Geralt of Rivia has walked the many perilous paths of the Continent, and broken through in nearly every medium. Netflixs new animated movie The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep fully brings him into the realm of animation, where the monster hunter, free of realistic physics, blasts fire from his hands and pummels sea monsters like hes the Avatar from The Last Airbender.When we award the Polygon Recommends badge, its because we believe the recipient is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive, or fun and worth fitting into your schedule. If you want curated lists of our favorite media, check out What to Play and What to Watch.Cries of Not my Geralt! feel inevitable. Between Andrzej Sapkowskis many novels, CD Projekt Reds expansive video games, and Netflixs mainstream (or as its critics would say, flattened) take on the material, every fan of the Witcher franchise comes to a screen adaptation with entirely different expectations. But Sirens of the Deep feels like the Witcher team cribbing from the right playbook, one that could bring everyone together: DCs animated movie output. Like so many of Batman and Supermans small-screen adventures over the last two decades, Sirens of the Deep is an excuse to do more with Geralt without the demands of four-quadrant expectations. Seeing him in action is a satisfying experience.For Sirens of the Deep, writers Mike Ostrowski and Rae Benjamin (vets of the Netflix live-action series) draw from Sapkowskis short story A Little Sacrifice, a riff on Hans Christian Andersens The Little Mermaid. (That story can be found in Sapkowskis collection Sword of Destiny.) The writing duo remain relatively faithful to Sapkowskis story: While on the hunt for a monster, Geralt stumbles into rising political tension between the land-dwellers of Bremervoord and the merfolk of, uh, the ocean.At the center of the conflict is the cross-species romance between Duke Agloval and the royal mermaid Sheenaz, a union both sides see as unholy. Geralt, along with Bremervoord native Jaskier (Joey Batey) and his old pal Essi the minstrel (Christina Wren), become de facto interpreters and peace brokers. But blood is inevitably spilled, as neither side wants to hear the argument for species coexistence, let alone a species-mixed marriage.Even more than in their first Witcher prequel movie, Nightmare of the Wolf, director Kang Hei Chul and Studio Mir (The Legend of Korra, Young Justice, Harley Quinn) seize the animation medium as a chance to make The Witcher their own. The colors of the Continent pop beyond the blue hues of the live-action series, but feel more painterly than the AAA sheen of CDPRs games. The sets, from seaside villages to underwater kingdoms, feel unrestrained by practical considerations IRL builds or in-game physics. And Ostrowski and Benjamin are constantly veering from the grand to the intimate, threading Geralts relationship woes through battles with armored reptiles and a full-blown mer-war.Nine-tenths of what makes a DC animated movie superior to other IP exercises with the same characters is the casting, from new voices to nostalgia plays. Sirens of the Deep excels on its voice performances. Doug Cockle, the Geralt of the Witcher games, returns to the role, though this movie never feels like an unplayable side quest, in part thanks to the delicate animation surrounding his talky down moments. Cockle has Geralts gravelly mumble down to a science; its like hearing Mark Hamill go back into Joker mode.Sirens of the Deep finds connective tissue to the live-action series in Batey as Jaskier and a brief appearance from Anya Chalotra as Yennefer, but the newcomers get the most to chew on. Camrus Johnson as the smitten Duke Agloval and Emily Carey as Sheenaz, the no-BS mermaid princess, are delightfully insufferable as the Romeo and Juliet of the warring human and merfolk nations. Christina Wren (Will Trent) imbues Essi with some much-needed agency; she eventually falls for Geralt, in an arc lifted straight from the story, but shes consistently commanding the room a skilled bard who can spit fire. She wants to bed Geralt because she wants to bed Geralt, his mopiness notwithstanding.Ostrowski and Benjamin make a few key changes to Sapkowskis story, mostly for the better. The stakes feel higher, the scope feels fit for the medium, and the twists feel right for the times. The ending will likely be debated, and joining in on that conversation is a great excuse to read Sapkowskis original story. But all in all, Sirens of the Deep is more Witcher good Witcher! and a story wed likely never see on screen without this direct-to-video-brained experiment. Let this be an argument to keep making and building on Geralts animated adventures, and not just the project where they peak.The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is now on Netflix.