Apple’s ‘A Critter Carol’ Holiday Short Film was Shot Entirely with an iPhone 17 Pro

Snow covers the ground in a wooded clearing, where a hiker stops to catch his breath and grabs his iPhone 17 Pro. But it slips out of his gloved hand and into the snow. Moments later a raccoon emerges from the underbrush, sweeps away the powder and reveals the screen. He opens the camera app and soon a crowd of woodland creatures gather around this unexpected prize. What follows is an impromptu performance titled “A Critter Carol.”

This short features nine handmade puppets: the raccoon leads with quick paws, a bear lumbers in with a gentle rumble, an owl perches on a branch, a deer stands tall with quiet grace, a squirrel chatters from the treetops, a rabbit hops with boundless energy, a mole digs in from below, a wolf adds low harmony and a rat scurries to join the chorus. They crowd around the phone, leaning it against a log to frame their faces. The raccoon hits record and they start singing “Friends” from Flight of the Conchords, a song about friendships formed in unexpected places.

Puppeteers lie flat on their stomachs beneath an elevated set, three feet above the studio floor, with their arms extended through secret slots to control everything. Blue suits cover their bodies, to be removed in post, while the forest behind them is created using layered backdrops and real snow machines that dust the picture with real snow. Director Mark Molloy watches from a monitor, calling out corrections as the iPhone 17 Pro takes it all in 4K ProRes RAW.

Mid-song, the raccoon stops filming and flips the phone to selfie mode. Center Stage comes in and keeps every face in focus as they move and crowd in. The owl tilts its head for a closer look, the squirrel jumps on the bear’s shoulder and the rabbit strikes a pose. Laughter spreads and is captured in the raw audio that overlays the song. Then they switch to dual capture, with the front camera capturing their happy faces and the back camera capturing the snow behind them. An 8x zoom sweeps across the clearing, picking out icicles on branches and paw prints in the snow and turns the background into a character in its own right.
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