Herbie Goes Bananas (1980)

The adorable little VW helps its owners break up a counterfeiting ring in Mexico.

Director:

Vincent McEveety

Writers:

Don Tait, Gordon Buford (characters creator)

Stars:

Charles Martin Smith, Stephen W. Burns, Cloris Leachman

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cloris Leachman	...	Aunt Louise
Charles Martin Smith	...	D.J.
John Vernon	...	Prindle
Stephen W. Burns	...	Pete (as Stephan W. Burns)
Elyssa Davalos	...	Melissa
Joaquin Garay III	...	Paco
Harvey Korman	...	Captain Blythe
Richard Jaeckel	...	Shepard
Alex Rocco	...	Quinn
Fritz Feld	...	Chief Steward
Vito Scotti	...	Armando Moccia
Jose Gonzales-Gonzales	...	Garage Owner (as Jose Gonzalez Gonzalez)
Ruben Moreno	...	Store Owner
Tina Menard	...	Store Owner's Wife
Jorge Moreno	...	Bus Driver

Storyline

Pete Stancheck inherits from his Uncle Jim Douglas a race car being stored in Puerto Vallarta. With his friend Davy Johns (D.J. to his friends) accompanying him to P.V., Pete is dismayed to learn that the car is an older model Volkswagen Beetle. But when Pete and D.J. see what the car can do and learn that it somewhat has a mind of its own, they decide to enter it into the Brazil Grand Primeo formula one race. En route to Rio de Janeiro, Herbie, the car, gets Pete and D.J. into one predicament after another as it tries to help its new friend, a streetwise orphan named Paco, who Pete and D.J. encountered in P.V. and who stowed away in Herbie's trunk. Because of these predicaments, Pete and D.J. end up requiring a quick influx of cash and slyly enlist the help of wealthy Louise Trent and her bookish niece, anthropology doctoral candidate Melissa, to be their financiers. Pete's role in the scheme is to woo the shy Melissa, about which he feels guilty. But initially unknown to all of them...

---

Plot Keywords:

castle thunder | private detective | vehicle driving by itself | car | brazil | 

---

Taglines:

Ole! It's south of the border disorder when.... [UK Theatrical]

---

Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy

---

Did You Know?

Trivia

The rust seen on the car was actually not real rust, it was made using paint, all the rust are painted on the car to give the car a Rusty look. If you look closely, then you will see that all the rust are in same style.

---

Goofs

When Paco in the beginning looks at the film from the wallet, it's a negative strip, a standard orange-brown-sided negative and it's short and folded. When he checks it at the end it has turned into a diapositive strip, long and unfolded. And the plot emphasizes that only 1 film exists.

---

Quotes

Aunt Louise: But, Captain, how can a car release a boy with a key? Explain that.
Captain Blythe: I can't explain that anymore than I can explain the Bermuda Triangle, madam. Nor do I intend to try.
Aunt Louise: Captain, I am the sponsor of that little car. It's going to win the Brazil Grand Primeo.
Captain Blythe: If you can bring that off, madam, I will not only part the Red Sea, I will tint it magenta.
Aunt Louise: Oh, but, Captain. I appeal to you as a woman, a desperate, helpless, single woman.
[Know Captain's feelings]
Aunt Louise: Spare that car.
Captain Blythe: Lorelei and all her sirens ...
[...]

---

Alternate Versions

German DVD version was cut by ca. 1,5 minutes.

---

Connections

Referenced in Delta Farce (2007)

---

Soundtracks

I Found a New Friend
by Frank De Vol

User Reviews

adios Herbie

This was the last Herbie movie to my knowledge. If it wasn't the last, it was defintely the worst. What else do you call a movie when a Mexican child calls Herbie "ocho" ( he adds up Herbie famous number "53" and gets eight). Then this Mexican child does a horrible paint job and starts using Herbie to run a taxi service. In my humble opinion the only reason to watch this film is to see what sort cellouiod trash Disney was putting out before Michael Eisner took over.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

25 June 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

La Coccinelle à Mexico

Filming Locations:

Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Box Office

Gross USA:

$18,000,000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$18,000,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min 93 min (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone Sound Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1