Watch how Apple made its new puppet-packed holiday ad

While companies like Coca-Cola have turned to generative AI this year to create “visually shocking” holiday ads, Apple continues to leverage practical effects with its new festive short film titled A Carol creature featuring a forest full of tech-savvy woodland creatures.

In the ad, a hiker drops his iPhone 17 Pro, which is found by a curious raccoon who uses it to film an impromptu performance of the Flight of the Conchords song “Friends,” along with other animals, including a bear, a wolf, an owl, a deer, a squirrel and a rabbit. The phone is eventually recovered by the hiker, who uses his Apple Watch to locate it.

In the same way that the intro to the new Apple TV was created by filming a glass model of the logo lit by colored lights, Apple has released a behind-the-scenes look at the practical effects used to create A Carol creature. Many blue screens and blue bodysuits were used that allowed the entire forest to be digitally expanded and removed human artists in post-production, but the creatures were all hand-made puppets brought to life by a small army of puppeteers controlling various body parts. And yes, the entire production was shot on an iPhone 17 Pro.