Herbie sbarca in Messico

It was thought the Herbie phenomenon had finally run its course with Herbie Goes Bananas. It turned out only that the franchise just took a quarter century hiatus.

In this film Herbie has been given over to Stephen W. Burns and his mechanic Charles Martin Smith by previous owner whom we all know was Dean Jones. Of course he did it without telling nephew Burns or Smith about Herbie's capabilities. A bit of time with him and they really do believe that he can win the Grand Prix at Rio.

But before that the little bug gets involved with some counterfeiters played by John Vernon, Richard Jaeckel, and Alex Rocco, a little boy who calls him OCHO played by Joaquin Garay, and the pretentious captain of a cruise ship in Harvey Korman who has the best performance in the film. Burns gets himself involved in a shipboard romance with Elyssa Davalos who is accompanied by her chaperon aunt Cloris Leachman. Korman and Leachman get a little something going themselves though what she sees in him is beyond me. Maybe she just likes the uniform.

Herbie Goes Bananas has some nice location cinematography in the Panama Canal, Tijuana, and Guadalajara in Mexico. And it has two good scenes with Herbie walking the plank as per Captain Korman's orders and later on in a corrida facing a bull with Leachman and Korman inside. The rest of the time it moves at a snail's pace, odd for a Volkswagen that's supposed to win Grand Prix events.

By the way little Joaquin Garay calls him Ocho because he adds the five and three painted on Herbie's side and that's eight in Spanish. So why didn't he just call him Cincuenta Y Tres?