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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Is Wiedźmin really that bad? 👀
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Polish series was superb. The movie made out of this series not so much but still Michał Żebrowski was perfect Geralt and given the budget the series was awesome. Loved it as a teenager.
At least the series new and respected its characters and source material. And the casting was really good for most part. Żebrowski at his peak.
My favourite part of the old Polish Witcher tv series was the music - it really captured the atmosphere of this dark fantasy world
It wasn't really dark fantasy world, just everyday in Podlasie lol
@@piotrwisniewski70 😂 sama prawda
😂😂😂@@piotrwisniewski70
@@piotrwisniewski70 😂😂😂
The director of the polish version was my teacher in film school. He is a funny guy, likes to play Doom A LOT.
He had incredibly traumatic experience making the series. And almost quit the filmmaking because of it. It was absolutely not what he intended to make with the series.
What happened during the making of the series?
@jonasmcnordin9624 the intention was to adapt some stories from the first two books, make it grounded, without any extensive VFX and the tone was serious, for adults. But one of the executives forced a lot of changes to make it more children friendly and add some MAGICAL stuff, vfx shoots, including the infamous dragon.
@@AngryEwok and 10k PLN per episode budget ? :D
@@AngryEwok Do you have any further insights in this?
@LeutnantJoker he mentioned some personal stuff about that wich I'm not sure I have a right to write about it here, but besides that I have really nothing to add.
interesting bit of trivia, the og geralts actor dubs over henry in the netflix version and is also apparently the Polish voice of Johnny silverhand in CP77.
Awwww, I love this!!
@@MegMage Yes, Michał Żebrowski is far better Geralt than Henry with all respect. Simply western countries/people cannot fully understand slavic culture and this specific kind of mood. There are some cringy moments in the old series, but you should check it out if you like the Witcher.
@@MegMage There are basically 3 actors who played Geralt in Poland. One is Michał Żebrowski. He is an actor from The Hexer series. The others are voice actors. There is Jacek Rozenek. He is the voice of Geralt in CDPRED video games. The last one is Krzysztof Banaszyk. He played Geralt in quite popular audio recordings of the books with their own cast and soundtrack. In games, Banaszyk is the voice of Vernon Roche. Unfortunately, he has passed away in August 2024.
Żebrowski is good actor, but problem is that the whole Polish adaptation probably cost less than Henry took for the role on Netflix show.
@@tomek19ize honestly, the more I engage with slavic media, books, and people, the more this becomes clear to me. It's like a darkness and grittiness but it doesn't take itself too seriously, especially with blending that seriousness with humor. So American takes on things like The Witcher for example feel more like LARPing or cosplay. There's nothing wrong with it, it's just something we can't fully understand. (I say this as an American who misses her true Polish grandparents a lot)
In the books, Geralt has to make a decision, the least bad one. That is the theme and concept of that story. Everything revolves around that. In the Netflix series they choose that chapter to introduce the character, but at the same time they show that they have not understood what the chapter is about. Because of how they structure the script, Geralt does not make any decisions, and he does not find out what Renfri is going to do until she is pointing the knife at the poor peasant girl's neck. And that's another thing, in the old Polish series at least the villagers don't find out what Renfri is trying, but in the Netflix series Renfri says it in front of the girl. So what sense does it make that that same girl who Geralt saved and who knew what Renfri was going to do, blames Geralt? The Netflix series is an absolute disaster. The Polish series had a smaller budget and things went wrong, but at least they knew and love the books and had a plan.
Exactly! Also the Netflix episode skipped major elements of the meaning of the original story. Witchers were disliked in the world, and Blaviken was that one town where Geralt knew the Major/Headman who was super happy to welcome him, drink together, give him food and room and after the whole story and dilema with a mage and Renfri Geralt chose to save the people taken as a hostages without them knowing... but he killed Renfri and others on the market IN BETWEEN the crowd in the book. He did make a massacre with blood and guts spilled on innocent woman and children -traumatizing people, after what he was banished and was known as a Butcher of Blaviken. That "details" changes story a lot as it gives a torment to character, he lost a "home", a friend and got nickname that was hunting him and reminding him of loss everywhere he went in all the next books. But Netflix missed the part that Blaviken was important to him and that he had a friend, what makes a loss important, instead we got just a cool fight.
