From Mexico to Fantasia International Film Festival is the North American premiere of a fantastical, genre-bending masterpiece, I Am Frankleda. Written and directed by brothers Arturo Ambriz (Frankelda’s Book of Spooks) and Roy Ambriz (Frankelda’s Book of Spooks), the film follows a young woman desperate to write scary stories and a prince from another realm desperate to save his people. Together they embark on a dangerous quest to restore balance between the worlds.

After working on smaller stop-motion projects, with guidance from Guillermo del Toro (Crimson Peak, Pan’s Labyrinth), the Ambriz brothers decided to create Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature film. I Am Frankleda feels like a mix of Monster’s Inc. and The NeverEnding Story, told through stunning stop-motion. Blending elements of fantasy, animation, and horror, the film primarily follows two characters in 19th century Mexico. Francisca (Mireya Mendoza) is a young woman who loves to write scary stories as an outlet for her emotions, much to the chagrin of the cruel grandmother raising her. Because she’s a woman and because she writes horrific tales, Francisca is generally bullied and ostracized by the townspeople. Herneval (Arturo Mercado Jr.) is a prince in a land of monstrous creatures known as the Realm of the Spooks. His people survive on the fear and nightmares of people in the Realm of Existence, where Francisca lives, but the nightmares are failing and his people are suffering. Herneval brings Francisca to his world, where she takes on the name “Frankelda,” hoping her stories can help save his kingdom.

The world building throughout I Am Frankelda is whimsical, sinister, and absolutely breathtaking. At first, the mythos can seem a bit complex, but everything becomes clear as the two protagonists better understand their situation. It’s a dark fairy tale that will appeal to young and old audiences alike, conveying many compelling messages to the audience. With Frankelda’s character, there are themes of feminism, self confidence, and following your dreams. Her entire life she’s been told she can’t write scary stories because she’s a woman, and for many years that got under her skin and made her feel as though she wasn’t good enough. Yet her powerful writing ability might be the one thing that can save an entire realm. Herneval represents a certain naiveté as well as conflicting feelings as he’s torn between what he needs to do for his kingdom and his feelings for Frankelda. Then there is the Royal Nightmarer, responsible for writing nightmares sent to the human world, Procustes (Luis Leonardo Suárez). This character represents greed, lies, ego, jealousy, and the desire for power as he does everything he can to thwart Herneval and Frankelda in order to take over the realm. These characters and more add depth to the plot while also adding elements of morality, as any good fairy tale has.

With this being a stop-motion film, the visual elements are vital to the film’s success. The animation in I Am Frankelda has a certain roughness to it, but it adds to the charm and darkness of the story being told. The human world has a rather simple look, generally dull and grey in color. Once we enter the Realm of the Spooks, filled with every kind of nightmarish creature imaginable, the animation takes on a much more vibrant, intricate, fantastical appearance. The sets are beautifully done and the creature design is truly spectacular. Some monsters viewers will be familiar with and others have new, unique looks. While the stunning, mixed media approach to the stop-motion animation is striking, there are one or two more action-packed scenes that can be hard to read with how many characters there are moving at once. As a whole, the animation is gorgeous and it’s quite amazing what the crew was able to accomplish. I also highly recommend those seeing the film watch through the credits, which will give them some behind the scenes glimpses into how the film was made.

One of the biggest surprises of I Am Frankelda is that it’s also a musical. Whether the royal family is singing nightmares into the minds of humans or other creatures are singing songs of love and revolt, the music plays an important role in the storytelling. Not only are the songs well written and sung, but they also add to the emotion and plot of certain scenes. The entire film has a sense of magic and whimsy and each song only helps to enhance that feeling. Not to mention, a couple of them are quite catchy, leading to toe-tapping delight.

I Am Frankelda shows the beauty and power of nightmares through stunning stop-motion animation. It’s hard to believe this is a feature film debut for the Ambriz brothers. It’s clear much time and care was put into crafting the story and bringing it to life in such an elaborate, time-consuming format. The end result is a gorgeous work of art full of wonder and monsters with a plot and songs to draw the audience in. If you see I Am Frankelda and find yourself craving more, then you’re in luck. This film is a prequel to the Ambriz brother’s stop-motion series on HBO Max, Frankelda’s Book of Spooks, featuring five tales of terror told by Frankleda.

OVERALL RATING: 8.5/10