"Not Even if the Seats Moved Back" ("Herbie: Fully Loaded")
Pencil Marks: It's become an "All-American" cliché; something that almost everyone has but never really notices. When a guy gets a first car there is usually a "first car photo". Sure not everyone has this memento, there are probably some people reading this and thinking I’m nuts. But trust me - there are tons of people out there with pictures of themselves and their first car.
My "concept" of this week's art was to have a photograph of Erik posing next to his first car (AKA Herbie). The photograph would have been laying on piles of papers and pencils, like it was resting on a desk at work or home. A simple, photo of Erik and his first car - the Plightmobile.
Of course since this year is a collaboration between Jake and myself, you can see Jake took his own course on the finished picture. And it really turned out nice. That is a part of why Jake and I are doing each of this years pictures together, so we can see where someone else can take our ideas.
I must admit though, I traced Herbie off of a picture from the internet. There is some residual guilt about it, but the picture had to get done, and I just cannot draw cars (the picture for "The Italian Job" not to be considered).
In the end I cannot fault either Jake's or my approach. Looks good, lets keep on truckin.... - Tony
Ink Smudges: I'm going to skip critiqing my work this time around and instead discuss a question I've had on my mind for a long time now: why is Herbie called the 'Love Bug'? VW Beetles are too compact to allow any intimate movements between two (or more) individuals of average 5 feet 9 inch height to smooch much less go past first base. Alone it's borderline, but anything more than that number makes the equation become impossible.
Now it's true the model was first introduced in that era of the '60s where everyone wanted to make love, stop war, and drink Coca-Cola together with different cultures on hills. But hippies were still of average height and considering most enjoyed making love in the bask of the sun, even if they did it on top of the uncomfortable arched roof of the car, they would burn their asses off. Also getting back to an earlier point I brought up (that of making love alone), a popular piece of wisdom in the 1960s was, and I quote, "One is the loneliness number you can ever do." Back then, song was practically gospel.
Now hold on you say. Neither of these examples are really about the classic 1968 Disney film. Well, this is where my opinion really hits home. The movie starred Dean Jones, who even I will admit was a handsome man. But being 6 feet 3 inches tall, way past the average, in order for him to be comfortable driving, his feet would have to have been sticking through Herbie's floorboards. What about his lovely co-star Michele Lee? Come on people! Her scenes with Dean were filmed on a sound stage inside a gutted out beetle. Plus everyone can admit there wasn't any real chemistry between the two. But perhaps the biggest contradiction to the entire 'Love Bug' hoax - Buddy Hackett. The man was arguably one of the funniest comics to ever walk the Earth (God rest his soul) but he was certainly no Dean Jones. Then again, he WAS more handsome than his replacements in the sequels: Don Knotts and a Hawaiian kid (and do I really need to go into Don Knotts?)
But Jake, Buena Vista is repenting all sins with this newest entry. They got the bodacious, legal age Lindsey Lohan starring, right? Wrong! The only reason for her popularity is her giant 'over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder'. She couldn't even back it out of the driveway without her view being obstructed by her 'air bags' being cramped against an up-close dashboard. And considering her romantic lead is the whiney guy from "Jeepers Creepers", it's almost certain any scenes of him making out would start countries at war. If you doubt me, simply take a look at the trailer when he speaks "Herbie is a CAR"; a delivery so awful that even five-year olds were caught saying, "No $h!t, Sherlock!".
No folks, I'm afraid Herbie is as likely to live up to his moniker as much as Disney will be able to make a decent CGI movie without Pixar's help. It just won't happen in this lifetime, or for future generations. - Jake