Prawdziwa historia. Polska seria miała mały budżet ale aktorzy są znani... Geralt i Jaskier :)
Efekty specjalne to była porażka... Ale sens książki im nie umknął. Scena na rynku Blavkien to wyciskacz łez, Geralt który jest uważany za mutanta bez emocji, kładzie w pojedynku jedną z niewielu istot która nie dosyć że go rozumie, również ma podobne relacje z otoczeniem. Tych dwoje stałoby się zaprawdę efektowną parą... wybór Wiedźmina jest brzemienny w skutkach. Zaiste Szekspirowski dramat.
@@marcosfunkywybór był jedyny słuszny. Neutralność, ukochana przez Wiedźmina, nigdy niemożliwa doprowadziłaby do śmierci wielu ludzi. Zabicie Dorregaraya ściągnęło by na niego pogoń wszystkich magów i maginek. A tak tylko ban na jedno miasto.
@Nauthiz1988 może tak, może nie... zawsze inna linia czasowa jest zagadką...
outside of budget and tech netflix doesn't have that much to offer.
Polish version is more accurate, super intense. Netflix is a Hollywood style and budget.
The polish tv series is so underrated. For the budget they had (and the limited technology of the time) they did a remarkable work.
And in many cases is way better than the Netflix trash.
Їм би сценариста нормального і була б ідеальна екранізація. Але все одно, краще ніж Нетфлікс
Yep, my thoughts the same. It was 90', Poland was so poor then. I remember those times as a kid. Liked this serial and don't like this modern. Too much effects and less playig.
@@user-tq7tk3nt1u Actually it was early 2000s. The production began in 2000.
@@MultiKamil97 Still barely couple of years after the fall of communism and in the process of transformation :)
@@user-tq7tk3nt1u it was 2002
Why the black eyes? He drank a potion before the fight that widened his pupils. If you watched more then this clip only from the old TV series you would've known they made witcher's eyes truly catlike and according to books after drinking some potions Geralts pupils should widen out - this one Netflix did as well, but not here, I believe the Striga scene had that. The Polish series captured the atmosphere of the world much better in my opinion.
what's important in my opinion, is that this series wasn't hollywood style, meaning not everything and everywone was beautiful. In the books Geralt was depicted as rather average looking. Funny thing, Żebrowski is pretty handsome irl but Geralt is not a model/cootie pie and not as exalted as i saw Henry acting.
@@MBarrMlv You are right, Żebrowski is too handsome for the role, but that's his only flaw in my opinion in the series. Otherwise he depicted Geralt perfectly, allowing his rather pesimistic philosophical nature to shine.
og polish version of witcher is so much better than the netflix one. sure, special effects are famously bad and director made some weird changes to the story, but everything else is great, the music, the atmosphere etc, especially in those more laid back scenes. also Michał Żebrowski is the quintessential Geralt for me. it has special place in my heart.
Poles have respected Sapkowski's prose lot more. That's why it is better despite it's quality shortcomings. I'd love to be able to watch both without knowing the books - out of curiosity for my reacion. Unfortunatly I can't overcome the overwhelming feeling of "lost opportunity" when I saw them.
@@Dejaka 🙄
Weird changes, apart from a few like those "witcheresses", were a homage for the comic book from the 90's.
I always kinda love that Geralt kinda has the attitude of a annoyed 9 to 5 worker lol
I think my main problem with the Netflix version of the scene is the dialogue. This is my first time watching the polish show’s version of this scene but it seems like it definitely goes with the less is more and show don’t tell approach which I prefer.
The fact that the Netflix version needs to have a character say ‘it’s an ultimatum’ as if the audience is too dumb to understand the plot, just irritates me personally.
Well, the creators from Netflix said they wanted their series to be for "wider audience" - whatever that means - which tells a lot about what they think of people in general...
I still love Polish version much more. Too bad it have only 13 episode's, but the ending where he finally find CIri was so awesome. I couldnt stop crying.
I recommend watching the fan film :"PÓŁ WIEKU POEZJI PÓŹNIEJ ". If these people were given money and the opportunity to make a good film adaptation, it would be a masterpiece.
Yeah, when he finds Ciri, it's emotional, it makes you feel something. When he finds Ciri in Netflix version, you just shrug your arms because not only they hadn't met before but also Ciri breaks the atmosphere asking who is Yennefer which was just super freaking annoying. This scene was supposed to be only between Geralt and Ciri, the director of course had to squeeze Yennefer's name there because she clearly wants Yennefer to be the star of the show.
