James (age 7): *****. "Five stars. That guy (Buddy Hackett) was hilarious. He liked Herbie so much. I liked it when the bear got in the car. And the guy driving the red car didn't notice. And it was funny when they won the race and it took until night time and they had a huge wheel from a monster truck and those teeny teeny tiny wheels and missing one wheel."
Jupiter (age 5): ***. "Three stars. You know why? I liked the part where the dogs got in the car. It was funny when all the dogs hopped on Herbie. And I liked it when they went down the mine. I really want to go on Thunder Mountain again next time we go to Disney World. I didn't like it because all the fat guy cared about was Herbie. That was mean. He didn't really care about other people except for Herbie."
Justice (age 3): **. "Thirteen. Actually 2 years old. I liked when those guys in Herbie the car got two lost wheels. I didn't like when the bear got in the car. Because they're wild."
Adam: * 1/2. "One and a half stars. Talk about not standing the test of time. It had the production value of a Gilligan's Island episode--fast motion, painted backdrops, zany slapstick music to cue humor that isn't there. Sount effects, whistles,and pops and boings. It's probably those noises I was responding to as a kid, because I've discovered there's no humor there. Maybe they were trying to appeal to both kids and adults. Now when they do that, they make a great kid's movie with adult subtext. Was I as an adult supposed to care about this washed-up race car driver sunk low? Who wanted nothing more...not a sympathetic character. It makes me afraid of all of those other movies I liked as a kid--"The Cock-eyed Cowboys of Calico County," "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." This was clearly a vehicle for Buddy Hackett to be zany as a sidekick, and that part of it worked. And I guess you have the cardboard-cutout villian, and that worked I suppose. But you had a main character who wanted nothing. And why did that chick like him? We should have seen the scene with her and her therapist, or at least her girlfriends. "What do you see in this race car driver? Remember how the pro-surfer treated you?" It depended on the inherent cuteness of the Volkswagon vehicle itself, because they didn't do anything to make him cuter. Buddy Hackett could have put a furry dash mat on him, and he could have lifted it like eyebrows, or he could have moved his windshield wipers once for No, but nothing. It could have been so simple and dare I say, creative.
Mama: *. "I almost gave this two stars, but I've realized on Family Movie Night, nostalgia counts for nothing, when the true nature of a movie is revealed to my more discerning adult eye. This had elements of a love story, the race car driver searching in the San Francisco fog for the spurned car to heavy violins. (When Herbie went out onto the Golden Gate bridge, Adam and I gave each other nervous looks, and sure enough, Herbie tried to, eek, commit suicide over the race car driver's rejection.) And why did Herbie fall in love with this jerk? A washed-up character can be the best kind, and funny too. If I was Herbie, I'd fall in love with the Dude instead of this guy. Also lots of shouting in this movie. "They're being really mean to each other," Jupiter said about our male and female leads. And in the final race sequence, when after twenty minutes, they announced the SECOND leg of the race would start the next day, and we checked the DVD counter against the movie's length ( 1:48) I said, and we still had 20 more minutes of movie, I said, "Anyone want to go to bed?"
"Me," Jupiter said.
"Me," Justice said.
