I Am Frankelda

In a new era where AI has become a legitimate threat to all creative industries, it’s now more important than ever to appreciate and acknowledge projects that are human made and have a ton of effort put behind them, and it’s doubly important for animated films or series. Already being a medium that is criminally undervalued (even by some people in the industry), animation is at risk of losing so much of its uniqueness if something as hollow, lifeless and inhuman as AI forces its way into it (shown pretty plainly by how terrible AI art actually is), so its led several people to champion films that proudly showcase their homemade work and harpoon any exec or ‘’creative’’ that either uses or endorses AI. One of the more recent examples is with the 2025 Mexican stop-motion dark fantasy film, I Am Frankelda, which received a ton of praise for its art style and endearingly choppy stop-motion work, and doubled its goodwill as it was released on Netflix around the same time that Mexican animated, Jorge R. Gutiérrez, signed an agreement to work with an AI to produce material with his work (which he quickly backed out of after seeing the vehement backlash). While this shouldn’t dictate the quality of the movie, it’s a nice feather in its cap, and it’s not like it doesn’t have plenty of positives to go around.

In 1866, Mexico, a young aspiring writer named Francesca (voiced by Mireya Mendoza) is constantly belittled by the townsfolk for writing dark fantasy stories, but what she doesn’t realize is that her stories are in fact fuelling a world of monsters known as the Topus Terrenus, which relies on humanity’s fear to keep its inhabitants alive. The prince of this region, Herneval (voiced by Arturo Mercado Jr.) hopes to find a way to fix his kingdom’s decline, as humans no longer fear them thanks to the cliched stories written by their resident nightmare-teller, Procustes (voiced by Luis Leonardo Suárez), and since Francesca was the one who created him, he enters the human world and asks her  to become their new nightmare teller. Lacking confidence in her work, Francesca is easily manipulated by Procustes (who hates that a human may steal his job) and is tricked into feeding him her stories through nightmares constructed on the assistance of Herneval (who has developed feelings for her and doesn’t want her to leave). With Procustes attempting to overthrow the kingdom with the help of other clan leaders of Topus Terrenus, it’ll be up to Herneval and Francesca (who switches to her pen name, Frankelda) to save both this nightmare realm and the human realm.

I Am Frankelda doesn’t feel all that fresh and doesn’t use its good ingredients all that well, but does offer a fun spooky premise, a likeable cast, and phenomenal stop-motion animation that is dripping with personality and effort. It has some pacing, narrative and character issues, but for the first feature-length stop-motion film released in Mexico, it’s a pretty solid first attempt.

Being a prequel film for the Mexican kids television series, Frankelda’s Book of Spooks, I Am Frankelda was a very pleasant surprise that randomly appeared on Netflix during the middle of June, but this wasn’t the case in Mexico where it was originally released in 2025 and became a huge hit. Earning $50.4 million (in Mexican dollars) at the domestic box office on a budget of $1 million, this movie was viewed as special given it was the first independently made stop motion film created in Mexico, and with it performing fantastically in the film festival space and even receiving mentorship from oddball auteur filmmaker, Guillermo del Toro himself, it almost seemed impossible for this film to not be viewed highly. With all the buzz surrounding it plus its refreshing animation style that oozed with moody colors, extreme creative detail, and a playfully spooky vibe, the hype was contained yet meaningful, and the results were quite good.

I Am Frankelda really feels like a fairy tale, not relying much on specifics and instead gets lost in its ideas, visuals and emotions, and it certainly succeeds in that department. This is a wonderfully expressive and direct feature that has one sole focus and steadily tracks towards it with a solid pace without any deviations. It doesn’t really dive into its characters or story which can leave the screenplay written by the film’s directors, Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, feeling a bit streamlined, but the bare essentials of the actual story are pretty good, feeling simple yet gripping and going in directions that aren’t always easy to predict. Given it was originally supposed to be a half-hour special on HBO Max (with Cartoon Network even still being credited in the film), this explains why it can feel a little short-sighted and more interested in reaching an end point that lines up with another project rather than fully capitalizing on its own components, but there is so much passion put into this movie (the team literally self-funded the project to make the budget match its new theatrical basis), you can’t really be that mad at it.

