The Love Bug

The Love Bug is a 1997 American made-for-television adventure comedy film directed by Peyton Reed from a teleplay by Ryan Rowe. The fifth installment in the Herbie film series, the film is part remake and part sequel, in that the events of the original 1968 The Love Bug film are repeated while the storyline plots to follow Herbie Goes Bananas (1980). It premiered on ABC in the anthology television series The Wonderful World of Disney on November 30, 1997. The film stars Bruce Campbell and includes a special appearance by Dean Jones, star of the original The Love Bug, tying it to the previous films, while introducing an evil, black Volkswagen Beetle named Horace, the Hate Bug, giving the film a much darker tone than the other films. The film marks the first appearance of Herbie in fifteen years, following the television series Herbie, the Love Bug (1982), which ran for five episodes. The Love Bug was followed by the theatrically released Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005). Plot The narrator, Jim Douglas (Dean Jones), tells the story of Herbie the Volkswagen Beetle, and their adventures together. Cutting to the present-day, Herbie is now owned by an egotistic race car driver and car dealer named Simon Moore III (John Hannah), who does not treat Herbie very well. During a race, Simon insults and calls Herbie a piece of junk, which causes Herbie to rebel against him, and they end up in last place. Simon is not pleased, and throws out Herbie in a junkyard.