The much-anticipated John Lewis Christmas ad has landed and returns to its original theme of pure happiness in a spot populated mainly by excitable animals.

Last year”s campaign, The Man on the Moon, had been criticised for being too sad, as it featured an elderly man living alone in a hut on the moon, but this year”s offering, Buster The Boxer, is clearly intended to revert to the tried and tested theme of pure happiness – and animals.

Urban foxes are even made to look appealing in the commercial, which features a father assembling a trampoline in the garden late at night, ready to surprise his little girl on Christmas morning.

During the night a succession of (CGI) woodland creatures come into the garden and begin trying out the trampoline, with the pair of foxes soon followed by a badger, a hedgehog and a squirrel.

Buster the family boxer dog watches wistfully from indoors as the creatures bounce up and down joyfully, the slow motion jumping set to the yearning soundtrack of Randy Crawford”s One Day I”ll Fly Away performed by British band Vaults.

Buster the boxer gets his turn on Christmas morning – the family stand by open-mouthed as the little girl rushes out to try her new toy only to find Buster enjoying the trampoline at full bounce.

Dougal Wilson – who has previously helmed three ads for the retailer – directed through Blink; the ad was produced by adam&eveDDB;.

There is a 360 version of the film available to watch here and John Lewis is offering visitors to its flagship store on Oxford Street a virtual reality experience using Oculus Rift.

Production credits
Production company: Blink Productions
Director: Dougal Wilson
Producer: Nick Goldsmith
DOP: Joost Van Gelder
Production manager: Hannah Fowles-Pazdro
Production assistant: Jack Bingham
Post-production company: MPC
VFX executive producer: Julie Evans
VFX producer: Hannah Ruddleston
VFX line producer: Sandra Ekland
Creative director VFX, MPC: Diarmid Harrison-Murray