Written by Matt Swanson
I Am Frankelda is an accomplishment in stop motion. A prequel to Cartoon Network Latin America’s stop-motion series, Frankelda’s Book of Spooks, the film is considered the first Mexican stop-motion feature film. With Netflix releasing the film to a wider audience, more people can enjoy the dark-fantasy realm of Topus Terrenus. While its themes are shallower and the lore can feel contrived, the film rivals Tim Burton in visual ingenuity and wacky, gothic world-building.
Francisca Imelda (Mireya Mendoza) doesn’t conform to the expectations of 1866 Mexico. She’s a creative kid, constantly writing gothic-horror stories and building worlds of terror. After her mother’s death, she’s left in the care of her grandmother, who forces her to be more of a housemaid than a writer. Francisca uses her writing to escape from the difficulty of her life. She writes of a heroic Prince Herneval in a fantastical realm called Topus Terrenus, a world full of bizarre creatures called Terrors. Many years later, an 18-year-old Francisca is still writing of that gothic world. Feeling defeated by failed attempts to publish her work, she decides to use the pseudonym Frankelda. However, what Francisca doesn’t know is that Topus Terrenus is a parallel dimension that becomes real through her writing.
The world of Topus Terrenus is in danger. The creatures in it are sustained by the human fear produced by children’s nightmares. But in a modernizing world, nightmares can be explained away and no longer produce fear as reliably. Desperate, the Prince of the realm, Herneval (Claudis Bridgeforth/Arturo Mercado Jr.), looks for solutions to his crumbling world. Because Francisca writes about him so much, she inadvertently gives him a bridge to cross from his dimension to hers. Recognizing the quality of Francisca’s horror writing, Herneval believes she may be Topus Terrenus’s only hope.
I Am Frankelda is vividly creative. Its parallel dimension allows for bizarre creatures, elaborate set-pieces, and gothic visual invention. Stop motion is the ideal medium for the expression of new races like owl-humanoid royalty, hairy-spider authors, and figures representing specific human fears. While there are parallels between Topus Terrenus and the world of Monsters, Inc., in which monsters rely on scaring humans for their existence, I Am Frankelda tries to contextualize its origin—for better or worse. The background of Topus Terrenus can feel a bit convoluted and contrived at times, but it’s apparent that the gothic-horror atmosphere is more effective than its lore.
The film’s central theme is the importance of creativity and fiction. Francisca uses her writing to escape from the difficulty of her reality, and the film gives that escapism a significance. Francisca’s writing isn’t only the source of her relief; it both creates worlds and gives her the opportunity to save them. The central tension has relevance in both parallel dimensions: if her writing is powerful enough to save Topus Terrenus, it may also give her the confidence to endure criticism and pursue her dreams in real life. When looking at the themes of the story and the apparent messiness of the lore, it’s important to remember that I Am Frankelda is intended for younger viewers. The themes may be effective in inspiring their creativity. However, for more mature audiences, the visual details are enough to keep them engaged and impressed.
In an era where animation is more accessible than ever and AI-generated videos are flooding the internet, the purposeful art of I Am Frankelda is a breath of fresh air. Stop motion is famously a painstaking process which requires hours of labor to create seconds of motion. This film uses its stop-motion medium to the fullest. There are several memorable sequences that switch between claymation and watercolor animation, giving those scenes a fluid quality. Other moments switch to static figurines, giving those sequences a tactile quality. The diversity of styles among the creatures gives the world depth and contributes to its visual dynamism. Overall, I Am Frankelda is most successful as both an invitation to creativity and a showcase for uniquely imaginative fantasy world-building through stop motion.
I Am Frankelda is streaming on Netflix.
