Netflix has released the official trailer for I Am Frankelda, a beautifully gothic stop-motion fantasy from Mexican filmmakers Arturo and Roy Ambriz.
The film follows Francisca Imelda, a gifted young writer in 19th-century Mexico whose dark stories are ignored and dismissed by the world around her. But Frankelda’s imagination is far from ordinary. Her journey pulls her into a strange inner universe, where dreams, fears, monsters and creativity all begin to blur together.
That premise gives I Am Frankelda a wonderfully specific identity. This is not just a spooky animated adventure; it is a story about authorship, imagination and the pain of being unheard. Frankelda’s world is built from gothic fantasy, Mexican cultural texture and the handmade beauty of stop-motion animation, giving the trailer a rich, eerie atmosphere.
The film is especially significant because it is recognised as Mexico’s first feature-length stop-motion animated film. That alone makes it a major milestone for Mexican animation, but the trailer also makes clear that this is not a technical achievement alone. The world of I Am Frankelda looks carefully crafted, theatrical and deeply personal, with every puppet, shadow and strange creature carrying a handmade sense of wonder.
The voice cast includes Mireya Mendoza, Arturo Mercado Jr. and Luis Leonardo Suárez, while Cinema Fantasma’s stop-motion style gives the story a tactile quality that digital animation often cannot replicate. The result looks like a dark fairy tale with music, monsters and emotional bite.
For fans of gothic animation, dark fantasy and handcrafted films, I Am Frankelda looks like one of Netflix’s most distinctive animated releases of the year. It has the mood of a haunted storybook, but underneath the ghosts and fantasy lies something very human: the need to create, to be heard and to turn pain into art.
I Am Frankelda premieres globally on Netflix on June 12, 2026.
Video source: Netflix
