diff --git a/packages/animations/browser/src/render/shared.ts b/packages/animations/browser/src/render/shared.ts
index 683c009424da6..e2040f9aa15d2 100644
--- a/packages/animations/browser/src/render/shared.ts
+++ b/packages/animations/browser/src/render/shared.ts
@@ -183,13 +183,22 @@ if (_isNode || typeof Element !== 'undefined') {
   _query = (element: any, selector: string, multi: boolean): any[] => {
     let results: any[] = [];
     if (multi) {
+      // DO NOT REFACTOR TO USE SPREAD SYNTAX.
+      // For element queries that return sufficiently large NodeList objects,
+      // using spread syntax to populate the results array causes a RangeError
+      // due to the call stack limit being reached. `Array.from` can not be used
+      // as well, since NodeList is not iterable in IE 11, see
+      // https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/NodeList
+      // More info is available in #38551.
       const elems = element.querySelectorAll(selector);
       for (let i = 0; i < elems.length; i++) {
         results.push(elems[i]);
       }
     } else {
       const elm = element.querySelector(selector);
-      results = elm ? [elm] : [];
+      if (elm) {
+        results.push(elm);
+      }
     }
     return results;
   };