With a tone that feels enjoyably kooky rather than actually creepy, I Am Frankelda operates on a vein similar to something like The Nightmare Before Christmas, where the feelings of the characters means more than their deep personalities, and the visuals and atmosphere take centre stage, and while this movie doesn’t have the strengths of that holiday classic, it doesn’t totally fail in its attempts to replicate it either. All these characters are fantastically designed and performed with a gravitas you wouldn’t expect for a simple little kids cartoon, making up for the fact that most of them sadly don’t have a ton of character. This is felt the strongest with the leads, as while on paper, the dynamic between a stunted author and the dark prince she created, has some fun juicy potential, they really don’t offer much in terms of unique interaction or even much personality. Both Mireya Mendoza and Arturo Mercado Jr. bring a lot of life and zest to their performances, helping the two stand out even if from a basic character perspective, both are pretty barren.

The supporting cast aren’t technically more interesting but are benefitted from being these warped creatures in this nightmare realm where their designs, vocal performances and extravagant personalities can help them leave a bigger impression. This is best showcased with the villain, as Procustes isn’t much more than a prideful blowhard who steals ideas that he can’t come up with himself, but his fantastic spider design that moves beautifully in this art style, his operatic vocal tone provided by Luis Leonardo Suárez that brings an arrogantly boastful but still demanding presence to his sequences, and his genuingly effective way of manipulating both leads, he’s a very well handled antagonist despite his simplicity. Beto Castillo and Gaby Cárdenas add a lot of natural warmth to Herneval’s parents (which can also be said for Idzi Dutkiewicz as the captain of the guard), Magda Giner is effectively imposing as Francesca’s ‘Abuela’ (with her design looking just as monstrous as any of the nightmare creatures) and the various clan leaders of Topus Terrenus are voiced in a wickedly sense that befits their grotesque designs.

Stop-motion is an underappreciated animation style, and since only a few notable companies still exist that bring it into the global mainstream like Aardman and Laika, it’s always nice to see someone else attempt such a laborious yet fulfilling style to great effect. Ironically, while Netflix as a studio don’t always put creative integrity at the focus, they are one of the few companies that allows for these kind of experimental properties and have backed newer stop-motion films in the past whether it’s the new releases from Aardman like Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl or Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, or Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion take on Pinocchio. Knowing this and their track record of pushing international media into the mainstream, they felt like a perfect match, and it’s great to see it performing well and allowing people to see such impressive craftmanship.  Since it doesn’t have the extreme funding or confidence a more experienced studio could provide, it feels on a smaller level with some jankier movements and editing by Gabriel Acuña that can be a little overly choppy, but the janky movements add a rustic and even uncanny nature to the world and story, and the cinematography by Fernanda G. Manzur and Irene Melis still goes out of its way to showcase this fantastic nightmare realm in all its popping colors, distorted yet surreal architecture, and monstrous appeal.

The technology feels very well executed for a first time job, the models have so much personality and almost an excessive amount of detail that it’s often hard to even take most of it in half the time (which can also be said for the backgrounds) and with the giant sets and very striking colors and lighting, it’s a mystifying movie to watch even if it doesn’t have the scale or polish that the more experienced studios have. The music by Kevin Smithers is pretty fun and matches the playfully spooky tone the story is going for, and while the songs aren’t really that useful and kind of just feel like pleasant time wasters, all the singers sound very strong and the villain song ‘’Prince of Spooks’’ is pretty good.

I Am Frankelda isn’t the next The Nightmare Before Christmas or Coraline, but the fact that a bunch of filmmakers decided to make a movie with such a difficult and time-consuming method of animation just for the love of the game, is very admirable. With its humble origins as a cute spooky television series for kids, you shouldn’t expect a lot from this movie as the story is good but lacks the depth to make it compelling, and the characters have great designs and voice actors but not the personality to be that long-lasting, but with a great premise that’s executed very seamlessly, endearing roles that (even if very simple) are nice to follow, and stellar stop-motion work that just looks incredible to witness even if there are some chinks in the armor, it’s enough to credit for a job well done. Let’s hope we get more like it in the future.