HBO Max Cuts Another Disney Movie

Another Disney movie just left HBO Max as the streaming giants work to consolidate their catalogs and call their in-house IP back home. The shuffle on Thursday, March 31 took Herbie: Fully Loaded off of HBO Max. The movie is now available to stream on Disney+.

Herbie: Fully Loaded has been available on HBO Max for some time now, but that era has come to an end. The movie left this week when HBO Max did its monthly refresh of titles, along with all the other major streamers. The film is available on Disney+ which makes sense since Walt Disney Pictures was behind it back in 2005 when it first came out. It is also available to rent or purchase digitally on major stores like Amazon Prime Video, iTunes and YouTube.

Whether it’s worth seeking out is another question, of course. Herbie: Fully Loaded was a box office success, but it was not a critical darling in its time and it has not grown into a cult classic either. The movie has a 41 percent positive score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this writing, with 143 reviews accounted for. The audience score is slightly lower at 39 percent, with over 100,000 self-submitted ratings.

“Herbie: Fully Loaded is a decent kids movie that is pretty undemanding for adult viewers,” reads the critical consensus. That’s certainly not horrible by any means, but it actually has a pretty negative connotation when you give it some thought. Herbie: Fully Loaded was a revival of the Herbie, the Love Bug franchise, and without something to keep the adult audience engaged, it could not be the franchise vehicle that studio executives were likely hoping for.

Herbie, the Love Bug premiered in 1968 and made periodic theatrical appearances for the next four decades. There was Herbie Rides Again in 1974, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo in 1977, Herbie Goes Bananas in 1980 and The Love Bug in 1997. Herbie: Fully Loaded was only tangentially connected to these other movies, if at all.

The film starred Lindsay Lohan as the youngest member of a family steeped in racecar culture. She gets Herbie from a junkyard as a college graduation present and gradually discovers its mystical powers. She also discovers belatedly that the car has feelings and must be treated with respect and friendship to work.

Those interested can find Herbie: Fully Loaded on Disney+ or on digital stores for rental or purchase. At the time of this writing, there seem to be no plans to revive the Herbie franchise again.