Herbie the Love Bug

 This is one of those films that I am sure I watched when I was a child, and I'm sure that I enjoyed it. But upon rewatching it an adult, it is problematic. It's problematic thematically, and it's also problematic in terms of the casual racism and dated humour. There are a couple of scenes that are digs against the counterculture movement, which makes sense because the film was released in 1968, but they don't really hold up today. It would be like somebody complaining about Millennials in a movie and then having that movie be watched 40 years later and people would have no idea what you're talking about. Obviously, we know what hippies are, but the way that they make fun of hippies is very specific to that moment in time. The Casual racism involves Chinese characters speaking with bad English accents, but it is slightly subverted when one of them turns around and speaks perfect English, although that character is portrayed as the wise old Asian man stereotype. And his hair has been dyed a very odd shade of gray, so it is obvious that he is not an old man. That's another problem with this movie is that it's quite obvious that a lot of the background scenery was done by backdrops, so there are a few outdoor shots which were done on location, most notably the racing, but when there are scenes inside of San Francisco you can really tell that the background is painted. That kind of distracts some modern audiences, I would say. But the biggest problem about the film which I mentioned earlier is thematically. It ends up being a film about a guy who is not very talented taking advantage of a sentient being to be successful. And in the end, is willing to give up his dreams to save his friend, and his friend ends up sort of dying anyway, although that death is played for laughs and obviously the character doesn't really die as there are four sequels. When I remembered this film I thought that it was one of the better live action films from the 1960s from the Walt Disney Studios but there are better ones, just the most popular.

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