her glasses when she thought Pete loved her.<\/p>\n Music<\/strong><\/p>\n In contrast to its three predecessors, where instrumental tunes monopolized the music, Herbie Goes Bananas <\/em>features two major lyrical songs, \u201cLook at Me\u201d and \u201cI Found a Friend.\u201d The former song is beautiful if forgettable and contributes a perfect mood for the dance between Pete and Melissa on the cruise ship. Conversely, \u201cI Found a Friend,\u201d especially after watching the previous Herbie films, feels forced, though it is not necessarily a bad number in and of itself. Also, to be fair, the lyrics fit the theme of the movie, namely the significance of true friendship.<\/p>\n George Bruns\u2019s theme song from The Love Bug <\/em>is periodically reprised. Its first appearance in Herbie Goes Bananas<\/em>, moments after Paco jumps in Herbie\u2019s hood to conceal himself from the police, produces a pure, whimsical adrenaline rush.<\/p>\n Humor<\/strong><\/p>\n Lightning never strikes twice and neither does Paco the wallet thief. He strikes three times.<\/p>\n As in his previous adventures, Herbie is involved in numerous quirky situations in Herbie Goes Bananas<\/em>, such as barging into the cruise ship dining room, impersonating a taxi, partaking in a bull fight, launching bananas, and eating a nutritious mixture of chicken dinners, gold coins, and airplane tails.<\/p>\n Captain Blythe\u2019s firsthand war and pirate stories, especially when coupled with his violent mannerisms, confound everyone in the dining room. He also sends messages via pigeon because he struggles to communicate with operators on payphones.<\/p>\n Melissa does not concur with her aunt\u2019s push to have her date Pete or D.J. After being informed that the duo is entering the Gran Premio, Aunt Louise says, \u201cYou\u2019re a race driver? Oh, oh, well isn\u2019t that fascinating, oh, oh, I just love race cars! Don\u2019t you Melissa?\u201d Melissa\u2019s blunt response: \u201cNot really.\u201d Sorry, Aunt Louise!<\/p>\n Aunt Louise is perpetually spurned by Captain Blythe in her attempt to date him.<\/p>\n Melissa literally buys a bus for herself, Pete, and D.J. in an attempt to catch her aunt, Paco, and Captain Blythe, who are speeding away in Herbie. She wasted $340, because the bus travels slower than the average person walks.<\/p>\n Relationship to Other Disney Films<\/strong><\/p>\n Mexico, and Central and South America were also highlighted in Saludos Amigos <\/em>(1942) and The Three Caballeros <\/em>(1944), which combined educational segments with whimsical animated fun. In both of these films, Donald Duck interacts with a Brazilian parrot named Jose Carioca, and a Mexican rooster named Panchito Pistoles is introduced as the third player in The Three Caballeros<\/em>.<\/p>\n Photo Copyright Kelly Nobles<\/em><\/p>\n Seen during the title card of Herbie Goes Bananas<\/em>, a serape was previously featured in The Three Caballeros<\/em>, essentially doubling as a magic carpet in that flick.<\/p>\n A hectic cruise was also a key aspect in Bon Voyage! <\/em>(1962).<\/p>\n A lost civilization was also featured in Atlantis: The Lost Empire <\/em>(2001).<\/p>\n Captain Blythe plans to rejoin The Sun Princess<\/em> in Tobago, the island where Swiss Family Robinson <\/em>(1960) was filmed.<\/p>\n In the Parks<\/strong><\/p>\n Guests at Walt Disney World can enjoy Mexican architecture, cuisine, beverages, and culture at the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot\u2019s World Showcase. This pavilion also includes an attraction based on The Three Caballeros<\/em>, \u201cGran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros.\u201d<\/p>\n A Mexican theme pervades the entirety of the \u201cCoronado Springs Resort\u201d at Walt Disney World.<\/p>\n In 1998, the Walt Disney Company launched the Disney Cruise Line, which currently features four vessels\u2014the Disney Magic<\/em>, the Disney Wonder<\/em>, the Disney Dream<\/em>, and the Disney Fantasy<\/em>\u2014with varied itineraries, including occasional fourteen-night repositioning cruises through the Panama Canal. Unfortunately or otherwise, guests on these cruises are unlikely to spot Herbie floating about in the Canal.<\/p>\n Overall<\/strong><\/p>\n Herbie Goes Bananas <\/em>lacks a coherent plot, but the individual parts are interesting and fun enough to compensate for the disjointed whole.<\/p>\n Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n 1) Evans, D., & Jones, D. (1998). A Conversation with Dean Jones. Retrieved July 18, 2016, from http:\/\/www.herbiemania.com\/deaninterview.htm<\/a><\/p>\n 2) Feldman, E., & Sosnowsk, C. (1980, September 10). DID YOU LIKE IT: A MOVIE REVIEW ‘HERBIE GOES BANANAS’ Newsday<\/em>, p. A34. Retrieved August 13, 2016, from http:\/\/0-search.proquest.com.alpha1.suffolk.lib.ny.us\/docview\/964335834?accountid=35174<\/p>\n![\"Herbie](\"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Herbie-Goes-Bananas-Pinterest-Kelly-Nobles-400x300.jpg\")
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