Fantasia Fest 2025: I Am Frankelda Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Premiering at last year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival, I Am Frankelda is Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature film, featuring a nightmarishly beautiful ambition from directors Arturo and Roy Ambriz. The film builds upon the established world from their 2021 miniseries, Frankelda’s Book of Spooks, delving deeper into the Realm of Spooks. The story sees Prince Herneval (Mercado Jr.) as he is drawn to the real world by Francesca (Mendoza), a young girl talented at writing imaginative nightmare stories that could prevent the fabric of his realm from fading away. Procustes (Suárez), a devious arachnid, is intimidated by Francesca, who is a threatening presence to his declining competence in creating his own detailed nightmares to keep this world alive.

Inspired by the works of Tim Burton and their mentor Guillermo del Toro, the Ambriz brothers undoubtedly create a meticulous world that is colorfully detailed and intricately designed, encompassing this nightmare world without crossing into needless grotesquerie. The intricate puppetry throughout brings every character to life in all their emotions through Herneval’s determination and Francesca’s yearning to find a place where she belongs. I Am Frankelda additionally flows between stop-motion animation, puppetry, and other animation forms such as hand-painted frames to flesh out these raw emotions at integral moments, evoking an engaging adventure of technical wonders.

Meanwhile, the film showcases the subtle differences in world-building that doesn’t compromise the illusion of connective tissue between both worlds. Continuing an existing story allows the Ambriz brothers to delve deeper into the intriguing lore and politics of the Realm of Spooks, while still granting the opportunity for the film to stand freely on its own. However, these sparse moments of story development may affect the pacing for audiences looking to focus on our titular character, who only becomes heavily involved with the Realm of Spooks nearly halfway through the film. While branded as a musical, the film cleverly utilizes these musical numbers to elevate the states of emotional transition among these leading characters and raise the stakes of the fracturing world in moments where that pacing may begin to lose people.

In the end, I Am Frankelda is a nightmarishly beautiful animated film by the Ambriz brothers that is elevated by colorfully detailed characters, intricately designed set pieces, meticulous world-building, and emotionally charged musical numbers.

still courtesy of Cinema Fantasma

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Costa Christoulas

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