Forging ahead on the Summer of Love Bug, we're wrapping up the core four original movies with HERBIE GOES BANANAS. Though at this point we have to wonder if Disney ever really understood what the appeal of this franchise was. While our hosts loved the earlier installments for their willingness to commit to the concept of a little car with a big heart, their over-the-top characters, and out-sized but still believable hi-jinks; this latest movie does pretty much the opposite of all of those. The hi-jinks are so over-the-top they jump right over incredulity. They've doubled down on the number of characters but made each of them a fraction as interesting, to the extent that not even comedy legends Harvey Korman or Cloris Leachman can save the movie. And Herbie doesn't even go by Herbie for 99% of the film's run time! So as Vicky, Nolan and Jill soldier on in this series, we can only hope the latter two, standalone entries in the franchise hold more promise.
