A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I was like a lot of people. I saw 'When the Wind Blows' and I really didn't know anything about it. I saw that one of the voices was provided by Peggy Ashcroft ('A Passage to India' is one of my favorite movies) and was drawn to it.What struck me first was the drawing style. It looks like a children's storybook. It is sort of fitting that this movie looks like a fairy tale because it's story is anything but.The movie takes place in the home of an elderly couple John and Hilda who know that WWIII is emminent but think that the government will have the same jolly, let's-all-pitch-in spirit of WWII. The first half is the two of them preparing for war. They have pamphlets on how to set up a bomb shelter but are totally unprepared for the impact of nuclear weapons.When the bomb hits, the second half deals with their slow realization that the government isn't going to help and the harsher realization that they are slowly dying.The movie is chilling because it looks so sweet. These two lovely people are so naïve, they have no idea what will or has happened to them.The movie is patently for adults. Animated films for adults don't do well and don't get a wide distribution because of the false assumption that all animated films are for children. 'When the Wind Blows' is a disturbing film about a disturbing subject. It puts together two things that seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum, and animated film and a dark social message.Because these two themes mesh together so well, the movie leaves you breathless and in deep discussion afterwards.

I remember seeing this movie on YouTube. I love the use of live action and 2D animation put together and the story was depressing to watch. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union were having a fight with the US and the whole of NATO and that includes England, the country that these two live in. When WWIII started, we see them dying from radiation sickness through the third act of the movie. What the movie was portraying this two couple saying that they'll survive a war if one is coming, as they did during the second world war, showing determination and confidence that they'll survive a nuclear war, which sadly they didn't in the end, it didn't show but you can tell that they were dead. The music sends a depressing chill down your spine and the story makes you feel sorry for the characters. However, despite it being animated, it is not suitable for young kids.

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

"When the Wind Blows", just like "Grave of the Fireflies" it's a heartbreaking animated tale about two innocent characters that had a childish vision of the world, and how the war has terrible effect on their lives.Despite the cute style of animation, that may look as something aimed for children, this movie is pretty disturbing and sad: The scenes aren't very explicit, but many parts of this movie shocked me a lot. However, I love this film, and I would recommend it to anyone (Unless you don't like to see sad movies) because, despite being pretty depressive and dark, it is also beautiful and moving. "When the Wind Blows" is one of the most intense, powerful and poetic films (animated or not) ever made. If you liked films as "Watership Down" "The Plague Dogs" and "Grave of the Fireflies" you couldn't miss this movie.