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.Movies can certainly have dialogue that sings, and some great movies don't lean on beautiful images, but for the most part, film is an inherently visual medium. Heck, before audiences heard Al Jolson's voice in 1927'sThe Jazz Singer, movies were largely silent entertainment. While silent movies are mostly a thing of the past, some filmmakers still recognize the power of spare use of dialogue. The animated filmFlow, one of this year's Oscar nominees for Best Animated Picture, stars a cast of animals who are truly animalthey don't speak at alland that's not the only recent example. Here are 12 modern movies with no (or very little) spoken dialogue.Robot Dreams (2023) It's hard not to compare this animated Spanish-French co-production to the recently releasedDog Man: While their animation styles and intended audiences differ, both feature furry protagonists who remain silent throughout. However, Dog Man compensates for its titular characters silence with a constant barrage of jokes from other characters (and exaggerated screaming from Dog Man).Robot Dreamsuses its lack of dialogue to focus on the small, human details. Or humanlike dog details, I suppose. You can watch Robot Dreams onHuluor rent it onPrime Video. Robot Dreams at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Playtime (1967) Jacques Tati transports his signature character Monsieur Hulot, played by the French director himself, into a 1960s vision of a modern, detached Paris, an environment that simultaneously delights and confuses the good-natured man. Like in the Chaplin films Tati mines for inspiration, Hulot's humorous interactions with the enormous, stylish set do all the talking, depicting a then-futuristic society that now feels familiar. Playtimewas misunderstood when it was initially released, and it bankrupted the filmmaker. Time has finally caught up with its innovative point of view about the dehumanizing effects of modernization. It is now regarded as a classic. Watch Playtime on The Criterion Channel and Kanopy, or rent it onPrime Video. Playtime at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Mad God (2021) You may not recognize the name Phil Tippett, but you are almost certainly familiar with his work as the designer of stunning stop-motion and computer-animated creatures forStar WarsandJurassic Park. It took Tippett three decades to complete his masterpiece about a gas-mask-clad assassin venturing through a hell filled with monsters and beasts. The result is pure, silent nightmare fuel that words can't begin to describe. Watch Mad God on Shudder or rent it onPrime Video. Mad God at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Under the Skin (2013) It's difficult to understand what any of the victims are saying as alien Scarlett Johansson draws them to their deaths in this minimal sci-fi masterpiece: Their thick Scottish accents obscure any words they utter before meeting their untimely ends. This film by Jonathan Glazer isn't about what the characterssay,but how itfeelsto be human, contrasted with a cruel, seemingly unfeeling alien nature. Sure, there is a story here, but the movie is more of a vibe. Rent Under the Skin onPrime Video. Under the Skin at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Quest for Fire (1981) The trio of cavemen at the center of this epic prehistoric fantasydirected by Jean-Jacques Annaud, the genius behind the largely silent nature filmThe Beartalk to each other in grunts, groans, and a language developed byA Clockwork Orangeauthor Anthony Burgess. Yet there is no misunderstanding about what they are searching for: fire. However, it is difficult to know what portions of the film should be humorous, such as when a sabre-toothed tiger chases our protagonists up a tree. Despite the occasional urge to chuckle, you can't help but swept up by this story of early man's desire to advance. You can stream Quest for Fireon Prime Video in a compromised pan and scan transfer, or rent the widescreen version. Quest for Fire at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants (2013) If you're still deciding betweenwatching AntzandA Bug's Life, here's a third option that far surpasses them in both story and visual style.Minusculeis an Oscar-nominated film about a ladybug who helps an army of black ants in their battle with their red counterparts over a tin box of sugar cubes. Without the distraction of dialogue, you can focus on how well the filmmakers' computer-generated characters mesh with the filmed landscapes. Check it out on Plex and Tubi, or rent it onPrime Video. Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Walkabout (1971) Theres some dialogue in this movie, but none of it fully explains why a father drives his two children to the Australian outback before he commits suicide. This harrowing event sets the stage for this story of two children struggling to survive in one of the harshest and most unpredictable regions on Earth. On their journey home, they encounter an Aboriginal teenager on his traditional walkabout. Despite the language barrier between, he helps the more sheltered children endure. Director Nicolas Roeg uses biblical imagery and clever editing to convey how humanity has encroached on the natural world. The result is a mesmerizing triumph. Stream Walkabout onMaxand The Criterion Channel, or rent it onPrime Video. Walkabout at Max Learn More Learn More at Max Duel (1971) The world caught a glimpse of Steven Spielberg's capabilities behind the camera in his debut, a TV movie about a traveling salesman pursued by a semi-truck driver. According to a behind-the-scenes documentary, Spielberg was only given 75 minutes to tell the story, so he focused on the sound and visuals rather than dialogue to make the truck as menacing as possible. Over 50 years later, it still works. RentDuelonPrime Video. Duel at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video A Quiet Place (2018) Its easy to imagine a studio executive questioning if it was smart to bankroll a horror movie with almost no dialogue, but a few hundred million dollars in box office and two sequels later, the risky bet seems to have paid off. Though director and star John Krasinski has denied that the film's silence is a metaphor for a citizen's involvement in politics (inaction equals complacency), it's difficult to think about the plot in any other way. Watch A Quiet Place onParamount+or rent it onPrime Video. A Quiet Place at Paramount+ Learn More Learn More at Paramount+ Silent Night (2023) Action director John Woo returned to Hollywood after two decades for this action thriller about a father (Joel Kinnaman), unable to speak because he took a bullet in the throat, avenging the death of his son during a gang shooting. It's a bold experiment that kinda works, despite the melodrama that slows down the first act. When the action intensifies, the sound design immerses you in the visceral impact of bullets, punches, and knife wounds, no talking necessary. Watch it on Starz or rent it onPrime Video. Silent Night at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video All Is Lost (2013) Somehow in 2014, the Academy Awards overlooked Robert Redford's near-silent performance as a man lost at sea when announcing acting nominations. It's hard to pinpoint why. Maybe voters felt he coasted on his charisma, or it felt like a retread of previous performances. Perhaps they felt the movie was more of a stunt than a study of a man consumed with overwhelming guilt. No matter what voters thought, this film is still a triumph by a legendary cinematic presence. Watch it on Pluto TV and Plex, or rent it onPrime Video. All Is Lost Learn More Learn More Koyaanisqatsi (1982) Godfrey Reggio assembled this unusual collage of footage of modern landscapes constrated with the natural world, set to a hypnotizing Phillip Glass score. In a documentary about it's making, the director said the lack of narration was necessary because, "our language is in a state of vast humiliation. It no longer describes the world in which we live." Given the films exploration of the destructive relationship between technology, civilization, and nature, that explanation seems particularly fittingand even more accurate four decades later. Watch it on Kanopy or Pluto TV, or rent it onPrime Video. Koyaanisqatsi Learn More Learn More

I love gimmicky social media trends as much as the next person, but that doesn't mean I understand what they are right away. For a few months, I've seen people on TikTok and Reels engaging in a "Sunday reset," but each reset seemed to be a little differentIn one video, I'd see someone cleaning their apartment, and in another, someone would be doing pilates. Over time, though, the idea of a "Sunday reset" finally started to make sense to me, and I actually think it's a great way to incorporate a bit of structure and mindfulness into a routine before the work week begins. What is a "Sunday reset," anyway?There are over 500,000 videos tagged #SundayReset on TikTok right now, but since relatively few people use hashtags consistently compared to those who don't, we can go ahead and assume the number of Sunday reset videos overall is much higher. Search that term and you'll find all kinds of examples of people filming themselves doing somethingusually a lot of somethingson Sunday to prepare for the upcoming week. The problem is, the videos are all really disparate. One creator's Sunday reset might be a Costco run and a kitchen restock, another's might be meal prepping, another's might be cleaning the bathroom, and yet another's might include all the steps they take in their weekly self-care and relaxing routine. Examples of Sunday resets I've seen lately:Grocery shopping, fridge cleaning, and