The Colour of Nuclear Nightmares (YouTube video review)
By: Neill Dehaan
Tags: Review, Nuclear, YouTube, Kurzgesagt

If our nuclear nightmares ever come true, will we see events in the most garish, brightest colours we could have ever imagined? If so, this animated video of nuclear global annihilation facts might be a foretaste of how things are going to look — at least colour-wise anyway.

The producers of this video, the ‘Kurzgesagt — In a Nutshell’ YouTube channel, purport to tell us what could happen if all the 15,000 nuclear weapons currently on earth were to be used at the same time — a pleasant thought as you savour your Sunday lunch I know; however, the way the video explains this is through the medium of cartoons. And when I say cartoons, I’m not talking about the classic Da Vinci style sketches of antiquity but the boldest, brightest purple, blue, green and yellow shapes that flit around the screen making all kinds of dazzling visual magic.

Thankfully, there is some humour in the video to contain our feeling of desperation while listening to the horrific information the narrator pumps out at the rate of 30 fpm (facts per minute). It is engaging but also exhausting — my only real criticism of this animation. This video is worth a second, third and fourth watch because there is so much going on that you are sure to have missed some details either in the pictures or the voiceover on the first go around. The cartoon characters are basic 2D representational shapes drawn in an easy-to-understand manner. It’s just the colours — oh the colours, oh my eyes!

I love the little touches like Rio’s famous Christ the Redeemer trying to balance on the mountaintop, the Empire State Building constructed of sticks of TNT, a friendly bird being vaporized and that well-known, yellow, plastic bath duck shown as a future archaeological find.

I still can’t quite get to grips with what I think about someone describing the death of the human race and the transformation of the planet’s existence as we know it accompanied by the kind of pictures that look like they were made by an Angry Birds video game designer on acid. It made me nauseous but at the same time, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the jaunty graphics (birds looking through periscopes and birds wearing spacesuits are entertaining and cute even if they are studying whether the nuclear fallout has reduced to an acceptable level).

This video’s clear aim at education using raw data rather than any particular form of proselytizing should be understood by YouTube viewers of all ages and if younger people are more drawn towards cartoons, it can only be a good thing to help them understand the importance of the monstrous mushroom-cloud weapons within our midst.

You may be thinking that this will be a depressing watch and tempted not to view this video but that would be a mistake. It may be incongruous to mix the end of the world with cheery cartoons in the way these producers do but that makes it all the more memorable. Even if you think it will make you worry far too much and lose sleep thinking about the consequences of some lunatic with a big button, and possibly another one with an even bigger button, you should view it and tell others about it too. The education of us all on this topic is a necessary evil.

VERDICT: Take into your nuclear bunker and view but probably avoid the popcorn.

ou