York Times called it "a decently average Disney film, with a few funny parts and other parts where you would agree to smile if you could. Where the movie tries the hardest, it fails the most, as in a terribly long and trite comedy sequence in a supermarket." Joseph McBride of Variety called it "a pleasant family comedy" that "has the amiable spirit of a tall tale or kiddie story book, and while the plot mechanics are largely predictable, the cast keeps the ball in the air over the 96-minute running time." Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times described it as "a funny and loveable, though familiar Disney live-action fantasy film for football families." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post found the film's pace "sluggish" and added, "After a while it becomes impossible to share the kids' glee in the sort of pratfall you can see coming 10 seconds in advance." He conceded, however, that "there's no point in denying or fighting the kick children get out of even mediocre slapstick." In later media In Herbie Goes Bananas (1980), a partygoer wearing an Atoms jersey is briefly seen during a masquerade ball scene. The 1997 Love Bug repurposes character name "Hank Cooper" for the mechanic (Bruce Campbell) who meets Herbie. Gus can be summoned as a mount in the video games Disney Infinity 2.0 (2014) and Disney Infinity 3.0 (2015) via power disc. In gameplay Gus kicks footballs as his attack. Bill Maher invoked the film during the October 9, 2020 episode of HBO political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher, warning that Donald Trump would attempt to "Gus" the 2020 United States presidential election by exploiting a lack of written laws against certain behaviors. See also Air Bud (1997) and MVP: Most Valuable Primate (2000), films based on the same premise References External links 1976 films 1970s English-language films American football films Walt Disney Pictures films Films about animals playing sports Films set in Los Angeles Films set in hotels Films set in Yugoslavia American sports comedy films Films directed by Vincent McEveety Films produced by Ron W. Miller 1970s sports comedy films 1976 comedy films Slapstick films Fictional mules 1970s American films