"The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf" will captivate you with a vigorous plot. But you don't need to watch it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The prequel to the famous series turned out to be very dynamic and banal.

On August 23, a full-length anime was released on streaming service Netflix, which expands the world of the on-screen "The Witcher". The cartoon is dedicated to the past of Vesemir - the famous mentor of Geralt and his relatives.

It is known that in the second season of "The Witcher" this already aged character will be played by Kim Bodnia (Danish-Swedish "The Bridge"). Although many fans dreamed of seeing Mark Hamill in his place. While the audience is presented with a typical origin - the story of the origin of the hero. And unfortunately, the authors could not come up with anything original. Literally all plot moves look borrowed from other similar paintings. The situation is saved by a small timing and dynamics.

The plot will seem too familiar

The young witcher Vesemir, like his relatives living in the fortress of Kaer Morhen, hunts monsters and receives money for it. He is very fond of gold and booze and rarely thinks about morality and honor. But the witcher community is in serious trouble.

There are too many evil spirits in the kingdom of Kaedwen, and the powerful sorceress Tetra Gilcrest is trying to convince the ruler that the hunters themselves create monsters for the sake of earning money. To sort this out, Vesemir, together with her opponent, set off in search of the truth. But the truth turns out to be shocking to everyone.

You need to understand that the entire plot of "The Nightmare of the Wolf" was completely invented by the scriptwriters. In the original books of Andrzej Sapkowski, very little was said about Vesemir's past. It is only known that he trained witchers and remained one of the few survivors of the attack on Kaer Morhen. The hero was revealed a little better in the series of games of the same name, but neither the writer himself nor Netflix consider them canon. Moreover, there, too, they talked about his youth only fragmentarily.

Therefore, unlike the series, anime does not rely on any basis, but gives out a completely new story. Connoisseurs of cinema and, in general, any heroic sagas will soon be struck by the fact that "Nightmare of the Wolf" follows the most standard path. First, the hero rescues the child and, in parallel, remembers his past. Then he unites with the enemy for a common goal. And even in the finale, after the first shock from the main turn, several examples of films and books in which such a move was played will probably come to mind.

In terms of revealing the identity of Vesemir, they also use banal methods: first love, which resurrects after years, a dilemma that makes one choose between loyalty and honesty. And of course, the ending, where the character changes and is forced to start a new life. Perhaps the authors should move away from the classics and reveal the images in a more modern way.

You just won't have time to get bored

Viewers will probably think about most of the shortcomings of this story after watching. If only because "Nightmare of the Wolf" turned out to be as compact and dynamic as possible. The anime is only 83 minutes long with credits. Considering that some episodes of The Witcher took over an hour, the prequel can be considered an additional episode of the first season.

For a short time, we are briefly introduced to the characters and immediately plunged into the main action. It is clear that with this approach, most of the heroes will turn out to be schematic. But a story about them would slow down the action.

The authors, it seems, had no desire to fully show the world of "The Witcher" - this is what they do in the main series. There are practically no familiar faces here: they are only mentioned a couple of times.

But they manage to show several action scenes at once. Moreover, the first of them clearly refers to the opening fight in the series "The Witcher", except that the kikimora was changed to the devil. Then there will be a large-scale battle in the snow, and the final battle. So the plot and dialogue sometimes seem like just preparation for the next battle. Moreover, one of them leads to a major turn that will affect the future of all witchers.

Animation takes some getting used to

Korean studio Mir was responsible for the visual part of "Nightmare of the Wolf". She is best known for projects such as The Legend of Korra and Legends of Mortal Kombat: Scorpion's Revenge. The studio has already collaborated with Netflix: together they created a new version of Voltron.

Those who have watched the above works will immediately recognize Mir's style. This is a classic 2D animation with static yet beautifully rendered backgrounds. The fights are shown not too pretentious, but exciting. Viewers will likely have thoughts repeatedly: how would it look with live actors in the style of the original series? But it is obvious that the form of presentation of "Nightmare of the Wolf" is not only a way to expand the audience of the project, but also an opportunity to show a large-scale battle without huge investments in special effects.

The only problem is that the cartoon is likely to be noticed by those who have not watched either classic anime or Korean works. This part of the audience is likely to find it difficult to perceive unusual visuals. Here even Vesemir resembles a stylish modern man, and Tetra seems to be copied from Serana from The Elder Scrolls games. The mimics of the characters are sparsely worked out, and their movements sometimes violate all the laws of physics.

Perhaps that is why "Nightmare of the Wolf" was made only an addition to the main plot of the series. Those who decide to skip it or leave it on the very first scenes will not lose anything and will be able to calmly watch The Witcher further.

The short and dynamic anime is a great entertainment to watch over dinner. It will not take much time and will capture a vigorous plot. But it is unlikely that "Nightmare of the Wolf" will delight fans of books and games: the authors are too free to dispense with the legacy of the original. And fans of the Netflix series will probably quickly forget about this project.