The Witcher: Sirens Of The Deep (2025) Dir: Kang Hei-chul
- Ridley Coote
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Instagram post:
Having recently watched the other animated Netflix film set in the world of 'The Witcher', I was interested in checking out this latest venture, from director Kang Hei-chul. I decided to keep my expectations fairly low, but figured it would at least be an entertaining film regardless of overall quality.
I didn't like the animation style anywhwre near as much as the one used in the 'Nightmare Of The Wolf' film. It just didn't look quite as polished or detailed, which was a disappointment for me, considering this was also made by Studio Mir, who did the aforementioned other film. This isn't to say that the film looked inherently bad, but the inevitable comparisons definitely did not work on its favour.
The film went to extreme lengths to make sure the audience understood that it was most-assuredly connected to the live-action Netflix series, as well as the rest of the canon. I don't have an issue with this, in and of itself, but the way it was done was so on-the-nose that it was quite irritating. The writing had no nuance whatsoever.
The story was quite weak, in my opinion. I found it pretty dull. There were some good elements, sure, but it didn't feel particularly unique. At best, it felt like a substandard 'Little Mermaid' narrative, albeit with a lot more violence. The pacing was at least fairly good, so the film didn't drag much.
Doug Cockle is most known for his work voicing the character of 'Geralt' in the Witcher videogames, so it was genuinely cool that he was brought in to voice the character once more in this film. For what it's worth, he did a decent job of it, although, and I realise this may not be a popular opinion, I must admit that I prefer Henry Cavill's version of the character.
Joey Batey returned to the role of Jaskier, having played the same character in the live action series too. I wasn't a big fan of said-character in the series, but I didn't mind him so much in this. His character didn't feel at all necessary to the plot, but, as far as entertainment value went, Batey did provide a little extra humour.
I feel bad for saying this, but I absolutely hated the voice acting of Christina Wren in this film. Her British accent, at least I think that's what it was supposed to be, was truly horrible, and genuinely hard to listen to. Everytime she spoke, I wanted to mute the film - it was terrible. I had to check her interviews to make sure that, yes, this was a creative decision, and my goodness, what a terrible decision it was.
Beyond those three, the performances most worthy of praise were provided by Emily Carey and Mallory Jansen. The rest of the cast were fairly forgettable, from a voice acting perspective, but those I felt should still be mentioned, if at least for the size of their roles, were Camrus Johnson, Simon Templeton, Ray Chase, and the returning Anya Chalotra.
Overall, this was, unfortunately, a very mediocre film. I had hoped for a little better, if not something spectacular. I think this film failed to do anything of note, and certainly did not live up to either the previous film from the sake studio, or indeed the live-action Netflix series. It had some good action sequences, but the vast majority of this film did not do enough to make it a particularly good viewing experience.
Comments