The cotton tufts of simulated fog that roll into the stop-motion animated terrors of “I Am Frankelda” can resemble hands of the damned frantically reaching up from the depths of whatever lies below.

Vividly-colored sets filled with whimsical human (ish) dolls, fanastically monstrous spiders and mantis-skeleton creatures, owl-beings and coyote-people and the like from the “Seven Clans” of a netherworld where nightmares are conjured to maintain the separation of “the realms” from the human world.

Mexico’s first-ever stop-motion animated feature film is a beautiful and ambitious bauble, and a children’s story that goes off the rails early and rarely gets a grip on much that’s coherent or even interesting to chew on.

The filmmaking Ambriz Brothers put all their energy into “Corpse Bride” level world building when script-workshopping would have done their film a world of good.

A little girl, Francisca, scribbles “terror” tales and takes inspiration from seeing her own painter mother die at the easel. Raised by a grotesque grandmother straight out of “Cinderella,” she finds her passion dismissed and her talent ridiculed.

But she’s seeing things that make their way into her writing, an owl-creature prince struggling to find himself and his place in a kingdom where his parents’ rule is threatened by ill health and a scheming Royal Nightmare Writer, the green-with-envy spider Procustes.

Francisca only comes into her own as a teen, a Frida-browed fury finding her voice under a nom de plum that takes over her personality. “I am FRANKELDA!”

And that’s when the fantasy “real” prince she’s only glimpsed tries to bridge their two worlds to use her services to provide better nightmares to maintain the distance and “balance” between these two realms. Naturally, Royal Nightmare Writer Procustes — who hasn’t had an original idea in ages — tries to steal her stories and credit for her genius.

The writing-and-directing Ambrizes prioritize low-stakes conflict and a vast clutter of characters and settings over coherence. They’re introducing new “creations” with lines to perform and roles to play right up to the closing credits.

They made this a musical, furthering the picture’s ambitions, and extending their overreach.

“You think we’re aloooone here, but there are some seeeecrets,” won’t give anybody earworms in Spanish or dubbed into English.

There’s the germ of a good idea driving all this, the notion of the value of “frights” and “What are humans afraid of now?” There’s a hint of “Monsters, Inc.” in that.

But the film is visusally all beautifully-realized effort — great effort — and all surface gloss. There’s little to identify with, the stakes seem low (Frankelda and Procustes are battling over…credit?) and our Prince of Terrors seems boy band namby-pamby.

This was Netflix money well-spent, as the tactile, “real world” glories of stop-motion make it the most delightful form of animation. Why should studios like America’s Laika and ShadowMachine, Britain’s Aardman, Russia’s Dwarf Labs and Se-Ma-For (Poland) have all the glory?

But even if the color palette and general design feels distinctly Mexican, “Frankelda’s” story is generic, unfocused and no “Book of Life”or “Coco.” It offers little for adults and even less for its alleged target audience, children.

Rating: TV-PG, scary imagery

Cast: Voiced by Mereya Mendoza, Arturo Mercado, Jr. and Luis Leonardo Suárez, with Mark Lewis and Claudis Bridgforth among others voicing roles in English

Credits: Scripted and directed by Arturo and and Roy Ambriz. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:44