This game just sort of happened. It evolved itself over time out of nothing. I'm not claiming it's the sort of game that can avert nuclear armageddon by beating a war droid at noughts-and-crosses. It's just a bit of fun.
Strangely addictive though.
It started like this...
Finding Dory by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
There we were, me and the kids, watching Finding Dory (as you do) and they were excited to see the knackered old Beetle sitting on the bottom of the ocean. And it is, undeniably, a nice touch. Yet it got me thinking; why a Beetle? I mean, you expect to see Beetles galore in old period films because they sold genuinely 21 gazilion of them and it was harder to get a long shot on the street in the 1970s that didn't feature a Beetle than one that did. Often several. But this was different.... this was a Pixar film in which someone had coded every single aspect of that Beetle. They'd meant it to be a Beetle, it didn't happen by accident or just drive past as the crew filmed a street scene. They electronically birthed that Beetle because they wanted a Beetle, nothing else.
And then, in the title credits, they did it again
Finding Dory II by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
(BTW, if Hank the Octopus isn't one of your favourite cartoon characters ever then there's something wrong with you). Anyway, now we'd noticed it, you couldn't help but spot them all the time. Some were obviously a nod to the cultural heritage that the Beetle has acquired like perhaps no other car, and perhaps again simply because there were so damned many of them. So when Captain America has to go underground in Civil War, what could be more incognito than a dilapidated People's Car?
Captain America Civil War by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
It actually gains a part in the plot; the cramped interior scarcely able to contain Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the jibes at how old and sketchy the car is. But again, why is it a Beetle? Why not a CROWN Vic or a beige Chevy sedan à la Kojak scenery or any other ubiquibarge?
Captain America Civil War II by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
The more we noticed the phenomenon the more it became a thing for us. The kids would shout "Beetle! I spotted a Beetle" in the middle of the most unexpected of films and we'd have to rewind and confirm their diagnosis. It became known as Big Screen Beetle of the Week. Then we started Whatsapping each other with them in our car fwends group. The strangest thing is that they persist in contemporary filmage as much as in period pieces, there seems no end to directors queuing up to include Adolf's little runabout on their celluloid vignettes. I think it's the sheer number that appear in coded films, computerised ones where someone has had to actually make it from pixels that made me sure beyond doubt that this daft game wasn't going away any time soon. Especially when they were purely incidental to everything that's going on and any old car would have sufficed just as well...
Despicable Me 2 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
Of course, I'm not suggesting that there aren't other cars in films, and yes, I know there's a massive database online that includes every nanosecond glimpse of every car in every film ever. But where's the fun in that? This is only daft fun, it's the thrill of never knowing that makes it gripping and the feeling of reward when that elusive rounded rump is glimpsed disappearing round a street corner in a staging shot... well, it's priceless. And some films definitely offer rewards;
48 Hrs by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
Y'see, 48 Hours is not only a stone cold classic (like most Walter Hill movies), it's got Beetles...
48 Hrs vi by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
...despite being made in the early 1980s when you'd have expected the VWs popularity to be on the wane...
48 Hrs ii by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
....(bonus cool points for window dog!), it's also got not-quite Beetles...
48 Hrs iv by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
...and even the not-quite Beetle, should you pause it for a quick pic, rewards extra with points by suddenly realising there are two actual Beetles in the background!...
48 Hrs v by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
....and just for @&%!£s and giggles, what are the odds of it having my other long-time automotive perversion in it, an actual first generation RX-7!?
48 Hrs iii bonus RX7 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
So that's it. Big Screen Beetle of the Week. It's a thing and it's here to stay. I'll be adding to this bit by bit (we've built up quite a cache of BSBotWs) with some that are blindingly obvious, some that are insanely obscure. Hopefully it might resonate with some of y'all out there. I'll be back in a bit with more, don;t want to spoil you with them all at once
Strangely addictive though.
It started like this...
Finding Dory by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
There we were, me and the kids, watching Finding Dory (as you do) and they were excited to see the knackered old Beetle sitting on the bottom of the ocean. And it is, undeniably, a nice touch. Yet it got me thinking; why a Beetle? I mean, you expect to see Beetles galore in old period films because they sold genuinely 21 gazilion of them and it was harder to get a long shot on the street in the 1970s that didn't feature a Beetle than one that did. Often several. But this was different.... this was a Pixar film in which someone had coded every single aspect of that Beetle. They'd meant it to be a Beetle, it didn't happen by accident or just drive past as the crew filmed a street scene. They electronically birthed that Beetle because they wanted a Beetle, nothing else.
And then, in the title credits, they did it again
Finding Dory II by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
(BTW, if Hank the Octopus isn't one of your favourite cartoon characters ever then there's something wrong with you). Anyway, now we'd noticed it, you couldn't help but spot them all the time. Some were obviously a nod to the cultural heritage that the Beetle has acquired like perhaps no other car, and perhaps again simply because there were so damned many of them. So when Captain America has to go underground in Civil War, what could be more incognito than a dilapidated People's Car?
Captain America Civil War by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
It actually gains a part in the plot; the cramped interior scarcely able to contain Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the jibes at how old and sketchy the car is. But again, why is it a Beetle? Why not a CROWN Vic or a beige Chevy sedan à la Kojak scenery or any other ubiquibarge?
Captain America Civil War II by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
The more we noticed the phenomenon the more it became a thing for us. The kids would shout "Beetle! I spotted a Beetle" in the middle of the most unexpected of films and we'd have to rewind and confirm their diagnosis. It became known as Big Screen Beetle of the Week. Then we started Whatsapping each other with them in our car fwends group. The strangest thing is that they persist in contemporary filmage as much as in period pieces, there seems no end to directors queuing up to include Adolf's little runabout on their celluloid vignettes. I think it's the sheer number that appear in coded films, computerised ones where someone has had to actually make it from pixels that made me sure beyond doubt that this daft game wasn't going away any time soon. Especially when they were purely incidental to everything that's going on and any old car would have sufficed just as well...
Despicable Me 2 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
Of course, I'm not suggesting that there aren't other cars in films, and yes, I know there's a massive database online that includes every nanosecond glimpse of every car in every film ever. But where's the fun in that? This is only daft fun, it's the thrill of never knowing that makes it gripping and the feeling of reward when that elusive rounded rump is glimpsed disappearing round a street corner in a staging shot... well, it's priceless. And some films definitely offer rewards;
48 Hrs by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
Y'see, 48 Hours is not only a stone cold classic (like most Walter Hill movies), it's got Beetles...
48 Hrs vi by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
...despite being made in the early 1980s when you'd have expected the VWs popularity to be on the wane...
48 Hrs ii by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
....(bonus cool points for window dog!), it's also got not-quite Beetles...
48 Hrs iv by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
...and even the not-quite Beetle, should you pause it for a quick pic, rewards extra with points by suddenly realising there are two actual Beetles in the background!...
48 Hrs v by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
....and just for @&%!£s and giggles, what are the odds of it having my other long-time automotive perversion in it, an actual first generation RX-7!?
48 Hrs iii bonus RX7 by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
So that's it. Big Screen Beetle of the Week. It's a thing and it's here to stay. I'll be adding to this bit by bit (we've built up quite a cache of BSBotWs) with some that are blindingly obvious, some that are insanely obscure. Hopefully it might resonate with some of y'all out there. I'll be back in a bit with more, don;t want to spoil you with them all at once
)
The horror.... the horror 
)...