@@MultiKamil97 seknes of woke
Little bit of context here, yes she is a very good swordsman but the reason Geralt doesn't instantly kill her is because they had an intimacy the last day and they had conversed for the whoe night. He undestands her reasons as to why she does it but does not want to let her butcher the innocent, so he really doesn't want to kill her, nor her thugs. She forces his hand into taking a side which would make him seem as the worst, she counted on the fact that he doesn't want to take sides, slay people (in the books she uses intimacy as a tool for a strong hand against geralt) or smear the witcher name worse than it already is. So even though she dies she permanentşy damages geralt and the witchers, so it is her wits that is impressive and not necessarily her combat prowess.
The polish one makes you feel like it's more real life in a way, like Gerald fights very human like where as in Netflix one he's like a super hero
Well ,technically Geralt is above normal human rate. He's a mutant ,similiar to a super human.
@@batknightchannel8169 Well technically "after trail of grass the person gained incredible reflexes and strength, and was also able to control his breathing and pulse. The eyes also underwent changes, usually becoming green and with vertical pupils, thus allowing for night vision."
It's quite funny that as people's opinions about the Netflix series started to worsen, they began to appreciate our Polish series more 😅 Especially considering that for many years people were also complaining about this version.
😁
People are sometimes confused and non appreciative. They sometimes forget to just enjoy the show and move on with being productive with their day.
People were si focused on the poor CGI and the Dragon being ridiculous that they omit the other- positive- things of the show.
But it WAS really nice back then except for cheap special effects. If not for that whole weird plot change about the witchers' clan it was more or less true to the books. While Netflix's version gets it all wrong from its very beginning. :)
oh, and one more thing that many people miss. Renfri is Sapkowski's version od Snow White, but with a darker twist. Forced out of home by stepmother?-yep. Banded with seven short creatures (here gnomes)? - yep.
The same way Nivellen's story is his take on Beauty and the Beast..
How can it be missed?
Polish film is 2001 and Netflix 2019. 18 years and tons of bucks diferences. Love your love for real Withcher.
Wow
I also recommend listening to the song Priscilla in the Polish version, many voices are done much, much better in the Polish version, when I hear Gaunter O'Dimm in the Polish version I get chills, and when in the English version I want to laugh, the voices of children in the English version are the same done tragically and in Poland I want to cry with emotion when I hear them, there are also many other differences in the dialogues, e.g. Yen calls Ciri her daughter.
I definitely want to do this
I noticed this similar disparity when playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 recently, the Ukrainian voice acting with English subs is SO MUCH BETTER than the english VA its insane.
Geralt does say yen was a mother to ciri when he goes to have his flashback in his dream with the sorcereress in the English version
Meh, the witcher games are miles better in english.
@@grkini Don't overhype that slavic mythology element. There's some of it especially in the Crookback Bog and in Velen but the whole story both in books and the games has a lot of regular western style fantasy elements. From the races, elves, dwarfs, celtic elements like Wild Hunt etc. Toussaint and Skellige are not slavic at all, they both resemble Italy or Southern France and Northern Europe of Vikings. This way you should have an Occitan dubbing in Toussaint and Old Norse dubbing in Skellige 😂.
I'd love to see you replay W3 with Polish dub, a totally different experience. :)
Netflix really disrespecting the slavic culture and feel to it
Sadly people have no idea about Slavic culture whatsoever. They treat it almost like some fantasy lore that you can modify as you want because nobody cares.
You mean Polish culture.
@@FilipMoncrief It's the same - Polish people are slavic.
@@phoearwenien4355 Yes but not all polish culture is slavic and not all slavic culture is polish. That’s like saying “Belmondo contributed a lot the the latin culture” even tho his movies brought nothing of value to Portuguese culture, even tho it’s also Latin. Do you understand?
@@FilipMoncrief Sure, but considering Sapkowski referenced all kind of legends and fairy tales, I would say Slavic word is even more appropriate than Polish, although Netflix cared about neither of them.
He, the actress playing Yennefer, music and medieval slavic atmosphere were a best things in the show. On the contrary the dragon was laughable, but STILL better than one in the Netflix, which was some creature that escaped Chernobyl catastrophe.
And that is cinema! I love the acting so much🥰
Michał Żebrowski as Geral of Rivia is Pure Gold!
In addition, in the polish one Geralt deals with them exaclty like in the book, stabs one, cuts anothers calf, etc.
