On Saturday, May 30th, I attended the TCL Chinese Theatre to watch Soy Frankelda, Mexico’s first stop-motion feature length film in the history of Mexico. That weekend, the venue focused solely on the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, where independent movies are featured and well-known Latino actors, writers and directors come together to celebrate Latino representation in the movie industry. Soy Frankelda was screened alongside a Q&A event with the film’s directors, Roy and Arturo Ambriz, and Guillermo del Toro, who discussed the movie and their collaboration
Soy Frankelda is a prequel to Frankelda’s Book of Spooks, an anthology series featuring five episodes that focus on Francisca Imelda (Frankelda) and Herneval. The movie follows Francisca in 19th-century Mexico as she struggles to become a writer. Her traditional grandmother repeatedly tells her that women cannot write. Ignoring this male-dominated world, Francisca yearns to write horror stories and adopts the pen name Frankelda.
Meanwhile, a dimensional creature named Herneval has admired Frankelda’s stories since he was a child. Now an adult, he needs her help to create nightmares for humans, as her horror stories are the key to saving his kingdom and he takes Frankelda’s consciousness to travel to Herneval’s kingdom in the form of a ghost. However, a petty creature named Procrustes, the Royal Nightmare Maker, stands in their way. Procrustes is titled and responsible for turning human dreams into nightmares, but he is running out of ideas to save his world. To protect his position, he plots to ruin Herneval and Frankelda’s plans and steal Frankelda’s stories.
The entire movie explores Frankelda, Herneval, and Procrustes through a dark, twisted musical format. It shows how they create the very horror stories to become nightmares to humans that set up their roles in the five-episode series, Frankelda’s Book of Spooks, which is available to watch now on HBO Max and I recommend for everyone to watch Soy Frankelda first when streams to Netflix on June 12, 2026 then watch the five episode series.
During the Q&A, directors Arturo and Roy Ambriz, along with Guillermo del Toro, discussed their collaboration and the behind-the-scenes process of making Soy Frankelda. When the Ambriz brothers first started film school, they reached out to Del Toro, beginning a close relationship that has lasted for almost twenty years. The brothers went on to found their own studio, Cinema Fantasma, on the rooftop of their home in Mexico City. While launching their business, they relied on help from family and friends to create their stop-motion animation films, including their debut short Revoltoso, Frankelda’s Book of Spooks, and ultimately, Soy Frankelda.
As a fan of claymation films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Aardman’s Wallace and Gromit, I found the screening event of Soy Frankelda to be completely different from anything I had ever experienced. The unique puppet designs are based on Cubism art. During the Q&A, it was revealed that this specific style had never been attempted in a stop-motion feature film before—its only predecessor being the Ambriz brothers’ early short film, Revoltoso.
The creation of Frankelda’s Book of Spooks was fueled by the Ambriz brothers’ passion for stop-motion, even when people doubted the project would succeed. Guillermo del Toro famously pointed out that both brothers are Frankelda themselves. They channeled their own struggles and inspiration into creating Frankelda’s origin story. Originally planned as a four-episode series, they added a fifth episode to explore her life in 19th-century Mexico, where she fought to become a writer against a heavily patriarchal, machismo culture.
Following its release, the original show amassed a massive fanbase in Mexico. Fans fell in love with Frankelda, spawning fan fiction, themed piñatas, and even Quinceañera parties. This overwhelming support inspired the Ambriz brothers to pursue a full-length feature movie. Once again, doubters questioned their ambition, but the brothers refused to be stopped.
I highly recommend Soy Frankelda to everyone. It took four years of daily, intense work to complete. The Ambriz brothers managed a team of 15 animators and around two hundred crew members handling audio, camera work, and set design. The animation was done entirely by hand without any green screen effects. While I noticed a few minor technical imperfections in the final film, the story behind its creation deeply inspired the audience. Many attending animators who did not work on the project were visibly moved when Del Toro stated, “But it’s been really important for me to say this—that I believe stop-motion is a sacred space.” As someone who yearns to become a 2D animator one day, hearing Del Toro praise animators and encourage them to create a story on how they feel and ignore what others say and Del Toro was incredibly motivating.
