‘I Am Frankelda’ Review – Mexico’s First Stop-Motion Film Is Ambitious & Stunning [Fantasia 2025]

Brothers Rodolfo and Arturo Ambriz, proteges of Pinocchio filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, expand their imaginative, monster-filled world of “Frankelda’s Book of Spooks” into I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature. A young orphaned writer traverses the spooky world she created to face her monsters in a bid to restore the balance between fact and fiction, leading to an epic quest of self-discovery. It’s a gothic fantasy feature whose boundless creativity is matched by ambition, so much so that it can barely contain its dense storytelling.

The recently orphaned and headstrong Francisca Imelda (Mireya Mendoza) is the type of storyteller whose writing is so powerful that it’s breathed life into the nightmarish realm that’s long inhabited by her spooky tales. If only 19th-century publishers were interested in gothic tales of nightmares personified, from a young girl no less.

That doesn’t just erode Francisca’s confidence in reality, but it unwittingly affects her fictional land of Spooks, too. While her imagination fuels this alternate realm, which in turn provides nightmare fuel to others, it’s in danger of being forgotten. With the land’s tales going stale from Royal Nightmarer, Procustes (Luis Leonardo Suarez), the denizens face extinction. Prince of Spooks Herneval (Arturo Mercado, Jr.) transports Francisca’s spirit into his world to save them all, blurring fantasy and reality in the process.

I Am Frankelda isn’t just ambitious for the sheer scope of its artistry, delivering a dizzying number of intricately hand-crafted set pieces of pure fantasy, but for its narrative approach. A simple fairy tale setup, not unlike Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, introduces a young woman at an internal crossroads as an aspiring writer who’s arrived at an age where endless imagination is perceived as childish. That’s bad news for the Spooks, who provide an epic fantasy story within the story as Procustes enlists the Chiefs of the Seven Clans to stage a coup against Herneval’s parents and crossover into the living world of existence. 

Throw in a budding romance between Herneval and Francisca and sprawling mythology meant to further flesh out dense worldbuilding, and I Am Frankelda nearly buckles under the weight of its own lore as the runtime stretches to nearly two hours. A lot of exposition delivered at the outset makes for a bumpy introduction, too. Yet even when I Am Frankelda‘s ambition works against it narratively, creating some pacing lulls in the process, it’s near impossible not to be wowed by the film’s technical merits.

There’s no shortage of colors, textures, and techniques on display to immerse viewers in the vibrant realm of nightmares personified, from the hairy arachnid legs of Procustes to a mesmerizing hand-painted montage. The Ambriz brothers’ feature directorial debut is pure DIY artistry.

It’s that artistry and stop-motion precision that carries audiences through some of the densely plodded parts, along with Mendoza’s vibrant voice acting. Her Francisca, turned Frankelda, is as formidable as the villainous monsters eager to invade the real world. That’s especially good news considering that Francisca’s epic journey comes to an abrupt end that feels more setup for continuation than proper closure.

But as far as firsts go, Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature is a macabre beauty with impossibly designed characters and an abundance of passion for monsters, even if a bit unwieldy. 

I Am Frankelda made its North American premiere at Fantasia. Release info TBD.