restockingCleaning a kitchen, bathroom, or bedroom top to bottomWashing and switching out sheets, pillow cases, and comfortersDoing the whole household's laundryDoing homework or professional work in a home officeBathing the dogMaking a complicated, delicious drink and sitting down somewhere cozy to readSo, what's going on? The idea here isn't that the Sunday reset is a predetermined thing that everyone has agreed to do ahead of a new week. Rather, it's more about shaking off any baggage from the prior week and getting the new week started with a fresh start, both mentally and physically. Imagine that your Sunday reset is really your way of beating back your Sunday scaries (remember when everyone said that?). Whatever you need to look ahead to for the week is your reset goal. Obviously, some forms of reset are oversampled on TikTok, as they lend themselves more to visually appealing videos. Restocking a fridge is a classic example of something that is both easy to film and satisfying to watch, whereas sitting down with a planner and scheduling out the upcoming week is less enticing for a viewer, so you'll see that much less when you're scrolling. How to make your own Sunday resetThe reason this works well as a concept is that it gives you some structure on a day of the week that might otherwise slip into laziness or freefall, so you get a little routine going and can feel more prepared going into the week. No matter whether you choose to clean up, prepare for work, or engage in self-care as your personal reset, make a goal to stick to doing this every Sunday, at least for a few weeks, to really feel its impact on your overall readiness and mood as Monday arrives. For me, a Sunday reset involves spending the morning and afternoon fixing up my apartment and the evening fixing up myself. I take out the trash, do my laundry, declutter, mop, and do whatever little home-based project I need to do. Last Sunday, for instance, I framed all the photo strips I've taken with my friends over the years and started creating a massive gallery wall, which was the perfect, sentimental way to bridge the gap between my "home improvement" and "self-care" reset sections. In the evening, I launch into a giant self-care adventure, focusing on haircare, skincare, a classic "everything shower," and finding the most fragrant lotion, softest pajamas, and tastiest tea in my newly clean home. Together, these resets prepare my space and my body for whatever the week may bring, but I prioritize these reset categories over, say, working out or grocery shopping, because they're the things I have less time for during the week and get stressed trying to schedule otherwise. To find your perfect reset, consider what you usually feel least prepared for during a given week and what you dread most as Monday approachesthen, get it all done on Sunday. For a few ideas, I threw together some checklists for resets in Google Sheets that you can usejust make a copy of the doc that you can edit. These are just suggestions based on general weekly cleaning guidelines and things you can do to get a head start for the work week, so feel free to customize it however you like. While you should follow a similar routine each week, this shouldn't be stressful or overly complicated. The idea is to get you prepared for what you need to do over the next five days and ease you back into work and non-weekend life easily, so be sure to approach this the way the TikTok creators are: Light some candles, prepare a favorite drink, listen to music, and wear your comfiest lounge attire.

We're live at Cisco Live! 2025 - here's everything we've seen so far.

Black Panther 3 is officially in development, but its producer says Marvel still hasn't thought about recasting T'Challa yet.

From frostbitten battlefields to snow-draped landscapes of fantasy, Rodeo FXs 2025 Winter Snow Reel showcases the cinematic magic of winter in all its forms. With technical mastery and artistic ingenuity, Rodeo FX takes audiences straight into the heart of winter and immerses them in settings that range from adrenaline-fueled action sequences to hauntingly beautiful historical dramas.The reel features their impressive work on Masters of the Air, where snow heightens the aerial combat intensity; Red One, which fuses frosty backdrops with high-energy action; Heart of Stone, bringing icy terrains into thrilling spy sequences; and House of the Dragon, where snow adds a hauntingly magical dimension to the realm of Westeros.With painstaking attention to detail, the team masterfully simulates snows textures, movements, and atmospheric effects, seamlessly integrating them into live-action and CG environments. Rodeo FX proves once again that their craft elevates storytelling, turning winter into a character as compelling as the stories it inhabits.The post 2025 Winter Snow Reel by Rodeo FX appeared first on Vfxexpress.

