Guillermo Del Toro Produced This Stunning Animated Movie Streaming On Netflix

Academy Award-winning filmmaker and all-around living genre legend Guillermo del Toro has frequently called the medium of stop-motion animation a “sacred space,” and few films embody that idea more completely than “I Am Frankelda (Soy Frankelda),” the feature film debut from brothers Arturo and Roy Ambriz. As Mexico’s first feature-length stop-motion film, it establishes a historic benchmark. Future animators working in this medium will walk through the doors opened by the Ambriz brothers and their studio, Cinema Fantasma, but they have one hell of an act to follow.

A prequel to the Cartoon Network Latin America series “Frankelda’s Book of Spooks,” the dark fantasy horror musical is a perfect introduction to the world the Ambriz Brothers have created. The story follows Francisca Imelda, a young writer whose grief and imagination forge a connection with the Land of Spooks, a realm sustained by human nightmares. There, a dying royal family, scheming factions, and an ambitious, evil spider named Procustes struggle for control of the kingdom’s future. Frankelda’s own creations — including the owl-like Prince Herneval — begin influencing her as much as she influences them, turning the relationship between artist and artwork into the film’s central obsession. Frankelda is the author of the phantasmagorical world she’s entering, and her imagination has crafted one of the richest fantasy environments put on screen in years.

Netflix has become a haven for exciting, experimental, and excellent animation from all over the globe, and “I Am Frankelda” is a worthwhile addition to their already impressive library. The world is so densely imagined that it’s a miracle it exists at all, but the way the story explores the recursive relationship between creator and creation elevates it beyond an impressive visual feast.

During a Q&A with Arturo and Roy Ambriz moderated by Guillermo del Toro as part of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF), the filmmakers said Frankelda explores a reality where a young girl with the talent and imagination of Mary Shelley had been born in Mexico, noting that “the machismo culture” would have made it so she’d only be able to get her work out there by coming back as a ghost. Once the world-building settles into place, “I Am Frankelda” finds its emotional center. Frankelda’s anxieties about artistic creation dovetail beautifully with Herneval’s guilt and desperation to save his family, culminating in a story that’s ultimately less about fantasy adventure than the often painful act of making meaningful art. The film is bursting with ideas about imagination, authorship, and the unsettling moment when a creator loses control of their own creation.

The film itself isn’t entirely immune to growing pains. The first act is loaded with exposition, painstakingly explaining concepts such as the Harpspider (a musical instrument made of spider webs in a twisted tree in the middle of the palace that is starting to decay), the role of the Royal Nightmarer (the writer responsible for the nightmare stories to be played on the Harpspider, currently held by Procustes), and the various political factions (think Greek titans but Mexican nightmare creations) within the Land of Spooks that are jockeying for power. The mythology occasionally threatens to overwhelm the story, but fortunately, the filmmakers consistently find inventive ways to convey it, whether through sweeping camera movements, elaborate production design, and beautiful musical sequences. Once you’re completely immersed in the world the Ambriz brothers are created, it’s hard to imagine ever wanting to leave it.

Cardboard cutouts, 2D illustrations, and 3D models collide with animated puppets, hand-painted backdrops, and even live-action inserts all without disrupting the visual language. Clouds and fog are fashioned from cotton wool, and smoke curls through sets of miniatures. So many characters are cloaked with hair, fuzz, or feathers, meaning every subtle movement catches the light, and some creations proudly display the fingerprints of human creativity. During the Q&A, the Ambriz brothers revealed that this was the very first feature film for over 100 people who worked on it. It’s hard to imagine that reality, because “I Am Frankelda” harkens to a style of stop-motion animation that has been deprioritized in favor of figures that look as realistic as humanly possible.

Cinema Fantasma is also behind the truly phenomenal Adult Swim series “Women Wearing Shoulder Pads,” and it’s clear they all understand that tactile artistry carries an emotional weight digital imagery often struggles to replicate. The film’s recurring ideas about the messy, unpredictable relationship between author, audience, and text become more convincing because they’re expressed through handcrafted objects that feel alive. Guillermo del Toro might be the name that gets audiences to tune in, but the Ambriz brothers more than prove they’re ones to watch moving forward.

For fans of dark fantasy, “I Am Frankelda” belongs near the genre’s summit. It’s visually dazzling, intellectually playful, and deeply sincere about the power of storytelling. In an era when animation increasingly faces pressure from homogenized digital aesthetics and data-driven shortcuts, the Ambriz brothers offer a reminder of what makes the medium magical in the first place. Every frame was touched by human hands and haunted by human imagination. AI could never.

“I Am Frankelda” is now streaming on Netflix.