I Am Frankelda is Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature film. Written, directed, and produced by Rodolfo and Arturo Ambriz, the Ambriz brothers are proteges of Guillermo del Toro and even dedicate the film to the Mexican filmmaker. The film is a Mexican production produced by Cartoon Network Latin America and Warner Bros. Discovery.
The Ambriz brothers did a miniseries consisting of five 12-minute episodes entitled Frankelda’s Book of Spooks, which I Am Frankelda is essentially an expansion of. The series looks like it features the same characters and cinematic realms that I Am Frankelda showcases, but is more focused on the stories Frankelda has written in her book. I Am Frankelda is the origin of both Francisca Imelda in the 1870s and a disintegrating nightmare realm where she is drawn to an owl boy named Herneval. Since Frankelda’s Book of Spooks can currently be found on HBO Max, it seems like I Am Frankelda will eventually be available there.
Francis’s imagination was troublesome for her as a child. She has always been writing, but her vivid imagination always resulted in her grandmother scolding her and encouraging her to do more feminine activities. The two realms were bridged from the beginning, with Francis’ writing being the common connection. She dreamed about the nightmare realm from a young age and wrote about it.
Herneval is a prince whose royal family rules over the nightmare realm. His father and mother, the king and queen, are kind and compassionate, while their empathy for others is often seen as a weakness. Their realm is falling apart because there hasn’t been a decent nightmare in years.
A giant green spider named Procustes is the royal nightmarer. He is in charge of writing horrific nightmares that would allow their realm to flourish. But Procustes hasn’t written anything in years. His time is spent trying to keep his job with mind games. Since he has had the royal nightmarer title for so long, he believes his writing ability is greater than it truly is.
Years pass, and Herneval and Francis are now adults. Francis attempts to get published, but her horror and fantasy stories are seen as too fanciful. She is encouraged to write in a more realistic genre, like romance, and she takes it personally. She adopts the Frankelda moniker as a new pen name to continue writing as the best fantasy and horror author ever.
Herneval’s parents are now dying, and the nightmare realm is on the verge of deteriorating completely. Herneval has been following and reading Francis’ stories all this time – traveling to her realm despite it being forbidden. He wants her to be the new royal nightmarer to save his realm and his parents. Procustes becomes jealous and intends to have Frankelda write for him for eternity.
I Am Frankelda takes a lot of inspiration from the likes of The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Neverending Story. The importance of writing and fiction is crucial to the storytelling of the film. Francis’ stories fail to make an impact in her realm, but are like a series of undiscovered gold mines in the nightmare realm.
It’s also bizarre that the writing of the film is so elongated. I Am Frankelda is nearly two hours long, which feels like an eternity for an animated film. The film is so dialogue-heavy, as well. With so many exceptional monsters and unique creatures in the film, it feels criminal that they spend more time talking than they do being scary or menacing.
The ending isn’t entirely satisfying either. I Am Frankelda leaves the story up in the air with a ton of unanswered plot points and major developments. It ends on a serious cliffhanger that impacts both realms simultaneously. It’s a bold move considering in this day and age, especially on a fickle streaming giant like HBO Max, that cancels fully completed Warner Bros. Films whenever the wind blows the wrong way, hinting at a sequel that may or may not come to fruition.
For the most part, I Am Frankelda is beautiful to look at. The puppets used in the animated film are brimming with intricate details, and the film itself gushes with vibrant colors and superb lighting. In a lot of old cartoons, you can typically tell what item someone is going to interact with because it either has more detail or it's a different color. The mouths in I Am Frankelda are consistently different colors, which is a bit distracting. Many of the typical bean-shaped mouths are also flat and give off South Park or Robot Chicken vibes.
The backgrounds are littered with the same amount of detail. The nightmare realm is surrounded by a cloud-infested sea with waving white arms and hands. Structures are made up of various colored eyeballs, talons, and wings buried inside massive tree trunks and branches. When a nightmare is written, the royal family places it on a podium next to a tree with cobwebs inside. The cobwebs are then used as a harp to play the freshly written nightmares.
There are incredible, spooky elements throughout I Am Frankelda. A crocodile fishing in the cloud sea is seen moments later with its flesh dissolving from its bones. The nightmare realm features nasty perfection like a two-headed griffin, a mammoth skeleton, and a blindfolded magic coyote. The film is a visual feast for animation fans.
A story worth telling is told in a roundabout way that would benefit from being much more concise. I Am Frankelda needed an editor or a ghost writer to tighten things up. The film feels like it’s about 15-20 minutes too long. Overall, I Am Frankelda is an animated triumph that is a bit rough around the edges.
