A confident young girl with a head full of strange and fantastical ideas partners with the prince of the realm of imagination to restore the balance between fantasy and reality in the Ambriz Brothers’ historic first feature, I Am Frankelda.
Francisca Imelda (voiced by Mireya Mendoza) wants nothing more than to share the wealth of spooky stories that can’t help but pour from her fertile pen. However, it seems that no publisher in 19th century Mexico is interested in fantasy written by a woman. Little does she know that her imagination provides the fuel for an alternate realm of fantastical creatures, including the Herneval (Arturo Mercado, Jr.), the Prince of Spooks.
The land of the spooks is governed by Herneval’s parents, who reciprocate Francisca Imelda’s generosity by delivering nightmares to the world of reality, nightmares penned by the Royal Nightmarer, Procustes (Luis Leonardo Suarez). However, when his horrors become stale, the realm of imagination faces extinction, and the only solution is fresh blood. Herneval parts the veil between reality and fantasy to bring the newly christened Frankelda – renamed to hide her feminine identity in a fit of righteous feminist rage – to help bring his world back to life. Procustes doesn’t approve of his turf being infringed upon, and so begins a battle for the soul of the realm.
Mexico’s first stop-motion feature film, I Am Frankelda is a monumental achievement for the Brothers Ambriz. Not only is it a pioneering effort, it’s also really, really good. Painstakingly animated over the course of three years with something of a skeleton crew and a modest budget, this is one of the most visually ambitious features the genre has ever seen. Every frame is meticulously staged, each character – of which there are literally hundreds – is intricately designed and articulated, and each set or backdrop is packed to the gills with an explosive amount of filigree and detail that often overwhelms the eye in the best possible way.
An extension of the HBO Max series Frankelda’s Book of Spooks, I Am Frankelda builds a complex and intricate world in which this classical drama plays out. Obviously reminiscent of Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in terms of its gothic ambience, the film remains distinctly and unmistakably Mexican in its imagery and characterizations, making it all the more fascinating to both those familiar with the country’s folkloric history and those just dipping a toe in.
Accomplished with minimal CG assistance, I Am Frankelda is an obvious labor of love. Each puppet is baroque in its execution, in line with traditional Mexican folk art. The story, though an original tale from the writer/directors, incorporates local folk tales and boogeymen that will thrill adults and children alike. And on top of all of that, it is a musical, with a handful of impressively complex song picturizations that take the experience to a whole other level.
The technical aspects are miraculous to behold, especially for a country’s maiden effort, but holding it all together is a relatable story about the power of imagination, the fight for ownership over one’s own work and the agency to share it, all wrapped around a story of star-crossed lovers separated by the divide between reality and fantasy.
The risk a filmmaker runs when creating new worlds for an audience include the possibility that the narrative can become overstuffed with characters and lore, and I Am Frankelda is not entirely immune in that way. Though the central narrative is relatively easy to follow, the abundance of characters and a brand-new mythology do make the early exposition sequences a bit complex to follow. However, as the film settles into a groove and the mythology is honed to a finer point in order to tell the story at hand, much of the fog of confusion lifts. It is a minor quibble in an otherwise major achievement.
Fans of fantasy storytelling have a pair of exciting new voices to follow the Roy and Arturo Ambriz. I Am Frankelda could have been a footnote in the history of Mexican filmmaking if I Am Frankelda was anything less than wonderful, but thankfully for all of us, it is exactly that. This is a film that will delight audiences for years to come, a universal and timeless tale destined to inspire both in its storytelling and its execution. If you get the chance to see it on the big screen, do not pass it up! I Am Frankelda is tremendous.