5:13 She had a dagger in her hand, asked Geralt to embrace her to kill him with it, thats's what's the scene about in that moment
If you are interested in Polish cinematography in general, Martin Scorsese actually made kind of a promotion to it- it was called "masterpieces of Polish cinema" or something. Ofc it's mostly some rather serious stuff but there's a lot of awesome movies on the list.
If you want something with a historical/epic feel to it, you can try "With Fire and Sword" (Ogniem i Mieczem). It's an impressive costume movie set in the 17th century- an adaptation of another famous polish author and a noblist, based on polish history. And it actually had a big budget 😅
Also, the guy who plays Geralt here (Michał Żebrowski) also played a main role there!
Of Sienkiewicz's entire trilogy, "With Fire and Sword" had the weakest film adaptation. The film adaptations of "Pan Wołodyjowski" or "The Swedish Deluge" are much better. In "THE DELUGE" there is a famous duel scene between Mr. Wołodyjowski and Mr. Kmicic, which is considered one of the two best shot scenes of melee duels in the world so far.
if you really want to compare don't look at the fight scenes look at the Geralt - Yenefer Gerart - Ciri Gerart -Nenke relationships in the Polish series the best relationship is Geralt - Jaskier. beautiful scenes. and Jaskier's singing the actor who plays Jaskier taught singing at a higher film school for some time. beautiful voice
Also, take into account this show is 23 years old. Michał Zebrowski looks great as Geralt and I like his long coat look.
Teraz to nawet nie musi farbować włosów.
You should watch the entire series not for the fights or characterization, but for the plot, Geralt's monologues, and his discussions with Jaskier and other characters. I believe there weren't any 'hmmmmm, hmm yhhmmm, hmmm's at all.
Real nice to see that kind of a video.
The original polish tv series had a very low budget sadly, which is visible in some scenes where instead of a giant palace with many guests and guards there's a small room with like 10 people. But back then Witcher wasn't even famous at all so I guess there wasn't much faith in the project
Bro this tv series was made in 2001-2002, so in this times for Polish productions that was a huge amount of budget
@Flov-1 I'm saying relatively compared to nowadays. And still there were shows with higher quality from the same time period so...
wtedy byly tylko ksiazki, ale byl juz bardzo slawny, wszyscy gadalo o tych ksiazkach, czy ktos czytal, a czytali prawie wszyscy i rozmawiali o tresci, moze jestes mlody i nie pamietasz jak to bylo znane i jak ludzie czytali i rozmawali o tej serii
@@asiakowalska9935 Dosłownie nie wszyscy. Relatywnie w porównaniu z tym jaka popularna jest seria teraz to wtedy naprawdę nie była aż tak znana. Poza tym wtedy znana była tylko u nas.
@@Flov-1but it didn't have a big budget. Compare it to for example Ogniem i Mieczem- now that is a proper blockbuster with big budget and it shows.
Well, I think we polish people appreciate our version better not because of special effects, but because of how polish it is 😂 The way our actors talk, as you said, kinda theatrical, the way they fight, kinda naturally, chaotic, without too fancy effects... I think we were good at making historical medieval movies back in time, not CGI tho😂 Witcher is a bad example but "Potop" was one of our top movies, and many of us grow up with movies like that, the nostalgia takes over... I read the Witcher books, and I didn't really felt the same vibe in Netflix version... I think it lost it's simplicity, sometimes it not about the effects but chemistry between characters, scenery. Background should be very important! And the details... I wish there was more about slavic culture, folk traditions, some of our humor, rural simplicity. But I know that many people wouldn't get that, and Netflix want to make everything international, overdosed with effects. It sells...
This polish series is from 2002 and had really low budget. And, except from first 3 or 4 episodes where they added some plot lines, it's quite faithful reflection of the original from the stories it's based on. Acting is similar to theater acting because many polish TV series actors at that time were primarily acting in the theater 😅
The dragon episode is quite the something when the dragon arrives, because the CGI is so funny 🫣🫠
Netflix has so much more money, but they chose to ignore many important things from the books and they added a lot of their own subplots. They also change Yennefer's character so she's more likable to the audience.
2:36 Due to a low budget, for witcher techniques in Polish ministries, creators literally used a aikido sequences
I may be biased because I'm Polish but I really prefer 2002 series (wich in Polish is just called "Wiedźmin", I don't know where the Hexer came from). Mainly because of lack of usge of special effects. Lighting is mostly natural, there's no forced slow-motion or dance-like fight coreography. It just makes the scene more realistic and hitting much harder. To see the attrocitie commited in a natural tempo in a day like any other is tragic enough. All the greyish filters used in 2022, some slow-motion, fancy shots and coreography seems like it should make the scene more dramatic but for me it just makes it more of a caricature of the scene and I kinda hate that. But also I'm not really a big fan of modern cinematography so there's also that.
