Apple has launched its new holiday ad A Critter Carol, which features a misplaced iPhone 17 Pro being used by woodland critters to record themselves singing a Christmas carol.
Apple simultaneously released a making of video that shows how the company also used iPhones in the making of the film, as well as how all the hand-crafted puppetry was animated and brought to life.
In the ad, two explorers in the wood accidentally drop their phone, leaving a blue iPhone 17 Pro on the woodland floor.
The animals pick up the phone and use it to film themselves recording a musical performance of the song Friends, by Flight of the Conchords.
The singing is cut-short when the phone’s owner uses the Ping feature on his Apple Watch to retrace his steps and recover the lost phone.
In the behind-the-scenes, you can see how the animal puppets are being hand-controlled by on-set animators wearing blue clothing, that is later removed digitally. The fake forest set was designed to sit on a platform that is suspended 3 feet off the ground, so the animators can hold the puppets up from underneath the ‘floor’.
Watch Apple’s 2025 holiday film here: