By Jamie Miller
“The Witcher” is often regarded as one of the greatest fantasy franchises of all time by many, including yours truly. Having spawned nine books, 15 short stories, a live-action film, three video games, a short-lived tv show and a longer-lived tv show, you can’t say it hasn’t left its impact. And this impact continues to be felt to this day with the release of “The Witcher: Sirens of The Deep.”
“The Witcher” which dropped on Netflix on Feb. 11, takes place in the continuity of the Netflix TV show taking place between episodes five and six. Like so many tales from the franchise before it, it starts off so simple, legendary witcher Geralt of Rivia and his bard friend Jaskier journey to the seaside kingdom of Bremervoord to investigate a murderous monster Geralt was hired by the kingdom to kill. To his chagrin, however, Geralt finds that a non-murderous monster is the least of his problems and in order to prevent a war between Bremervoord and merfolk Geralt will have to ally with a friend from deep in Jaskier’s past and draw deep on his witcher powers and skills to unravel a dangerous conspiracy tied to both races.
The series features the voices of Doug Cockle, best known for voicing Geralt in The Witcher video game series, taking over for Henry Cavill as the titular witcher, a soft-spoken cool-under-pressure killing machine of a man. Joey Batey, known for roles in the likes of “Knightfall” and “Mount Pleasant” reprises his role of Jaskier from “The Witcher” TV show, a loud-mouthed, fast-talking but good-natured and loyal bard later known for writing songs about Geralt’s adventures. Emily Carey, of “Wonder Woman” and “House of the Dragon” fame, voices Princess Sh’eenaz, the princess of the merfolk who unlike most of her kind has no hatred for humans and is in love with the Bremervoord prince and determined to be with him no matter what. Camrus Johnson of “Batwoman” fame lends his voice to Agloval, the Bremervoord prince and beloved of Sh’eenaz. Christina Wren, known for roles in the likes of “Man of Steel” and “Will Trent” voices Essi Daven, a childhood friend of Jaskier, fellow bard and love interest to Geralt. Ray Chase, known for voice work in the likes of “The Seven Deadly Sins” and “Mass Effect: Andromeda” voices Zelest, the illegitimate son of Bremervoord’s king and the half-brother of Agloval with him also being the childhood bully of Jaskier. Mallory Jansen of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” fame lends her voice to the role of Melusina. Sh’eenaz’s aunt, a sea witch who is hated by Sh’eenaz’s mother and is oddly supportive of Sh’eenaz’s relationship with the prince, unlike the rest of her family. Simon Templeman, known for voicing the likes of Loghain in the “Dragon Age” series and Gavin Archer in the “Mass Effect” series as Usveldt, the king of Bremervoord and the father of Agloval and Zelest who is very much against the romance of Agloval and Sh’eenaz but also cares for his son and his feelings. Meanwhile, Anya Chalotra, previously mentioned in my “Creature Commando’s” review as having voiced Circe in that series, provides the voice of Yennefer of Vengerberg reprising her role from the series.
Now what are my thoughts on this series, that’s…complicated, to say the least. On one hand, the movie does many things very well, Cockle was a great choice to voice Geralt, the action is phenomenal if a bit over the top even by “The Witcher” standards though you will never hear me complain about over-the-top action. The animation is top-notch, beautiful and otherworldly and what you would expect from an animated fantasy film. The music is good, the voice acting is all-around great and the ending is pretty decent.
And yet, there are some problems I can’t help but have to mention. Firstly, having merfolk in the movie was an interesting choice given they only scarcely appear in the franchise.. The merfolk also bring with them the problem that whenever they’re on screen, the whole genre of the film seems to shift turning from “The Witcher” to an R-rated version of “The Little Mermaid.” For crying out loud one of them literally has a music number in only one scene and there is no other singing in the film except for the bards. The comparisons to “The Little Mermaid” are not helped by having one of the merfolk being a sea witch drawing obvious Ursula comparisons.
The ending, while touching in one regard, is also unsatisfying in another. One villain gets exactly what they deserve while the other gets off easy. Also, one villain’s motivation doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, all things considered, like watching the film I went over their evil plan over and over again and the math wasn’t mathing, if you will.
But all in all, it wasn’t a bad film. I’d give it seven torches out of 10. If you’re a fan of fantasy works or a witcher fan who likes the TV show you’ll probably like this.