Hexer comes from the German translation.
Actually I think I like the polish version better. Photography could be a little more "pretty" but other then that I tolly like that Gerald did not come of as some crazy, unbeateble superhuman but just smart and well trained.
The dialouge, when Renfri lays bleeding on the ground asking Geralt not to go, and she feels cold got me tearing up. But what realy broke me was the ending of "Small sacrifice" Chapter in Sword of Destiny.
She also had a dagger prepared in case Geralt fell for that.
Did you notice the scene right after her death??? That knife that Gerald pulls from her dead hand? If he broke at the end, she would take him to the grave with her. He thought and tried to minimize losses for outsiders. And with her last breath she wanted to kill him, even though many years earlier, Gerald had saved her life when she was a little girl.
Do you mean the final paragraph of that short story? It was so unexpected and touching that it made me cry 😭 The most touching moment in all the books, and the second one is the reunion of Geralt and Ciri in the end of that book.
the old set look better, look like a real place. netflix set don't look real at all.
Because it is a real place.
the hexer version, where renfri holds her own against geralt for a moment is truer to the book (where she outfences him in the first pass and wounds him fair and square) than the netflix version, where geralt is in control the whole time and only gets hurt because he keeps stopping the fight and holding back.
the netflix show makes pretty much every female character weaker and less intelligent than they are in the books. it has amazing choreography though.
W Wiedźminie sprzed 20stu lat widać niski budżet. Świetnych aktorów. Niesamowitą Jenefer. Szacunek dla książki. W produkcje wiedźminopodobnym widać że jest gotówka. Starającego się wiedźmina. I totalne rozwolnienie jeśli chodzi o trzymanie się historii.
Jaskier też był wypisz wymaluj jak z książki oprócz postury i przystojnej buzi. Serial był ok, ale oberwało się im za ten film, który był zlepkiem serialowych scen bez ładu i składu.
@demolek22 trochę tak. Zlepek. Film, serial. A co do Jaskra to wolałem kiedy bałamucił żony i córki karczmarzy. Hrabiny i szlachcianki. No. I to by. Chyba zamknęło temat 😏
There is 700 real castles amd 1600 real palaces in Poland. No need to use CGI and most of them look more than "good" 😂
The worst is the cinematic version that mixed all 13 episodes into 1,5 hour movie ;D with no sense, but after the latest netflix seasons I think the Polish version is not so bad. But in 2001/2002 those VFX effects ;d were best comedy moment in Polish TV, the monsters made out of rubber XD and CGI dragon that.... well became a meme ;d (watch : "Smoku jesteś piękny")
Yes it was our Polish ;> movie but it was not to the standards of movies at that time, not even close, you need to remember the 1st Lord of The Rings movie was allready in cinemas (I fell really old now...) but also the Polish actors that are really good looked like they don't really know what is going on and what roles they are playing... it was a wierd but fun watch, hard to describe, it was so bad that's almost good.
Polish Witcher TV shows reminds me our Czech TV fairytales, similar effects, similar costumes, somilar castles and environment. It's just kind of TV fairytale with Witcher. 🙂
Scene from The Hexer is more true to the books.
Both versions aren't as good as they could be (specially Netflix's, considering their budget) and the original in the books still absolutely reigns supreme, but in comparison to the original, The Hexer was clearly way more accurate and better overall. "But the coreography in the Netflix fight was so good!!" well, as expected it had way more production value, but didn't even remotely attempt to follow Geralt's legit strategy in the book -- he just went after them directly instead of circling, dropping one after the other, making the others fearful and clumsy, completely disrupting their initial defensive formation and displaying real skill... Henry's Geralt just did a little straightforward and much less interesting show in comparison.
I'm still probably not giving The Hexer another chance after trying it and finding too many problems that don't really come from lack of resources (which are the ones I could easily forgive), but it certainly still seems, specially when you compare isolated scenes like that, to be a better adaptation overall than the Netflix one, which had everything it needed to be good and fumbled from the very start.
