Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

amelieproductions As a huge fan of animated (especially 2D animated) films, it's safe to say that I've seen many, both aimed at children, and not so much. I have never seen a film quite like this one. Yeah, there is Grave Of The Fireflies, but... This movie is just... Different. It was heart breaking seeing this elderly couple, so innocent and optimistic having their everyday normal lives obliterated along with everything else a nuclear bomb is capable of destroying. People have commented on how stupid the elderly couple was portrayed in the film, but I felt that they were more depicted as being simply unaware of how big their situation really was, as well as slightly in denial and simply trying to keep calm, trying to go about their used-to-be normal lives to feel okay again. Of course they probably had never experienced anything like that, they didn't know what was coming. But it came alright. And when the bomb was dropped in that film, it was a huge, heart wrenching slap in the face that crap just got... Real.

tomgillespie2002 Once upon a time the United Kingdom had a television station that broadcast and produced some of the most intelligent, innovative, and interesting film and television - both fiction, and non-fiction. In 1981 Channel Four began broadcasting, and showed the best of world cinema, subversive documentaries and fictions, and even funded some of the most experimental animations of the time. Whilst this is hard to believe in this day and age, when this particular channel broadcasts some of the most bile-inducing, inane programming - essentially pumping sewage into Britain's homes (Big Brother, Supernanny, How Clean is Your House et al), - but it genuinely did (honestly!). I remember fondly their late night showcase for avant-garde world animation, Four-mation (where I was also first introduced to the subversive work of Jan Svankmajer), which also showed the best of new British animation.Channel Four's 1982 Christmas programming was delighted with an adaptation of Raymond Briggs's The Snowman, with its kid-friendly story of a snowman come-to-life. (Consequently, The Snowman has been shown every Christmas eve since 1982). Briggs was a well respected children's author, who had also written both 'Father Christmas' and the famous 'Fungus the Bogeyman'. In 1982 Briggs published something altogether different. 'When the Wind Blows' used the same graphic novel, illustrative technique to tell the story of a retired couple, Jim and Hilda Bloggs, living in isolation in rural England, dutifully following ludicrous government issue pamphlets, offering advice on how to "survive" a nuclear attack. When this attack becomes imminent, they construct a shelter out of their own doors, paint the windows white, and even climb into paper sacks. Laughably, the pamphlets used in the film were actual official guidelines sent out to British homes in the 1970's (the UK equivalent of "duck and cover").Whilst not a cheerful story, it was inevitable that this should get green-lit for film production, and director Jimmy T. Murakami (who had previously directed Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), and also the most interesting, and visually innovative section of 1981's Heavy Metal), came on board - with his Japanese roots, he was no doubt attracted to the film for it's anti-nuclear sentiments. The animation in the film has several innovative tricks - it mixes live action objects with the traditional cell animation - giving it a quite unique visual look. After the bomb is dropped we witness the deterioration of this lovable couple - who's naivety, and charming banter are a delight throughout. Veteran actors John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft provide the voices, and give the film real gravitas, and lends the characters their easy, ineffectual magnetism.The films conclusion should leave anyone in tears, and along with Roger Waters's haunting soundtrack, David Bowie also provides the theme song. This is essential, if somewhat alarming, and tragic film making, and one that will stay with you for a very long time. I first saw this when it was broadcast in 1986, and I have never forgotten its impact, and I still believe that this was one of the things that gave me my view of anti institution, and mistrust of any government authority. And whilst western governments and media outlets aren't reporting on nuclear threats the threat is still a very real one. However, after the fall of Soviet communism in the early 1990's meant that the authorities had to create a new dominant fear to control the masses (a necessary evil), and that of course became Middle-Eastern terrorism.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Spikeopath When the Wind Blows (1986) is an animated film directed by Jimmy T. Murakami and based on the graphic novel of the same name written by Raymond Briggs. It features the serene voices of John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft who voice Jim and Hilda Bloggs, a retired old couple living in the Sussex countryside. When the threat of Nuclear War starts to loom ominously, the stoic couple build a shelter in their home and set about storing provisions suggested by the government pamphlets. But do they, or anyone else, really understand the fall out of a nuclear strike?.There was a time in the 1980s when Nuclear War was a distinct possibility, paranoia was rife and adult folk actually started to contemplate the end of humanity. Film makers were quick to tap into the topic and produce movies to further stir those paranoid juices. America produced the dated but very impacting The Day After in 1983, with the film causing Ronald Reagan to reevaluate his Country's nuclear arms policy, while in 1984 the UK gave the cinema world the bleakly shattering Threads. A year prior to The Day After shaking the boots of those watching it, Raymond Briggs, author of the delightful The Snowman, was moving into more adult territory with his work. Propelled by a sense of loss for his parents, whom the Bloggs' are based on (they had featured in his Gentleman Jim 1980), he was inspired to write When the Wind Blows after watching a BBC television programme about nuclear contingency. Thus the film version was to arrive in 1986. Naturally in animated form, so as to simultaneously entice and awaken the kids of the day to Nuclear War possibility and the effects of such.When mooching around for some back story on Briggs and how he came to write it, I came upon a review for the film that chastised the characters for being stupid! Well it's more stoic naivety than stupidity say I, and it's that that drives When the Wind Blows forward. The stupidity comes with the government instructions in how to cope with such a nuclear attack. That these two amiable old pensioners, survivors of the last World War no less, can't grasp the seriousness of the situation is not stupidity, leaflets handed out gave hope that one could survive such an event. As they, as charming an old couple you could wish to meet by the way, go about their business out in the quaint countryside, they show a tender bond that can't be broken, not even by what they think is just the latest War. It's very much a we shall overcome attitude that gains emotional weight as the fall-out starts to take hold and our adorable couple become ill. Come the finale, all the acerbic touches and the underlying message at the film's core, hits home hard, yet Murakami still manages to keep it tender enough, ultimately doing justice to Briggs' excellent literary work.As potent now as it was back in the 80s. Lest we forget that the threat of War, nuclear or otherwise, is never far away from us all. 9/10

Ali Catterall You'd think today's kids would have some measure of respect for their own mortality - so why do they apparently remain so fearless? Well, unlike the 1970s and 1980s generation, they aren't continually being scared stiff.Consider the evidence: scary kids' telly with scary theme tunes; the potential for drowning in a pre-Thames Barrier London; the daily possibility of being blown to bits by the IRA; icebergs with the voice of John Hurt giving us Aids; heroin screwing us up (or at least giving us unsightly acne). And the granddaddy of all bogeymen: da bomb.Permeating all aspects of pop culture, from 'Two Tribes' to Threads, the ridiculously real threat of nuclear annihilation gave us all the screaming abdabs - not helped by Jimmy T Murakami's adaptation of Briggs' graphic novel 'When The Wind Blows', a darkly satirical riposte to those fatuous 'Protect And Survive' leaflets (and an exact photo negative of Disney's 1957 propaganda cartoon Our Friend The Atom).For Jim and Hilda Bloggs, taking a few doors off their hinges and climbing into a brown paper bag should be enough to ensure their post-holocaust survival. After all, the government wouldn't lie to us. Would they?