The commercial tells the story of a friendship between a hyena named Hattie, who is bullied by her pack for not knowing how to laugh, and an antisocial zookeeper -Carl- who doesn't want to laugh at all. Their passion for content makes Carl and Hattie end up sharing a curious friendship that will lead them to escape from the zoo and regain hope and more importantly, their smile.

An unexpected Christmas tale condensed in two minutes for Prime Video, a brand specialized in storytelling.

Hyenas are usually portrayed as savage animals, especially thanks to international classic films like The Lion King. We had to turn that around through the storytelling, different gags in the film, and our main character’s evolution.

Another challenge was that the campaign was aired in 7 different countries with very different languages so we had to develop a story that would resonate across every culture. We wrote a script with no dialogue and with relatable characters who could make anyone, anywhere, smile.

An Unlikely Friendship was Prime Video first Christmas ad in Europe; broadcasted in 7 countries: Spain, UK, France, Ireland, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, so the content displayed on the screens throughout the commercial changed for each one of the markets.

An unlikely friendship was a very ambitious project from the beginning; our main character is a fully CGI (yet ultrarealistic animal). This required a very careful design of all the details involving the production and coordination of more than 100 people in an international crew and 50 VFX animators working worldwide.

Most of the locations and sceneries in the film were crafted and created from zero. From Carl’s apartment to the hyena’s den, carefully built with glass and stones. And locations like the zoo entrance and streets were reconstructed to fit the story.

The street decoration, snow, housing details, and the classic Christmasy American streets had to be redesigned and rebuilt as the commercial was shot in Spain's balmy September.

The color palette for the film was also very carefully picked to match Prime Video’s colors avoiding their competitor's corporate red, yet maintaining the Christmas aesthetic and atmosphere.