Why a sentient Volkswagen Beetle became the most unlikely star in Disney history

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Before Herbie became a cultural icon, Disney held a casting call for a dozen cars. The Volkswagen Beetle was chosen simply because it was the only one that made the crew want to reach out and pet it. This accidental star would go on to define a generation of racing cinema.

The Love Bug, released in 1968, emerged from a 1961 story titled Car, Boy, Girl by Gordon Buford. While producer Bill Walsh and director Robert Stevenson crafted a hit that earned $51.2 million, the production was marked by corporate anxiety. Volkswagen, wary of seeing their vehicle portrayed as malfunctioning or falling apart, frequently dispatched teams of lawyers to the Disney studios to scrutinize the script.

The car's identity was a carefully curated assembly of creative choices. The iconic number 53 was a tribute to Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale, while the name Herbie was lifted from a Buddy Hackett comedy routine. Even the car's performance was a point of technical irony; while the film depicted the Beetle as a powerhouse, the 1961–1965 models were rated at only 40 horsepower by the SAE, or 34 horsepower by the European DIN system.

Despite being a massive commercial success—ranking as the second highest-grossing film of 1969—critical reception was polarized. Vincent Canby of The New York Times dismissed it as a sentimental commercial, while others, like The Monthly Film Bulletin, praised it as a rare injection of life into the Disney studio's output. Today, the film remains a landmark, not just for its box office performance, but for the fact that Herbie received his own cast billing in the closing credits—a unique honor in the franchise.

The production relied on a mix of practical ingenuity and stock footage. Stunt coordinator Carey Loftin choreographed the racing sequences, which were filmed across various California locations, including the Riverside International Raceway and Laguna Seca. While the film avoided overt branding—Volkswagen did not permit the use of their logo—the car's enduring legacy is cemented by the few original vehicles that survive, including car #10, which was recovered from a Pennsylvania warehouse.

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