WhenU.S. Agency for International Developmentand the State Department told theircontractors to pause all work, Sadie Healy expected the impact to be horrendous.But Healy, who runs a small global health consulting firm, Molloy Consultants, realized no one was documenting how bad the freeze on U.S. foreign aid would be. USAID wouldnt be cataloging the impacts as President Donald Trumps administration fired senior staff, shuttered its headquarters and then told itsemployees their jobs would end. The nonprofits and aid companies who worked with USAID were fighting to survive.So Healy decided she would do it.I am an action person. The depression and the sadness that we knew this was going to cause was something I couldnt deal with, Healy said in an interview with The Associated Press. So we called a Zoom meeting.Healy is one of a growing number of people and organizations in the international development ecosystem stepping forward to track the impact of the freeze on U.S. foreign aid. Many are nonprofits who already support grassroots groups around the world, while others are professionals now volunteering their time, connections and skills.The U.S. is the largest single global humanitarian funder, giving$13.9 billion in 2024, and largest supporter of U.N. agencies, meaning any changes to foreign assistance havesweeping impacts across geographies and issues. The pause in funding has since turned into the dismantling of USAID and its programs.CLOSE IT DOWN, Trump said on social media on Friday, though a judge has paused a plan to putthousands of employees on paid leave.Are USAID cuts permanent or not?Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and billionaire adviser to the Trump administration, hasled the campaignto shut down USAID, saying in posts on X that it is evil, a criminal organization, and a vipers nest of radical-left marxists who hate America. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said funding will not be permanently cut, but people in the field say every day the freeze continues and USAID stops works causes irreparable harm. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.Healy and her business partner Meg McClure said they decided to focus on documenting the number of American jobs lost. They eventually got in touch with a staffer from a Senate committee, who advised them on what data to collect.Within days, they launched a website,USAID Stop-Work, and a survey to document how many U.S. jobs have been lost as a result of the freeze on foreign assistance. So far, employers or employees have reported 10,758 jobs cut since the stop work orders landed on Jan. 24. That number includes some positions at USAID, but not all of the 8,000 workers directly employed by the agency and the thousands more in the field.We can document the destruction that this executive order has caused, Healy said. And we hope that lawyers and we hope that members of Congress can use that for their case.At least two groups with tech capacity and deep networks circulated online surveys to learn about the extent of the funding cuts. They eventually merged efforts and set up the website,Global Aid Freezeto visualize the initial responses. The nonprofit GlobalGiving launched a fund to support small international organizations, many of whom will not survive even a 90-day pause in U.S. foreign funding.Roth Smith, an assistant professor in the School of Communication Studies at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, studies how people organize outside of formal structures, often in response to a disaster. He said volunteer efforts to map a crisis and connect that information to people who can act is typical, but the reach of this organizing is impressive.This is a much larger scale and it seems to be highly polished, he said.Things are fundamentally changedThe international nonprofit Accountability Lab, which now operates the Global Aid Freeze website, said 568 organizations responded to its survey about the impacts of the U.S. governments foreign aid freeze. Half of the respondents estimated they had less than 3 months of operating reserves, meaning they will shutdown by May if funding remains on hold.Blair Glencorse, founder and co-CEO of Accountability Lab, said theyve been in touch with foundations to try to help them figure out where their support can be most strategic. He said it also seems hard for nonprofits in developing countries to understand how dramatic and lasting the changes in U.S. foreign funding may be.Things are fundamentally changed and I dont think the aid system is going to be the same again, he said.Other grassroots efforts have focused on supporting those who lost their jobs. Joanne Sonenshine, an economist who has worked as a consultant alongside USAID for more than a decade, said she saw a flood of LinkedIn posts about layoffs and in response, a flurry of job announcements. So, she set up a spreadsheet where people could put in their experience