When The Wind Blows (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

Is When The Wind Blows Trash or Treasure?

Blu-ray Distributed By: Severin Films / April 21, 2020

“There have been enough post-holocaust nuclear winter films to constitute a genre” says Time Out, “but there has never been anything quite like this.” Three decades after it first shattered audiences worldwide, Severin Kids is proud to present the animated classic about an elderly couple – voiced by Academy Award® winners Sir John Mills and Dame Peggy Ashcroft – attempting to survive the aftermath of a nuclear war. Directed by Jimmy T. Murakami (HEAVY METAL, BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS), adapted by Raymond Briggs from his acclaimed graphic novel, and featuring an original score by Roger Waters with title song by David Bowie, experience what Rock! Shock! Pop! calls “a fascinating achievement in filmmaking, and one that remains timeless more than 30 years after its creation.”

Jimbo’s Take (4 / 5)

When The Wind Blows is the second film released as part of the Severin Kids brand, a film line dedicated to releasing weird children’s films. Unlike their first Severin Kids release, The Peanut Butter Solution (which perfectly epitomizes ‘kindertrauma’ cinema), When The Wind Blows absolutely IS NOT A CHILDREN’S MOVIE! It is an animated film for adults directed by Jimmy T. Murakami, the man responsible for Heavy Metal. And that’s an animated movie with nudity, sex, and tits bigger than a human head.

Even though When The Wind Blows is not as explicit as Heavy Metal, I still imagine some stupid parent seeing the Severin Kids logo, and letting their kids watch this unattended. Look at it this way. If your kids are old enough to understand a nuclear scare film like Threads, or The Day After, then they can handle When The Wind Blows.

With that public service announcement out of the way, let’s get to the movie.

When The Wind Blows is adapted from Raymond Briggs graphic novel of the same name. Briggs is probably most famous for his children’s book The Snowman. After watching the television broadcast of Threads, a friend joked with Briggs that his next book should be about nuclear war. It began as a joke, but when Briggs couldn’t shake the idea he decided that nuclear war would be the subject of his next book.

He based his main characters after his parents. Jim and Hilda are our protagonists: simple, innocent, country-folk who love their country and trust their nation’s motivations implicitly. They have a somewhat romanticized perception of World War II and assume that a nuclear war will play out similarly. They make proper preparations per the governmental pamphlets, creating a make-shift bunker out of doors and pillows in their living room, painting their windows white, wrapping themselves in paper bags etc. Basically following all of these absurd ‘survival tips’ that were actually suggested by the government, but prove completely useless.

After the bomb drops, the drama plays out very similarly to Threads. Jim and Hilda sit around their devastated house, waiting for the authorities to arrive and help restore order. As things get worse, and their bodies begin to deteriorate from radiation poisoning, their high-spirits slowly falter as well.

The story is simple, but effective. And the viewing experience is great whether you’re watching for social justice affirmation, or as pure horror escapism. I’m confident the filmmakers would prefer audiences be moved to social justice activism, but I suspect many will watch and appreciate When The Wind Blows superficially.

The Tech Stuff (4 / 5)

I imagine the one aspect that will prove most striking to viewers is the animation techniques employed to bring When The Wind Blows to the screen. Jimmy Murakami uses a blend of traditional cell animation drawn over a live action model set. The effect is impactful and memorable, bringing more three dimension texture to the small farmhouse.

The Severin blu-ray appears to use the exact same transfer previously used on the 2014 blu-ray from Twilight Time. But this is good news since that transfer was so strong. I’ve seen some online discussions about debris and other anomalies in the frame, but this a byproduct of the varying animation techniques and should be embraced as part of the artistic experience. Learn to love film grain, I say. But I doubt anyone will complain about the color pallet and line detail of the image. Overall, I’m very happy with the way the movie looks in my home theater.

The movie’s soundtrack is minimal, but the blu’s DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix produces another authentic representation of the experience. Dialogue is clear throughout. When the movie does need to add a little punch with isolated sound effects and Roger Water’s music cues, the blu-ray represents those moments especially well during the bombing or one of Jim and Hilda’s many whimsical imaginary sequences.

Extras (4 / 5)

If you’re one of the lucky 3000 who snagged the ultra-limited Twilight Time blu-ray of When The Wind Blows in 2014, I have some bad news for you. Your blu-ray ain’t so limited anymore. More than that, you now have fewer special features than this not-limited release from Severin Films…I mean Severin Kids.

New to the Severin release:

Protect and Survive: Public Information Film Designed to be Broadcast When a Nuclear Attack Was Imminent
(2) Trailers

Legacy Special Features:

Jimmy Murakami: Non Alien – Feature Length Documentary About the Film’s Director
The Wind and The Bomb: The Making of WHEN THE WIND BLOWS
Audio Commentary with First Assistant Editor Joe Fordham and Film Historian Nick Redman
An Interview with Raymond Briggs
Isolated Music and Effects Audio Track

Here’s the good news for the Twilight Time folks. The new Severin extras aren’t worth the double dip. The Protect and Survive public information films are fascinating as a glimpse into the paranoia and mental state of people under the fear of nuclear war in the 80s. But they’re not critical to learning anything new about When the Wind Blows. The rest of the legacy extras are fantastic and, in total, provide a well rounded view of the making of the film.

Trash or Treasure? Overall Recommendation

Do not buy When The Wind Blows for your children. And the people who made it will tell you just as much on the documentaries and audio commentary. Why Severin chose to release it as a Severin Kids title is a mystery to me. I can only assume they’re trying to be a sarcastic and have a little fun. We’ll know for certain when we see what else gets released under the line.

That aside, When The Wind Blows is excellent. It’s about as entertaining as dreary films get. “Entertaining” is rarely the word you would use to describe a nuclear holocaust film, but When The Wind Blows manages to be light enough that you won’t feel like blowing your brains out at the end, but retains a level of influence and heft that makes you take the subject matter a bit more serious beyond pure enjoyment.

When The Wind Blows is Treasure among the rubble of radioactive waste.