The Love Bug

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1969	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	103:17 minutes	Other Extras	None
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Director	Robert Stevenson
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Dean Jones Michele Lee David Tomlinson Buddy Hackett Joe Flynn Benson Fong Andy Granatelli
Case	Amaray
RRP	$34.95	Music	George Bruns

    The gist of the story is that Herbie is unloved and unwanted, until Jim, a struggling racecar driver, shows him some compassion. Herbie is so moved by this that he follows Jim home. Through a series of misadventures, Jim comes to own Herbie, and races him. Herbie loves to race, and Jim becomes quite successful on the race track, much to the chagrin of Thorndyke, Jim's arch-rival. Jim, of course, presumes that it is his driving skill that is leading to his success on the track, but we know better, and soon, Jim does as well, though almost not soon enough.

    It all comes down to the final race of the season, where Thorndyke tries to win with a host of dirty tricks. Will Herbie come through?

    There isn't too much to this plot, which is firmly targeted at a younger age range, and the special effects are very dated-looking, but this movie is just a good, fun, clean, lighthearted and enjoyable way to spend a little under two hours. And Herbie is just soooo cute and funny that you just can't help but like him.

Video

    The transfer looked like a 1969 movie. It was very reminiscent of sitting in front of the TV on a lazy Saturday afternoon watching the Saturday afternoon movie matinee, except for the fact that there were no commercial breaks. There was not a great deal of sharpness and clarity in this transfer, but it remained acceptable at almost all times. There was a small section of footage which was quite out of focus between 61:40 - 62:04. There was not a lot of shadow detail, either, but again, this remained perfectly acceptable given the age of the movie.

    The colours were generally well rendered, though with a dated look about them. The opening car racing sequence looked very washed out, but once the movie proper started, the colour returned to a more normal saturation level.

    Occasional MPEG artefacts could be seen during scene transitions, with some blockiness apparent, but nothing that was too severe. There was a small amount of aliasing at times, but once again, nothing to be overly concerned about. At times, there was significant image wobble, though the origin of this problem is unclear - it may have been a result of the telecine process, or it may be inherent in the film itself. The worst point in the transfer for this is from 24:48 - 24:57.

Audio

    Dialogue was easily understood, even though it was quite compressed and frequency limited.

    There were no audio sync problems.

    The score by George Bruns sounded dated but suited the movie just fine.

    The surround channels were not used.

    The .1 channel was not used.

Menu

    The video quality is acceptable given the age of the source material.

    The audio quality is acceptable given the age of the source material.

    The extras - what extras?

Video
Audio
Extras	nil
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
14th September 1999