‘I Am Frankelda’ Review – Mexico’s First Stop-Motion Film Is Ambitious & Stunning

Fantasia Review: I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s First Stop-Motion Feature, Speaks Truth to Power

More than the similarly mythologized Monsters, Inc., the first stop-motion feature produced in Mexico (courtesy of the Cinema Fantasma studio) recalls an old childhood favorite from the ’80s: Little Monsters. Just like that Fred Savage vehicle, writers-directors Los Hermanos Ambriz (Arturo and Roy) have created a means to connect reality to nightmare so a human might embrace the latter’s mischief, mystery, and terror that the former rejects. The…

‘I Am Frankelda’ Review – Mexico’s First Stop-Motion Film Is Ambitious & Stunning

Brothers Rodolfo and Arturo Ambriz, proteges of Pinocchio filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, expand their imaginative, monster-filled world of "Frankelda's

Fantasia 2025: I Am Frankelda

Rating: 4 out of 5. Beautifully realized stop motion animated I Am Frankelda has to be one of the most stunning movies of the year. With imagery that recalls Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas, directors Roy Ambirz and Arturo Ambriz do an incredible job at paying tribute whilst paving their own exciting way into the future. At times, the visuals are garish by design—dwelling in the dream realm, the juxtaposition against the real world s…