For its painstaking physicality alone, stop-motion is inherently impressive as an animation technique, no matter the scale or budgetary specifics of the project. But when artists, like those behind the ambitiously crafted phantasmagorical musical “ I Am Frankelda ,” throw caution to wind to build an imposing universe to animate frame by frame, one can’t help but feel in utter awe — warts and all.
Gothic sets with baroque architecture — that not only catch the eye but prompt one to wonder how they were conceived — serve as the backdrop to the similarly ornate puppets in the first stop-motion feature fully produced in Mexico (Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning “Pinocchio” was only partially made in the director’s home country). Through their studio Cinema Fantasma, brothers Roy and Arturo

 VARIETY Film
 VARIETY Film

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