Apple: Creative Spotlight

A Critter Carol

A Critter Carol” is Apple’s holiday film for iPhone 17 Pro, a handcrafted woodland world of puppets brought to life through months of meticulous practical craft directed Mark Molloy.

A Critter Carol is a love letter to practical filmmaking. Apple built an entire forest by hand — every branch, log, and patch of snow — and raised it several feet off the ground so puppeteers could perform unseen beneath it, operating characters through hidden openings in the terrain.