The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep (2025)

 

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep (2025)

6/10

Starring the voice of  

Doug Cockle

Joey Batey

Anya Chalotra

Christina Wren

Emily Carey

 

Directed by Kang Hei Chul

 

I enjoyed this animation, and I can see why some people might not. If you didn’t like the books and only enjoyed the video games, there’s a good chance you won’t like this animation either, because its storytelling feels much more like the books.

The animation itself is well produced, and you’ll love the voice casting—they brought in some of the voice actors from the game, and they all did a great job. One issue I had, though, was the lack of depth in the story. It was written as if certain events had already happened, and we were just supposed to accept that and move forward. At first, that wasn’t a problem, but when I saw how the prince and the mermaid princess (Agloval and Sh'eenaz respectively) interacted, I had a lot of questions.

The movie has a Disney’s Little Mermaid feel, which I didn’t like. The plot was also predictable, and it was frustrating to be able to guess who would die, who the villain was, and how things would play out (regardless of the changes made from the book, it still was predictable). The Little Mermaid vibe made it even more obvious for anyone watching to be able to know that the villain would try to steal the prince from the mermaid princess, via the Little Mermaid style switch.

The story is based on A Little Sacrifice by Andrzej Sapkowski. I’ve read the book, and I noticed a lot of changes—especially in how the lovers tried to be together and how they got together in the end. Also, concerning the war dynamics and the villain, there are changes. Many of these changes were likely made for cinematic effect, and since the original was a short story, they had to expand it. So, you have to cut the writers some slack.

The animation starts with Geralt and Jaskier hunting a creature that Geralt has been paid to kill because it’s believed to have harmed humans. Just as he’s about to kill it, some mer-people tell him the creature is innocent. Believing them, he spares it—leaving him and Jaskier without money.

Jaskier takes the first job he can find, playing at the king’s court, where he reunites with old friends and meets Essi. She has a thing for Geralt, having admired him after hearing all about his adventures. But as the plot unfolds, we’re thrown into a war. Humans are being killed by sea creatures, and they want revenge on the mer-people who run the sea. Geralt is hired to uncover the truth, and as he digs deeper, it becomes clear that someone is pulling the strings to push humans and mer-people into war.

This adult animation was fun to watch. The pacing is a bit slow at times, but the fight scenes are well done.

I recommend it if you’re a fan of the books.