The Problem With The VW Beetle In Wes Anderson’s Movie ‘Moonrise Kingdom’

I have a contact over at the National Council on Weights and Measures (NCWM) with whom sometimes I’ll reach out to for insider information on what’s going on in the world of standardization of weights and, where applicable, measures, and in return sometimes I’ll clandestinely help to get certain weights and measures that the Council wants to encourage out into the culture. Remember a few months ago when I was referring to the length of things in fractions of linear hogsheads? That was for them.

I mention this because the NCWM is currently working on a large-scale project to penalize artists and creatives for unintentional anachronisms in their content, and they’re going after some big-name people initially to draw attention to the problem and, I’m told by anonymous sources, in the hopes that they can extract some really substantial fines from these people because their Lincoln, Nebraska headquarters desperately needs a new HVAC system and they’d like to get that sorted out before summer.

My contact reached out to me to let me know that they were targeting the well-known filmmaker Wes Anderson. The reasoning for this was that Anderson’s movies tend to be meticulously crafted visually, and if there’s any obvious missteps, they’re either intentional or, if not, need to be addressed for the public good. The movie they wanted me to start with was 2012’s Moonrise Kingdom:

It’s a charming movie and visually, as you can see from the trailer, every shot is carefully composed and crafted to match a very specific aesthetic. The movie is also explicitly said to take place in the year 1965 (stated in the movie at 0:05:14) , which also may be why the NCWM was targeting this movie for possible anachronistic violations: by picking a specific year, a filmmaker is sort of sticking a target on their back.

The NCWM said they got a tip that the violation here would be something I’d definitely notice, and they were right. Right there, at about 1:23:50, I saw it:

Dear lord. What atrocities has this man committed? I’m not talking about the crushing of a perfectly good Volkswagen Beetle with a church spire (actually, it could have been a wrecked Beetle already, I don’t know) I’m talking about using an obvious – perhaps even painfully obvious anachronistic Beetle in a movie said to be set in 1965!

Let’s zoom in a bit more on this scene:

I think most of you out there who are even remotely familiar with VW Beetles will see the significant issues here. Just to spell it out for everyone, the problem here is that this Beetle is from 1971 (possibly 1972) and and and it’s not even a standard Beetle – it’s a Super Beetle!

Specifically, it’s the first generation of Super Beetle, known as the 1302; these were Beetles that had McPherson strut front suspension and a trunk about twice as big as the standard, torsion-bar front suspension Beetle trunk. The 1303 Super Beetle had a larger, curved windshield, as you can see here:

I suppose the real point here is that the Super Beetle was introduced in 1971, and did not exist in 1965.

That’s bad enough; the real thing that frosts my flapjacks is that I think the production design team knew that this car was an anachronism and took some shameful steps to attempt to hide their crime. Specifically, steps that I have noted in this callout diagram showing both the tells of a 1971 (again, maybe ’72– I’d need to see the rear decklid to confirm) Super Beetle and the modifications made to hide it:

Here’s some attempts to disguise the year of this Super Beetle: earlier, all-chrome bumpers with the tubular overriders have been added, which would have been on a ’65 or earlier US-spec Beetle; full-wheel covers seek to mimic the domed chrome hubcaps of earlier cars, and the chrome trim rings hide the brake-cooling slots that would have first appeared in 1966; the red rear side marker reflector has been removed from the side taillight housing, even though the taillights are a general design that wouldn’t be seen until 1968, and in fact are a larger version that appeared in 1971.

They didn’t even bother to hide the (-shaped air extraction vent behind the rear side window (started in 1971) or hide the large front indicators (from 1970 and up). Oh, and as an aside, there’s no engine in that car, but I can let that slide because hopefully it was repurposed to power some other Beetle.

It’s a sloppy, shameful attempt to cover a crime, and these are the men I believe to be responsible:

That picture is especially interesting because it shows the Beetle from a side not seen in the film, and if you look at the taillight, you can see the side marker reflector in place! They only removed it from one side! I can also see it has some aftermarket JC Whitney-style aluminum louvered running boards, but those may have been available in 1965.

I mean, they’re all clearly talented and made an incredibly visually engaging and lovely movie, so I can’t be too mad at them, but you would think that if it was important enough to swap out bumpers and do other sorts of cheats, they could have found a crushed ’65 or earlier Beetle in a junkyard somewhere to use, right?

Anyway, I filed my report with the NCWM. I expect Mr.Anderson will be receiving a terse email soon from NCWM’s AOL account.