The Love Bug was released on March 13, 1969

The Love Bug tells the story of a Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of his own, who attaches himself to burnt-out wannabe race car driver Jim Douglas (Disney regular Dean Jones). Jim and the car, affectionately dubbed "Herbie" by the quirky Tennssee Steinmetz (comedian Buddy Hackett) become a race car team like no other.
Co-stars Michele Lee, David Tomlinson (Mr. Banks from Mary Poppins), and Hackett all bring charm and breathe personality into their roles. As straight man, Jones does fine in his lead role, a position he got right again and again for Disney.

The Love Bug proved to be hugely successful at the box office, becoming the top-grossing film of the year, even outperforming films like Butch Cassidy and Midnight Cowboy.


Dean Jones credited the film's success to the fact that it was the last live action Disney film produced under Walt Disney's involvement, just two years after his death in 1966. Although Jones tried to pitch him a serious, straightforward film project concerning the story of the first sports car ever brought to the United States, Walt suggested a different and much better car story for him, which was Car, Boy, Girl, a story previously written in 1961 by Gordon Buford.

Car, Boy, Girl, The Magic Volksy, The Runaway Wagen, Beetlebomb, Wonderbeetle, Bugboom and Thunderbug were among the original development titles considered for the film before the title was finalized as The Love Bug.

Herbie competes in the Monterey Grand Prix, which, except for 1963, was not a sports car race. The actual sports car race held at Monterey was the Monterey Sports Car Championships.

Herbie has his own cast billing in the closing credits, the only time this was done in the entire series of films. This is the first of only two cars to ever be credited in a film; the other is Eleanor (a Ford Mustang) from the original Gone in 60 Seconds movie.