The design and animation team at BUCK continues building on their body of snappy character-driven work for Airbnb with this holiday spot directed with style and a sly wit by Andy Lyon.

Hardcore fans of Love, Death, and Robots will recognize Lyon as the co-director (along with Robert Bisi) of “Night of the Mini Dead”, Buck’s contribution to season 3 of that Netflix animated anthology series.

Andy Lyon: “The Airbnb creative team came to us with this clever script that was a riff on the Clement Clarke Moore’s ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’, which you might know better as the classic poem that begins with ‘‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’.

“The rhythm of the film was dictated by the pace of the poem. We rode its wave and told the jam-packed misadventure of Santa navigating a confusing hotel to deliver a gift to Suzie.
 

“This piece is a bit of a capstone to the ‘Get an Airbnb’ collaboration that BUCK has created with Airbnb over the last couple years. We’ve leveraged the iconic isometric style that’s synonymous with the campaign, but with even more cinematic world-building.”

 
“We used a quick-cut editorial style as a narrative device to follow the voice over. A bit of crafting was needed so each shot is a clear read to the viewer, and gives a bit of insight into Santa’s state of mind (being overwhelmed), in the most delightful way possible.

“This piece is a bit of a capstone to the ‘Get an Airbnb’ collaboration that BUCK has created with Airbnb over the last couple years. We’ve leveraged the iconic isometric style that’s synonymous with the campaign, but with even more cinematic world-building.

“Two hidden details in the spot we particularly like are the girl in the foreground of the hotel lobby doing a maze in her activity book where Santa is lost, and in the opening shot where the letters HO in the Hotel sign flicker three times to evoke a ‘Ho Ho Ho’.”
 
 

 
Client: Airbnb

Production: BUCK
Director: Andy Lyon