Maybe if there was a particular cut of The Hexer, removing all of the nonsense that was added and changed and focusing on the canon material that it tried to adapt, I'd watch it completely, but as it stands, I forced myself to get to the 7th or 8th episode and literally just fell asleep... Clearly there are some gems there when you ignore the poor visuals, production and effects, like the scene Geralt gets reunited with Ciri, and honestly, a lot of parts from the books don't really require a big budged to nail -- Poland certainly has many adequate medieval-looking places to film, which saves a lot of big travelling work, and probably also access to legit props, so The Hexer could've been extremely solid if whoever was in charge didn't decide to change things and add so much bs... Seems like, no matter the time, place or budged, it's always people thinking the original stuff isn't good enough and needs their touch that end up ruining things...
I love how over the top the sound effects are in the old Polish series. It just makes it all the more special. 😂
8:41 …now compared to the Netflix version: I prefer the old Hexer scene over the Netflix one. The Netflix one is way less ingenuous, IMO
Polish version is the only movie that I've ever cried - during the ending when he reunited with Ciri.
"Kilka niedociągnięć jest" hahahahahah xD Ale i tak uwielbiam tego starego Wiedźmina za klimat i muzykę Jaskra. A że to nie ma za wiele wspólnego z książkami i jest jest dość kiepskie :D to oj tam oj tam :D
The most interest part of this episode of Hexer is moment when we can see Renfri without clothes.
11:35 if geralt wanted to kill her from the start he would with ease. He didnt want to kill her thats why he was dodging her attacks. Its not like she was a hard enemy to him, he just didnt want to kill her but had to at the end
I am Polish and I was a huge fan of the books when they announced that they were making the series (the Polish one). It was even before the first game, but Sapkowski's books were already very popular in Poland and many countries of our region (They hadn't been translated to English yet, but there were many translations to other languages). It was produced by a famous producer and had big budget, plus some very well known Polish actors. When the first episode aired everyone was sat. I remember watching it with mu brothers and the first episode was already a big disappointment. The unnecessary additions and changes to the plot, cheap effects, some questionable casting, bad script, cheap-looking costumes... It looked like a parody to us. We watched around the half of the series, but mainly to make fun of it. There were good moments. Michał Żebrowski in the main role is definitely one of the best things about the series. Grażyna Wolszczak was a good Yennefer, Andrzej Chyra was a good Borch (but the dragon looked awful). Jaskier (Dandelion) was played by a very good actor, but terribly miscast in my opinion. One episode was quite good (the one with Istredd).
The producer was later involved in a huge political scandal in Poland and among the things that were uncovered was the fact that the money that he was getting for his high-budget movies and shows were not necessarily well-spent, let's say. So maybe that is why the show looked so cheap, when it was very expensive.
HOWEVER when I watched the Netflix series, I started seeing some good points of the Polish Wiedźmin. I did not like the Netflix show at all, I watched only one episode and that was it. I know that many people loved it, but it was for me too heavy-handed. I love Sapkowski's prose for being witty and inteligent. I found Geralt from the Netflix series dull and devoid of any spark. It's probably just me, but overall, I think I will just stick to the books in the future (haven't played the games, I'm not a gamer at all).
I used to know that tallest Renfri bandit, he was called first polish stuntman. Awesome person, father of my friend. RIP W. Barański
Considering there is 20 years gap between those two i show how good was old. if they had netflix budget then it would be masterpiece for sure.
Regarding the Polish version - it was lowkey awesome. There are some funny moments, very bad special effects etc, but the actors - most of them are classicaly trained theater actors, or theater/movie actors and a lot of them were in their prime at the time. Hence the theater play vibes. Also, this thing was filmed almost 25 years ago :P Production value isn't great, but if you took some 80s fantasy tv shows from US and compare, it would be on similar level :)
Renfri in the books gave Geralt some trouble in a fight as well. She's above regular human level in that regard, similar to him.
I can't wait to see Meq watching some polish dubbing from the series and games 😅
Also fun fact: Geralt from the netflix series has a voice of an actor that played Geralt in the old Polish series you watched before
Mr Żebrowski, I love you❤
i watched the guy who specialized in sword fighting he said that polish hexer is more realistic with practical sword use, netflix witcher is more about choreography and shock value.
Polish Witcher show had some really good moments, but as whole, it felt like beying constantly on drugs, even when I read books, I mostly had no idea what's going on there. 🙂 But I definitely liked more mature and bookish Yennefer from Polish show.