and contact information and others could post links to open positions. Almost 800 people wrote in their names, locations and work history. Another spreadsheet included more than 550 entries.This just goes to show how much we need support for these people. And this is not just D.C. people, by the way, Sonenshine said. These are U.S. contractors or U.S. staff all over the world whose livelihoods and their familys life depended on the U.S. government.These grassroots tracking efforts are largely self-funded and self-directed. Healy and McClure pay for the website tracking U.S. job losses themselves. Accountability Lab stood up their survey without any dedicated funding, though theyve recently gotten some support to continue the effort.Other professionals within international development have also offered to work for free to help people find jobs or help organizations get new funding. Healy said that willingness reflects the broader ethos and resilience of the community.We love planning, its our favorite thing, Healy said. We are like, This is the moment we were made for. Lets go.Thalia Beaty, Associated PressAssociated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation U.S., with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visithttps://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

A group of investors led by Elon Musk has given OpenAI an unsolicited offer of $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit part of OpenAI. An attorney for the group submitted the bid to OpenAI Monday, the Wall Street Journal reports.Per the Journal, the other investors in the group include Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, and 8VC, a venture firm led by Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale. Ari Emanuel, CEO of sports and entertainment company Endeavor, is also backing the offer through his investment fund.OpenAI uses a hybrid business structure that consists of a nonprofit parent entity (OpenAI, Inc.) and a for-profit subsidiary (OpenAI LP, referred to as a capped-profit company). In part because of the extraordinary high costs of inventing and training AI models, OpenAI created a for-profit subsidiary in 2019 that has let it raise billions from Microsoft and others. Altman is now in the process of turning the subsidiary into a traditional company and spinning out the nonprofit. The nonprofit would, however, own equity in the new for-profit.The situation may seem familiar to OpenAI board member Bret Taylor, who was chairman of Twitters board of directors when Musk bid for, then bought, the company in October 2022. Taylor left Twitter soon after, along with most of the board.The unsolicited bid ratchets up Musks ongoing battle with OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. Musk, who was one of the OpenAI cofounders with Altman and others in 2015 (and now leads the Department of Government Efficiency), has already filed two lawsuits against OpenAI complaining that the company has deviated from its original nonprofit mission and is now prioritizing profit-over-public benefit. In the second lawsuit, filed in November 2024, OpenAIs backer Microsoft was named as a defendant.In fact, the attorney representing the Musk group makes the new buyout offer sound like just another expression of the complaints in the lawsuits.If Sam Altman and the present OpenAI, Inc. Board of Directors are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time, said Marc Toberoff, the attorney representing the investors, in a statement Monday.As the cofounder of OpenAI and the most innovative and successful tech industry leader in history, Musk is the person best positioned to protect and grow OpenAIs technology, Toberoff continued.Sam Altman responded to the offer on Musks X platform, saying hes not interested but would be open to paying $9.74 billion to acquire X. (OpenAI didnt respond to Fast Companys request for comment.)Musk and the other investors could conceivably end up owning a large share of the for-profit AI. Musks AI company, xAI, has said that its building large language models (LLMs) that are less constrained by political correctness and more focused on objective truth. OpenAI, meanwhile, has been focused on developing frontier models that achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI systems that can do most economically valuable tasks better than humans.OpenAIs for-profit arm is growing quickly. Altman is currently in discussions with the Japanese investment bank, SoftBank Group, which may invest up to $40 billion in the AI company, upping its value to about $300 billion.Update: This article has been updated to include Marc Toberoffs statement.

From Mushroom Kingdom to Dinosaur Land, this video makes sense of a sprawling game design.

The internet erupted in controversy over Felisa Wolfe-Simon and colleagues claim of a microbe thriving on arsenic. Nearly 15 years later, shes pursuing new research on the boundaries of life.