Frankelda's Book of Spooks

Frankelda's Book of Spooks is a Mexican stop motion animated series created by Arturo and Roy Ambriz and co-produced by Cinema Fantasma and Darkframe Digital. Based on a 2019 webshow pilot produced for Cartoon Network Latin America's YouTube channel, the series was picked up as a Max Original and released on the Latin America feeds of HBO Max on October 29th, 2021, with the first episode being aired alongside the premiere of Villainous as part of a Halloween event on Cartoon Network Latin America. The series would be released on the US and Canadian version of Max on October 12, 2023. A spinoff film, Frankelda and the Prince of Spooks is currently in production.
==Synopsis==
Frankelda, a ghostly author, tells tales of terror with the assistance of her grumpy and cautious enchanted book Herneval, primarily focused on children encountering supernatural entities such as gnomes, witches, sirens and the Coco collectively known as "Spooks", that rely on human fear to survive. Trapped in the consciousness of a sentient haunted house for 150 years, telling stories allows the two an opportunity to gradually regain their strength and make an escape plan, though they run the risk of the house waking up.
== Characters ==
* Frankelda (voiced by Mireya Mendoza), known in life as Francisca Imelda, is the ghost of an aspiring horror writer from 1870s Mexico. Raised by a stern grandmother and rejected by sexist publishers, Francisca coined her pen name in a fit of frustration shortly before taking an offer from Herneval to become his royal nightmare maker, allowing her stories to find an audience in people's dreams. However, only her consciousness could make the journey to the world of the spooks and through Procustes's machinations, it would be a one way trip. With the nature of dreams leaving her anonymous, she had become a literal ghostwriter.
* Herneval (voiced by Arturo Mercado Jr.) is Frankelda's grumpy enchanted book. Prior to taking on his current state, he was the owl-like prince of the Spook Kingdom of Topus Terrentus. Admiring her work since they were children, he made a romantic offer to Frankelda to replace Procustes as nightmare maker. He has the ability to induce astral projection in humans and put anybody he touches to sleep.
* Procustes (voiced by Luis Leonardo Suarez) is a giant spider monster that serves as the show's main antagonist. The original nightmare maker for Topus Terrentus, Procustes's stories had become stale and cliche enough that they weren't scaring people enough anymore, putting the realm in jeopardy. When Herneval brought Frankelda in to replace him, he took revenge by ensuring she would never leave. Through unknown circumstances, he merged with his mansion and trapped Frankelda and Herneval in the walls of his mind.
==Episodes==
===Season One===
Number	Episode Title 	Original Airdate	Summary
1 	Give Me Your Name 	October 29, 2021 (Latin America)
October 12, 2023 (US)	Frankelda tells the story of Nemo, a boy who trades his name away to a gnome to free himself from his responsibilities.
2 	You Can Transform! 	October 29, 2021 (Latin America)
October 12, 2023 (US)	Frankelda tells the story of Magali, a girl desperate to fit into school that makes a deal with three witches.
3 	They'll Drown in Their Fears	October 29, 2021 (Latin America)
October 12, 2023 (US)	Frankelda tells the story of Uli, a boy that has to overcome his insecurities to try and save his friends from an axolotl-like siren.
4 	Let's Get Out of the Dark 	October 29, 2021 (Latin America)
October 12, 2023 (US)	Frankelda tells the story of Tere, a girl bullied for her love of theremin music offered an opportunity to leave her passion for music behind from the charismatic El Coco.
5 	Invisible Ink 	October 29, 2021 (Latin America)
October 12, 2023 (US)	Ready to set her escape plan into motion, Frankelda tells her origin story as aspiring horror writer Francisca Imelda and how she and Herneval met and came to be trapped together.
==Production notes==
Frankelda's Book of Spooks was inspired by a long legacy of anthology series such as Tales from the Crypt, Are You Afraid of the Dark, and Jim Henson's The Storyteller. The Storyteller and its two hosts in particular would inspire the character dynamics of Frankelda and Herneval. Frankelda herself would be loosely based on Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, with her backstory featuring various parallels to Shelley's life story.
Frankelda would be the largest stop motion production in Mexico's history with 122 puppets and 42 sets.
Frankelda's Book of Spooks was dubbed into English twice over. The first dub was produced in 2021 by BKS Studios in Miami as a language option for the original Latin American release, featuring Andrea Villaverde in the role of Frankelda. The second dub was produced for the 2023 US release by Keywords Studios in Los Angeles with full supervision from the original production team and would see Mireya Mendoza, Arturo Mercado Jr. and Luis Leonardo Suarez reprising their roles in English.
==Trivia==
*An Adventure Time lunchbox appears in "They'll Drown in Their Fears"
*A sticker of Black Hat from Villainous can be seen on the theremin in "Let's Get Out of the Dark"
*Some of the axolotl puppets seen in "They'll Drown in Their Fears" are recycled from Cinema Fantasma's short film "Revoltoso".
Category:Shows
Category:2020s shows
Category:Stop Motion shows
Category:Max Originals