Well from the comments i see that most people explaiend most things i can add that there is a witcher fan film it has english subtitles made not generated it is slightly over 1.5h long the english title is "Alzur's Legacy" but if it wont find it polish title is PÓŁ WIEKU POEZJI PÓŹNIEJ - WIEDŹMIN FAN FILM it has cameo of original polish seires jaskier it had small budget as a fan film it had like 30k $ and its actually decent it has as a fan film more in common with true witcher story than the Netflix abomination and its about Lambert's adventure in his older days so yeah i recommend you to check it out if youre intrested :d
Polish actress is hundred times more beautiful than Netflix
The old Witcher show was not great, but it was a whole lot better then what happened with the Netflix show. And a lot more closer to the books.
Please do game through with a polish dialogue and english subtitles! Definitely worth experience! I would be exited to watch this kind of gameplay of yours!
the first renfri is beautiful
the most important thing is, this scene was in one of the latest episodes. Renfri shows up 2 in two episodes before this one and motivation of both sides was so good explained comparing to netflix where it was just random combat.
The Polish version of the Witcher is GOAT
I recommend watching the Polish series of The Witcher from 2002 rather than the 2001 film. This scene is from the 2001 movie because something was missing in this scene.There are several cut scenes in the film, and a lot happens in the 2002 series, there are even some adventure scenes that were not in the film. And there is other Polish film ,,Alzur's Legacy" from 2019.
If you haven't watched it yet, but like Witcher world, try the Polish fanfilm "Pół wieku poezji później" ("Half a century of poetry later"). Its a fan film with a little bit higher budget than your typical fan made productions, but the climate and costumes are really good... and if you do it after watching the old Polish version (of Witcher tv series) there are few smaller nods to older viewers ;)
The og Witcher series was a low-budget production financed and produced by Polish Television (for the second channel - TVP2 - less important) for comparison you can see scenes of hussar troops fighting from the Polish film „Ogniem i mieczem” (With Fire and Sword) released 3 years earlier, or the legendary sword fight scene (real, improvised, not fake) from an even older film „Potop”(The Deluge) (Wołodyjowski vs. Kmicic). Ps: these movies are also based on books. The og Witcher series crew did the best job they could at the time. Fortunately, Witcher fans in Poland still have excellently recorded audiobooks, the so-called Super Productions with a full cast of actors with sound effects and music, they are epic!
There’s a high-res remaster (with English subtitles) of the Polish TV show on the Internet Archive available for anyone interested in watching. 10/10 recommend.
My parents close my eyes on this scene 20 years ago when this go in TV.
There's no other wicher than Żebrowski, and Zamachowski is his Jaskier.
Oooh! You should watch the scene where he finds Ciri in the Polish version! Seriously, even when you don't understand the language it's so much more emotional!
Netflix version has this weird thing that wicher fighting longer with 1 woman then he was with 12 men.
In my opinion the old polish series of Witcher was the best ever made, despite the low budget, technical abilities of the 90' polish cinematography, and limited actor skilles. It was the most interesting ever made.
Really worth watching.
What I really loved is how subtle the Polish Witcher is. Come on Hollywood, don’t treat your audience like idiots, let us figure things out too.
There was no season 3. So much wasted opportunities. Sadly looks like the new Witcher 4 game is also going down this route, and no it's not because of the focus on Ciri. It's the characters are being destroyed. I've been a fan since I got a preview of Witcher 1 promo screen desktop wallpaper. Still use it to this day ;) Go back to the books, or in my wish, Witcher 4 should have been a prelude and backstory of the schools of the Witcher, and allowing us to explore the lore more and fill in some bits as we choose to play what we want.
I will happily watch your reaction to the whole Polish series. In many aspects I like the old version way better than from Netflix. I only managed to watch first season while I rewatched the original one a few times.
I love the original wiedzmin. its's somehow more realistic and believable
3:52
The women: "AhHhHHHH ThIs Is So GoOd i loVe It, ShE LeT hEr HaIr DowN"
The men: "Why did she just take off her armor/protection specifically to fight?"
The Netflix adaptation is hot garbage with a pretty coat of paint
The Polish series came out in 2001 or 2002, btw.
I like Meg's comments. I don't know about the rest of the people commenting on this film, but for some time I was learning how to fight with melee weapons and historical fencing. After some time, the training weapons were made of steel, with a weight and dimensions similar to those of the originals. During several training sessions, we checked fighting methods from movies and games, and interestingly, fighting as presented on Netflix is nonsense.
