It’s a classic festive story: Rather than hating his boss, A Christmas Carol’s Bob Cratchit pities his lonely and miserable employer Ebenezer Scrooge and hopes that he’ll find joy in the holiday season.
Apple’s annual holiday film, Fuzzy Feelings, channels the same sentiment, following a woman who comes to see her grumpy boss in a new light.
Lucia Aniello, who has won multiple Emmy Awards for her work on TV series Hacks, directed the nearly four-minute spot from longtime Apple agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab alongside stop-motion animator and director Anna Mantzaris.
The ad starts in stop motion, showing a man stealing from a charity pot and receiving some instant karma as the winter wind blows away his hat, coat and pants. A snow truck then buries him in slush.
The camera pans out to reveal that the film is being made by a woman using an iPhone 15 Pro Max and edited with a 15-inch MacBook Air with M2. Her inspiration for the unfortunate man is her rude boss.
She continues to inflict misfortunes on his stop-motion character until he gives her a thoughtful Christmas gift, and sees him eating at a restaurant alone. This inspires her to craft a happier scene for his felt stand-in, where he finds a dog under a Christmas tree and then joins her boss for lunch at the office cafeteria.
Set to George Harrison’s “Isn’t It a Pity,” the film’s goal is to remind viewers that creativity can make the world kinder. It will be shared on YouTube starting today, along with a behind-the-scenes video about the making of the ad.
Apple has previously released emotional long-form holiday ads that show off the capabilities of its devices. The 2021 film from Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman and his son Jason Reitman followed a girl trying to save her snowman as a metaphor for a return to celebrations post-Covid lockdowns, while 2019’s The Surprise dealt with the loss of a loved one and the stress of holiday travel.
CREDITS
Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab
Director: Lucia Aniello
DP: James Laxton
Production company: Hungry Man
Animation director: Anna Mantzaris
Animation production company: Passion Pictures
Music: “Isn’t It a Pity” by George Harrison
