THE WITCHER: SIRENS OF THE DEEP
Beautiful as an ocean, deep as a puddle.
Should You Watch It?
Let's be plain. This animated Witcher film is genuinely beautiful to look at — the character design, the environments, and the fight choreography are top-notch, styled after fantasy anime like FAIRY TAIL and ATTACK ON TITAN. On the visual level, it delivers.
But it's all style and no substance. The writing is the film's undoing: cringe-worthy dialogue, bad one-liners, and a sloppy plot that never pays off its "human-merman war" premise. And beneath the polish sits a load of objectionable content — excessive blood, nudity, sexual immorality, occult magic, drunkenness, and drug use, plus around a dozen "f" words.
So here's our answer, the same one the source lands on: even mature viewers will want to dump this one into the ocean. Skip it.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESAfter human sailors are slaughtered at sea, a seaside town hires Geralt of Rivia — a stoic monster hunter with a moral code — to investigate. War is brewing between the town and the merpeople who live in the waters below.
Traveling with his lute-playing companion Jaskier and a bold woman named Essi, Geralt agrees to look into the killings and cool the conflict, for a price. Then he discovers a secret love affair crossing the line between the two kingdoms — and a conspiracy that could drown both sides in blood.
Is It Any Good?
Two stars, and they're earned entirely by the animation. The art direction and fight choreography are the film's saving grace: the character design and environments are incredible, and the action scenes are fluid, well-blocked, and intense in the best anime tradition.
Everything else falters. The biggest problem is the writing. The dialogue is cringe-worthy, the one-liners land badly, and the side characters have the believability of a TikTok influencer. The plot is sloppy — the source likens it to something generated by ChatGPT — and it never delivers on its central premise. Good action scenes simply aren't enough to salvage a film this thin. Beautiful, and empty.
The Worldview
This is a strong mixed pagan worldview with both moral and occult elements. Geralt himself carries some honorable traits: he spares the life of a monster once he learns it's innocent, and he fights only when it's absolutely necessary. Those flickers of a moral code are the best the film has to offer.
But they're buried. Geralt has lewd visions of an ex-girlfriend, gets drunk, and sleeps with a female companion after a single night. The characters delve into dark magic, battle a giant kraken, and move through a world of occult-like magic users. The result is not so much anti-Christian as morally relativistic — a story with no fixed ground beneath its feet, where appetite and expedience set the terms.
The source also notes politically correct feminist elements, with the female characters written as stronger-willed and more capable than the men around them. Weigh that as you will.
At the film's center is a forbidden love across two warring kingdoms — a longing for peace and belonging that the story can gesture at but never truly resolve. Scripture names the reconciliation this world keeps reaching for: "For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14). That is a peace no mercenary's sword can buy.
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong mixed pagan worldview with moral and occult elements, the hero is a mercenary-for-hire with a moral code, he spares the life of an innocent monster and chooses to fight only if it is absolutely necessary, but the hero otherwise acts in a hedonistic manner, the world is inhabited by fantastical sea creatures and occult-like magic users, the prince character falls in love with a princess from the mermaid kingdom, plus some politically correct feminist elements where the female characters are shown to be stronger willed and more capable than their male counterparts
Foul Language
19 obscenities (including about 12 “f” words) and one light profanity
Violence
Heavy action violence throughout with excessive blood, the heroes slay an army of mermen in various pieces, the human soldiers are cut and killed in gruesome fashion, the hero defeats a kraken woman in an over-the-top “shonen anime” battle sequence, a mermaid gets her tail sliced in half, the characters engage in swordplay and hand-to-hand combat, the hero and the villain throw magic blasts using the elements of fire and air, a general gets beheaded mid-battle, and a pre-teenage girl punches a boy in the face
Sex
The hero has a vision of meeting his ex-girlfriend at a spring, and the hero and his love interest are implied to have fornicated
Nudity
Glimpse of partial male genital nudity in one scene (pubic hair), some upper female nudity, implied full nudity, and hero is shirtless three times and naked while taking a bath
Alcohol Use
The hero and his companion visit a tavern and consume a jug of alcohol, and the hero gets drunk
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
A few sailors smoke marijuana, the prince character consumes a potion that turns himself into a merman, and the hero takes a “booster” potion that briefly gives him enhanced strength;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Numerous scenes of the hero bickering with his “bard” companion, the human king stages the human-merman civil war for his own benefit, and a mermaid tries to kill her niece after becoming jealous of the merman king.
Talk About It
Four questions for the couch, the commute, or the couple bingeing it together.
Geralt lives by a personal moral code, yet drifts into drunkenness and casual sex without a second thought. What's the difference between a code we make for ourselves and a standard God sets for us?
Judges 21:25 · Micah 6:8The story's central conflict is a war between two peoples — and a love that reaches across it. Where does Scripture say real peace between enemies comes from?
Ephesians 2:14–16 · Matthew 5:9The film is dazzling on the surface but empty underneath. Where else do we mistake beauty or polish for genuine substance, and how do we tell the difference?
1 Samuel 16:7 · Matthew 23:27–28The human king manufactures a war for his own gain. How does Scripture describe leaders who exploit their people, and what does true leadership look like instead?
Proverbs 29:2 · Mark 10:42–45The Final Word
The animators clearly poured their gifts into this one, and it shows. But a beautiful surface can't redeem hollow writing and a load of blood, nudity, and moral fog. So our answer stands, the same one we opened with: skip it. Looking for something to watch together instead? Try our latest family-friendly picks.
