Quand souffle le vent

This cartoon is not for children; it should not even be for adults as well, but it is a grim reminder of what could have been (and what might still be) if we are not vigilant as civil human beings on this planet. The best nuclear holocaust film since Hiroshima shows us the gradual breakdown of a lovely old couple in the English countryside after a nuclear exchange. It reminds us there are no winners in a nuclear war. The cartoon is described highly inaccurately by IMDB as a comedy. The word comedy and nuclear war should never be used in the same sentence. It is a drama and a tragedy of the highest order. Please fix this outrageous description, despite a few weak attempts at humor by the characters.

This film is an amazing contrast: its extremely dark subject matter is totally belied by the beautifully-drawn backdrops and sweet cartoon style. As adult animations are so rare this style grabs you at once, and it is impossible not to be gripped. Anyone who doesn't remember the Cold War should note that the advice about the doors and painting the windows white was the true advice at the time. Where this film is so effective is its perfect charicatures of elderly folk determined to keep the British stiff upper lip, with no idea about nuclear weapons. My grandparents are exactly like this couple, I could see my nan also bringing in the washing during the four-minute warning. We never see the couple's son but his refusal to adhere to the government's "Protect & Survive" advice, singing the Tom Lehrer song down the phone to his father, is a far more realistic attitude towards what is about to happen. Living only 12 miles from London when I first saw this film I was inclined to agree with the son (and still do). Although the geopolitical map of the world is different now this is still an immensely valuable film as it shows what the risks were during the Cold War and is a chilling reminder that although the Cold War may be over, the weapons are still here. It could not be more different in presentation to the equally brilliant but far more horrifying Threads - but the message is the same.

I remember when this was released in the cinemas in 1986 in the UK. It had a fairly small release, yet attracted a lot of publicity. I didn't see it till it was on TV one Christmas - not the right time to show such a film. I was still only eleven or twelve and found it far more disturbing than any Nightmare On Elm Street, Poltergeist or American Werewolf that I'd seen. The fact that the couple are so naive and innocent along with the sweet, old-fashioned comic-book style animation really manipulates the viewer so cleverly, that when the bomb hits and the true tone of the film reveals itself, the viewer is caught off guard just like the innocent couple are. You are plunged into the dark, deathly tone of the storyline and compelled to watch in the hope that this sweet couple will survive, whilst at the back of your mind, always knowing that they have little time left. It still has the same effect now on a third or fourth watching. It's so disturbing to see, yet something so compelling that you cannot turn away or turn off. As an historical piece of eighties cold war/anti-nuclear protest filmmaking, this is a timeless film that should be studied as part of history education when it comes to the 2080's and the world looks back a hundred years on a part of the 1980's that weren't so optimistic. This is a unique film that stands alone in terms of animation and stands out from all the typically optimistic, big and bright blockbusters of the eighties.

This is a film you will never forget. I watched it as a teenager expecting something soppy and sentimental (it was made by some of the same people who made the Snowman, a Christmas tale featuring the chorister Aled Jones).

John Mills is superb as the male character, his voice carries the echoes of his former glories as hero, officer type and all round good guy. With lavish casting, animation and soundtrack the plot is given a painful intensity.

Instead my family were treated to horror of the worst kind. A horror that deals with ordinary comfortable society. The two lovely elderly characters are my grandparents, my neighbours. We see them crumble and disintegrate in the nuclear aftermath. They prepare cheerfully for a nuclear war and wait helplessly in the fallout for a rescue which will never come.

Don't watch it with your parents, you will cry and be reminded about it for years afterwards.

Subjects don't come much bigger than total species extinction and in the mid-80s, the imposing shadows thrown by the superpowers' volatile arsenal of nuclear warheads pretty much blackened the entire planet. With last-grip, nerve-stretched lunacies like Mutually Assured Destruction dominating US and Soviet policies, the standoff also had the vinegary whiff of desperate farce about it. War is hell but at least there are winners. In a nuclear conflict, everybody - and everything - loses. One big bang and we all fall down. Or, in the case of When The Wind Blows, fall-out.

While Mick Jackson's telemovie Threads remains the screen's most potent account of mass panic on apocalypse day, this British to-the-frame adaptation of Raymond Briggs' graphic novella is unquestionably the most humane. Say hello and wave goodbye then, to Jim and Hilda, our naive retired home counties couple who, on hearing of an imminent World War III, set about merrily obeying the ridiculous instructions from government protect and survive pamphlets. They whitewash the windows (to shield the radiation), stock up on supplies (a tin of Christmas pudding) and cheerfully anticipate a Blitz-style cosy-up sipping Olvaltine under Anderson shelters.

At first, it plays out like a black comedy - just as the bomb hits, dim Hilda goes to get the washing in - but as the insidious crackle of fall-out settles and the sickness sets in, the movie reveals its true nature: an unbearably intimate, gently accentuated tragedy with a tenacious pacifist streak. Blending 2D cells with 3D modelling, director Jimmy Murakami is technically adventurous but crucially, his connection to Briggs' material is total. In fact, with its working class nuances, droll dialogue and mundane aura , you sense that if Mike Leigh made cartoons, the results wouldn't be too far from this.