"Not Even if the Seats Moved Back" ("Herbie: Fully Loaded")
Herbie the Love Bug (c) Disney
Pencil Marks: It's become an All-American cliché. When a person gets their first automobile there's usually a "first car photo". Sure, not everyone has this memento. There are probably some people reading this thinking I'm nuts. But trust me - tons of people out there have taken pictures of themselves and their first car.
My concept of this piece of art was to have a photograph of Erik posing next to his first car (A.K.A. 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 means of transportation. Dare I say a "Plightmobile"? Of course, since this is a collaboration between Jake and myself, Jake took his own course on the finished picture which really turned out nice.
I must admit though, I traced Herbie off 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. Keep on trucking! - Tony
Ink Smudges: I'm going to skip analyzing my work this time around and instead discuss a question I've had on my mind for a while: 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 makes the equation become impossible.
Now it's true the model was first introduced in the era of the '60s when everyone wanted to make love, stop war, and drink Coca-Cola together with different cultures on grassy 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'd burn their asses off. Plus getting back to an earlier fact I brought up (that of making love alone), a popular piece of wisdom in the 1960's 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 height, for him to be comfortable driving his feet he 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 tried to repent all sins with this newest entry. They got the bodacious, legal age Lindsey Lohan to star, right? Wrong! The only reason for her popularity at the time was her giant 'over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder'. Even if she were substance free, she still couldn't back it out of the driveway without her view being obstructed by her 'air bags' cramped against an up-close dashboard. And considering her romantic lead was the whiney guy from "Jeepers Creepers", it's almost certain any scenes of them making out would start countries at war. If you doubt me, simply look at the trailer when he spoke "Herbie is a CAR"' a delivery so awful even five-year old's were caught saying, "No $h!t, Sherlock!"
No folks, I'm afraid Herbie is as likely to live up to his moniker as a love bug as much as Disney will release "Sound of the South" out of the Disney vault. It will never happen in this lifetime, or future generations. - Jake