"A Critter Carol"

1 December 2025

2 mins 20s

Critter Comforts.

Apple's Christmas ad has been much praised by industry voices on social media, not least because the analogue nature of its construction has led to it being perceived as a full-throated cry of fury being directed at AI. Projection, much? It may not be the Luddite battle cry some would want it to be, but it's a perfectly lovely piece of work, and everyone concerned should be very proud of it.

In a highly entertaining Behind the Scenes film which, by the way, contains more credits than have been made publicly available by Apple's Stasi-like PR team, we learn a lot from director Mark Molloy, cinematographer Joost van Gelder, production designer Andy Kelly, and some of the puppeteers who brought it all to life.

The low-key sweetness of the song 'Friends' by Flight of the Conchords is the glue that binds it all together, and it accentuates the charm of the forest critters who are designed, in the words of production designer Andy Kelly, to look as though "they've been through life". This embracing of imperfections is what has rallied those fearful of the toehold already gained by AI when it comes to the making of TVCs and video content advertising, but the idea that an outlier like this piece is some sort of counter-revolutionary vanguard is slightly less believable than a collection of forest animals filming themselves performing a musical number.

So, just enjoy it on its own terms, because it's fun.

Global

Computer Hardware