Down-on-his-luck race car driver Jim Douglas teams up with a little VW Bug that has a mind of its own, not realizing Herbie's worth until a sneaky rival plots to steal him.
The Love Bug is surely the first film in which the actors...are so meticulously insipid that a car can handily steal the show.
– ,
TIME Magazine,
9 Mar 2009
rotten:
What this autopopathism means in terms of American culture is a subject I neither understand nor wish to.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
7 May 2003
rotten:
Such a vulnerable movie that if it were a little less sappy, one might feel compelled to protect it, as if it were someone under 7 or over 65 -- that portion of the public for which it is intended.
– Vincent Canby,
New York Times,
9 May 2005
fresh:
'Herbie' and his plucky stunt drivers steal the show in this agreeable family entertainment.
– Geoff Andrew,
Time Out,
24 Jun 2006
fresh:
For sheer inventiveness of situation and the charm that such an idea projects, The Love Bug rates as one of the better entries of the Disney organization.