Herbie Fully Loaded is a long awaited return to one of Disney's more successful franchises, centering on the eponymous Herbie, a VW Beetle with a life of its own. Following the success of Herbie The Love Bug (1969), the studio continued the series through to the early 90s. But Herbie has been in semi-retirement ever since.
Now, the irrepressible 'Love Bug' has been souped up and sent out onto the track again, with newly minted superstar Lindsay Lohan at the wheel. Joined by co-stars Michael Keaton and Matt Dillon, Lohan will bring a new audience to the character, as Maggie Lohan, a young girl who secretly wants to be part of her family's NASCAR legacy, in spite of her Dad's protestations. NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) is one of America's fastest-growing spectator sports; a notoriously male dominated sport. But Maggie Peyton is determined to fight off the competition and stay ahead of the pack, with a little help from Herbie.
Director Angela Robinson wanted a distinctly 'retro' feel to the movie:
"I remember loving Herbie when I was a kid and watching it on TV. But I was shocked that everyone I talked to remembered the films. The nostalgia for Herbie extended a lot further than I initially anticipated. But luckily I had it in my take that I thought the way to bring Herbie back was to stay as true to the original character of Herbie as possible. My first decision was not to make him CG"
Although she was charged with the task of reinventing the franchise, Robinson was determined not to lose the charm of the original films: "I went and watched all the old Herbie movies and the style of comedy is so charming. And I thought that was what people really love; that is so so lo-fi and he is a character. So I thought you should bring back the old character and try to figure out all of his stuff and then have a whole new, exciting world. But I was really trying to balance the nostalgia with introducing it to a new generation of kids and teenagers." she says, adding, "I feel alienated from all the large overuse of CGI in the movies" So Robinson chose to use traditional approach to effects. Four puppeteers operated Herbie, giving the film the old fashioned feel the director was seeking. She estimates that 75% of the film's effects are mechanical; Quite a triumph in the era of big budget CGI blockbusters.
Robinson was well aware that the film also had to be fast-paced and exciting. The story culminates in a fast and furious NASCAR race, complete with thousands of spectators. "I said it should be spectacular and exciting and I want people to cry and laugh. Then everybody had to interpret that into 23 cameras and this much film stock. That was definitely the most challenging part of making the movie."
In order to experience the bone-rattling speed of competitive racing, Lohan was sent to the Richard Petty Driving Experience, riding shotgun with an experienced stock car driver, at speeds of up to 150mph. " When I first got in, I was quite frightened," she says "I was sitting there and gripping onto the sides of the seat. But then it gets so hot you feel it through the gloves. It was really scary because you get very close to the wall. So you feel like you're actually going to crash into it and there's nothing you can do. But after that feeling, you feel like, 'I'm glad I did that, it was a great experience!' It was very exhilarating, so it was fun." The next challenge for Lohan was interacting with her co-star. "At first I thought it was silly. It's like, how am I going to talk to a car? But I wanted to bring the relationship to life and have people really see how cute Herbie could be... it's kind of like a pet in a way."
19-year-old Lohan's next role will see her play opposite Meryl Streep in Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion, a prospect that excites Lohan "I want to find things that are a bit darker and edgier and that have a stretch. Everyone looks for that in their life. But it's all about the timing."
During the filming of Herbie Fully Loaded, Lohan worked under the intense scrutiny of the world's press. In particular, a rumour began to circulate about the filmmakers digitally reducing Lohan's curves, to maintain the film's 'family movie' status. Lohan finds the rumors more than a little unfair: "People have a lot of time on their hands, it seems. I don't know what I did to deserve people saying those things about me."
And, as for the rumours? "Oh, goodness gracious... what do you think? To go through every scene... do you know how much money that would cost, first of all? And secondly, to go through every scene, that would take so much time... that is so silly."
Robinson found she was also dragged into the media frenzy surrounding Lohan: "I have no idea how those things come about. She could not blink without someone sending me an email. It was totally disconcerting. I was totally in the eye of the storm. I am so focused on making the movie that I was pretty clueless about the momentum that her celebrity was generating from the start to finish of making the movie. When we started she wasn't 'a movie star'. She had done Freaky Friday, Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen and Mean Girls had not come out - and I kept thinking this would break but it kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I remember it was weird that I would read stuff about myself on the internet and I didn't say that, I didn't do that, it didn't happen. I think it is a massive game of telephone. Some third party gives their interpretation of something which then gets told to somebody else and then it becomes something that sometimes is right and sometimes is totally wrong."
Michael Keaton takes the role of Maggie's Dad, Ray Peyton Snr. "I'm a sound driver," muses Keaton "I'm just a really fast driver." The actor has owned two Beetles in the past, and he clearly remembers buying the first, and attempting to bargain with the previous owner: "He wanted $500; and, being the sound businessman that I am, I talked him down to $495."
The refreshingly candid Keaton has been on somewhat of an extended hiatus for a few years. He claims he got to a stage some time ago where he lost a certain amount of enthusiasm for his craft. "I think I was becoming boring as well as bored." Now he's back on form, appearing in several upcoming releases, while developing a project with the team behind White Noise, the hit supernatural thriller that brought him back into the limelight last year.
Keaton was happy to tackle the role of Maggie's stoical father, Ray Peyton Snr: "He didn't seem to me to be a whiner and a complainer." He is also pleased to be part of a 'classic Disney movie', a sentiment shared by the films director, who hopes the film will become "part of the Disney pantheon of films.Kids will watch it over and over and in 20 years it will be re-released". If the reaction of the children in the audience at last week's press screening is anything to go by, this will be a winning addition to the Disney cannon. With a well-chosen cast, a snappy script and elegantly choreographed race sequences, Herbie Fully Loaded is a classic family movie with some new tricks up its sleeve.
Zeb Lamb
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