This Polish adaptation had a poor budget. But the fight scenes are better constructed and have more meaning. And the entire series sticks more closely to the original. The Netflix film is a monster "Product similar to The Witcher", set designers and choreographers of Netflix fight scenes would have to be banned from practicing their profession for life.
Eyes are actually a realistic thing. If you have a cat-like eyes, your pupils would go fully wide in the shadow.
I can appreciate both versions for different reasons as I do for every iteration of the Witcher (games and books too) This first episode of the Netflix show is what got me hooked into this whole world so I can’t help but salute it for that! Renfri you will always be famous to me and I just love the Witcher man
People in the comments seem to overhype that slavic element in the books and games. Of course there's some of it especially in the Crookback Bog and in Velen and in the audio layer of the game but the whole story both in books and the games has a lot of regular western style fantasy elements. From the races: elves, dwarfs etc. celtic elements like Wild Hunt. Most of the location like Toussaint and Skellige are not slavic at all, they resemble Italy or Southern France and Northern Europe of Vikings. This way maybe we should have an Occitan dubbing in Toussaint and Old Norse dubbing in Skellige to properly immerse in the story? There is a specific mood of slavic literature that people often point out and that is also present in the witcher but it's one of many elements.
Polski serial wiedzmin jest dla mnie bardzo super jedyne co w serialu netflixa było dobre to henry cavil
I would love to watch you play Witcher 3 with Polish dub it’s a whole experience
What I like the most about polish dubbing in witcher is blood and wine theme song. It's so good
It’s really cool that you did this, thank you MegMage! The Hexer show was not perfect (the movie was awful, the episodic show is pretty decent), but I do know that the way they handled Ciri’s reunion with Geralt would make you cry in the Hexer. It’s almost 1:1 with the books, it’s beautiful.
you need to watch "PÓŁ WIEKU POEZJI PÓŹNIEJ" 2019 Witcher story
The Netflix version is not a good adaptation; it doesn't capture the essence of the story at all and focuses solely on being flashy.
Ten film powstał ponad 20 lat temu.
Pomimo braku budżetu moim skromnym zdaniem wypadł bardzo dobrze. Żebrowskiego w tej roli kocham. Pozdrawiam serdecznie.
There is a little difference about Polish version and Netflix version, About the fighting style. Polish version is closer to the one described in books, Polish version made sure to make Geralt look that he drank potions. In my opinion Polish version is a lot better than Netflix version.
It's the power of show don't tell. Which funny enough is basics of good writing😅
And don't forget that Geralt had to step up when he fought Renfri, wasn't because she was good, he didn't want to kill her. That's why he cut through her crew like nothing, because he had no issue with killing them. He just wanted to let her leave, but she kept pushing him to kill her.
Both shows had some good moments, but both strayed away from source material. Sadly
I've already started to watch netflix series too. But decided to go until S03. Upcoming seasons means nothing to me without Henry cavil as Geralt.
i grew up on polish witcher with żebrowski, i can't convince myself to watch netflix adaptation 😭
The scene where Dandelion tells him he's the best man he knows from the polish series is a great scene as well! better than any of the netflix scenes... SOrry.. not sorry.
I actually much prefer the sword fight choreography in Polish version, because it makes at least a bit of sense. This backhand swordfighting is complete and utter BS.
He easily killed 7 men a minutes before in 1v7 fight, but now, this woman can stab him, a mutant, 3 times in the 1v1.
And also, stab in the gut had 98% letality in those times.
the music in the fist one feels pretty spot on!
If Poland at that time would have money and equipment America have , the original series from 2001 which is the one u watched first would 100 better
pass the full link of the movie please! I know it is in here in youtube, I could only find it in Deustch
The budget was 10000 PLN per episode so....but I quite enjoy the true medieval, eastern European feeling. I wish hbo woild adapt the Witcher in a way they did Game of thrones.
I love how westerners are comparing Our Glorious Oryginal to the cheap Netflix copy
well, the polish series is not that bad, especially considering it is much more faithful to the books than netflix(the later seasons). it falls short in two particular areas. 1. the polish witcher had a bad fame in poland, because they made from the series material a full feature movie which was a slightly nonsensical frankensteins monster, not making much sense. But the series was ok.
2. there are few campy moments. Ciri's bad acting, few CGI and costume shortcomings. But the polish witcher is definitely watchable,(and Michał Żebrowski voiced Cavill in the polish dubbing of Netflix series, which was a nice touch ) just keep away from the polish "feature film".