The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep Review

The foundations of The Witcher and the new film The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, series are classic fairy tales, akin to how Disney Animation brought those tales to life, leading to the modern era of animated features. Andrzej Sapkowski reimagined classic fairy tales, making them tonally darker and using them as the basis for his world. Episode One of Season One of The Witcher primarily draws from the short story The Lesser Evil, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs heavily inspired the short. The latest Netflix animated film, due to the platform this week, also follows this trend.

We open on Geralt of Rivia (Doug Cockle) and Jaskier (Joey Batey) as Geralt, a witcher, is hired to slay an Allamorax on behalf of pearl divers who are being attacked by the creature. While battling the Allamorax, Geralt is pulled into a sea cave, where he encounters a group of mermaids. The mermaids and the Allamorax are struggling to source food due to human interference; the merpeople and other sea monsters are struggling to bring food to the table. Geralt decides to spare the Allamorax; however, this decision only drags him deeper into the political turmoil between humans and merpeople. The prince is infatuated with a mermaid, and pearl divers continue to come under assault. As the prospect of an all-out war looms, Geralt must uncover the truth.

A mermaid and a prince in love is merely the tip of the iceberg regarding The Little Mermaid’s influence on the narrative. There is also a potion brewed by a sea witch which, once consumed, can grant a mermaid legs. Notable influences aside, at its core, the film’s message is that the true monsters are those we create and that humans can also be monstrous. The Allamorax at the beginning of the film is a monster; yet, it is also a natural inhabitant of this world, akin to a lion or a tiger. The Allamorax only attacked the pearl divers because they were harvesting and destroying its food supply solely for the financial gain of procuring the pearls. So, who is truly the monster?

Geralt of Rivia epitomises this morally grey worldview. If you watched season one of the show, you likely recall Jaskier’s hit song, known across the Continent: Toss a Coin to Your Witcher. This song perfectly highlights Geralt’s and all the witchers’ views on solving monster problems; he will do so, but not for free. The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep adapts a 64-page short story, necessitating the expansion or alteration of certain aspects. Initially, the film rarely focuses on the morally grey conflict, delving instead into Jaskier’s past, Geralt maintaining his distance from witch Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), with whom Geralt is magically in love, and the will-they-won’t-they love story between Geralt and Essi (Christina Wren). These subplots bring the film to a sudden halt, leaving me to wonder when we will return to the enthralling narrative of the potential conflict between humans and merpeople.

Geralt is undeniably one of my favourite characters in media, so seeing Doug Cockle return the role after defining who Geralt is in the video games was tantalising to the ears. Doug Cockle will always be the definitive actor for Geralt, and Sirens of the Deep effortlessly showcases this. The rest of the cast, though, ranges from lacking to amateurish. Joey Batey and Anya Chalotra reprise their roles as Jaskier and Yennefer, respectively. Both are great in the TV show, but ultimately, you can tell they are not voice actors. So, when they are in scenes with Doug Cockle, they stand out as being unnatural. Christina Wren as Essi delivers a performance that features a very inconsistent accent, and Camrus Johnson as Prince Agloval, while not terrible, most of his line delivery is very wooden.

Studio Mir does a commendable job with the animation; while not breathtaking or visually striking, it is very consistent. No scene sticks out as being unpolished, and when the action kicks into high gear, the quality doesn’t suddenly change and becomes less detailed. Speaking of which, the action is what kept me hooked when the pacing sagged. Each action scene is fast-paced and features unique choreography and locations, allowing the action to flourish and be the strongest aspect of the film.

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep feels half-baked, featuring the aspects of what I love about The Witcher series and solid animation but never really reaching the highs of the source material or the video games due to dull subplots and inconsistent voice acting. When the credits rolled, all I could think about was that I wanted to replay The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.

★★★

Streaming on Netflix from 11th February / Doug Cockle, Joey Batey, Anya Chalotra, Christina Wren, Camrus Johnson (voices) / Dir: Kang Hei Chul / Netflix