The world of Netflix’s the Wither is expanding with this animated film, a spin-off to the series, staring Theo James (Divergent series), Lara Pulver (Sherlock, True Blood), Graham McTavish (Outlander, The Hobbit Trilogy), Mary McDonnell (Major Crimes), Tom Canton (The Witcher), and Matt Yang King (Trese).

Premise: Before Geralt, there was his mentor Vesemir, a swashbuckling young witcher who escaped a life of poverty to slays monsters for coin and glory. But when a strange new menace begins terrorizing a politically-fraught kingdom, he must face the demons of his past.

Review: I need to get this off my chest but watching this, I disturbed by two things: The first a lot of the voice cast are in Castlevania and it was a bit distracting at the begining. The other thing is that I realized that the Witchers themselves and their world is very similar to a favorite anime of mine name Claymore. Norihiro Yagi‘s dark fantasy manga series is basically a gender swapped version of The Witcher. My mind is blown. I watched season one, even knew the games a little bit but this never occurred to me until now. If you have a chance, at least check out the Claymore‘s anime it’s great.

Anyway, right of the bat I love how the plot unfolds. Timeline-wise it’s close to how the show’s first season goes, but more importantly it shows how Vesemir evolved. The movie gives us a lot of back story on the Witchers that the show’s first season didn’t provide, but it sheds light on the reasons behind some of the prejudices against Witchers. It’s not as simple as they’re hated because of who they are, even if they’s some of that. There’s a rich history here, some juicy and easy to grasp geopolitical maneuvering. Being an animated movie the Witchers seem to be more powerful and otherworldly than Cavill does in the series. There are also more monsters and gory details.

This animated movie really builds to quite the climax, with amazing action sequences that are very well designed, good twists, and a bittersweet ending. I enjoyed the film and learned a lot about the lore.

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