Available Now on Oculus Rift and YouTube

From the director of Madagascar, INVASION!, and ASTEROIDS! comes Baobab Studios' latest visionary VR animation. The carefree forest animals imagine spring will last forever. However, winter comes and the animals soon realize that their lives are in danger. What they need is a hero; what they need is Crow: The Legend.

Crow: The Legend is the most celebrated and critically acclaimed VR experience from the interactive studio of wonder, Baobab Studios. As the flagship Indigenous Worldview Animation based on a Native American legend, Crow won 4 Emmy® Awards including the linear animated short film and the Interactive VR Experience in 2019, receiving the most awards of any animated program or series, traditional and/or interactive. Crow: The Legend also won the first-ever Annie Award for Best Virtual Reality Production and helped John Legend secure the second ever EGOAT award milestone (Emmy®, Grammy, Oscar, Annie and Tony award-winner).

Crow: The Legend features a diverse star-studded cast including John Legend, Oprah Winfrey, Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians), Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One), Diego Luna (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, NARCOS: Mexico), and Liza Koshy. Created by the director and writer of Madagascar and Antz! and Executive produced by Baobab Studios, Get Lifted, and Native Americans in Philanthropy.  Includes an original song from John Legend, “When You Can Fly.”

Story Trailer

Animated Short Movie

360° animated movie

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Crow: Voiced by John Legend

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Crow, once the most beautiful animal of the forest with colorful feathers and a mellifluous voice, must risk everything to save the Earth and his animal friends of the forest.  This tale is inspired by the origin story of how the crow got it's black feathers and cawing voice.

“Crow: The Legend brings storytelling and music together in a way no one else has yet in virtual reality. It’s an incredible medium for inspiring a journey of self-discovery and finding your way in times to darkness,” explains John Legend. “In light of what’s going on in today’s world, it’s a message of deep meaning that people from all walks of life can embrace.”

— John Legend

To help bring attention to the urgent need for personal protective equipment in devastated Native American communities, leading interactive animation studio Baobab Studios, John Legend, and Native American leaders Sarah Eagle Heart and Randy Edmonds have just released a lyrics music video featuring the original song “When You Can Fly,” which Legend wrote and performed for Crow: The Legend, Baobab’s 4-time Emmy Award-winning 2018 animated film and interactive VR experience.

Return to the Heart Foundation is working with grassroots tribal leaders to protect elders and Indigenous wisdom necessary for safeguarding of Mother Earth by supporting the procurement and distribution of personal protective equipment for Native American communities from donations to the Native COVID Action Fund. They are already halfway to their $2 million goal to meet urgent needs, having raised close to $1 million through in-kind donations and private funding.


The One Who Creates Everything By Thinking: Voiced by Oprah Winfrey 

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Did you know that ants have the highest brain-to-body ratio of any animal?  If so, it should come as no surprise that this tiny purple bug that lives in a jar and exercises on a treadmill, thought up the entire universe in a palace made up of her own thoughts. And it should be no surprise that this powerful being is voiced by the one and only, Oprah.


 Skunk: Voiced by Constance Wu

Baobab admired Constance Wu as the first Asian American woman to star in a primetime sitcom (Fresh off the Boat), yet we still anticipated that her combination of vulnerability and comedy were being underutilized by Hollywood, so we cast her first and were confident her profile as an actress would catapult a year and a half later with the release of Crazy Rich Asians.


Moth: Voiced by Diego Luna

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Diego Luna, the lead actor in work ranging from Alfonso Cuaron’s Y Tu Mama Tambien to Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to Narcos: Mexico, is an amazing artist who brings his considerable talents to everything he does.  Luna manages to bring his literally small character to life in such a big way.  Because of Moth’s tiny scale and the fact that he only exists in wide shots for most of the film, Luna’s vocal performance was challenged to step up and do much of the heavy dramatic lifting.

It was important to Luna that — in a piece whose themes are centered on self-respect and respect for our differences — he celebrated not just his Mexico City accent, but his Spanish mother tongue. Luna achieves this with the confidence and finesse that makes his performance far from caricature and come across as authentic and unique.


Luna: Voiced by Sarah Eagle Heart

Sarah EagleHeart, CEO of Native Americans in Philanthropy, and member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, won the 2017 American Express NGen Leadership Award honoring "next-gen" leaders whose work and advocacy had a transformational impact on a critical societal need.  She is a powerful storyteller whose deep perspective on healing trauma is rooted in her life story and experiences as a teen activist raised on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.  She is a well known speaker focused on education and advocacy on behalf of the Indigenous Peoples.

Ms. Eagle Heart was also a producer of the project, "Crow is one of the first and one of the only high profile animations to authentically include Indigenous worldviews, which have been long suppressed in our nation's history.”


Owl: Voiced by Liza Koshy

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With one of the most kid-appealing designs we wanted the light-hearted nurturing leader of the animals to be a talented comedian actress who connects with today's youth — Liza Koshy, one of the top female digital media stars in the world, one of the most avid supporters of cultural storytelling, and winner of many Kids and Teens Choice Awards was the inspired top choice for the role. 


Turtle: Voiced by Tye Sheridan

Baobab are fans of Tye Sheridan’s incredible talents in films that inspire our studio including Jeff Nichols' Mud and Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life but we also believed Tye's comedic chops had much potential — this paid off as his character arc reveal when Crow brings back the gift of fire has consistently drawn the most laughter out of any other moment in the film. 


Narrator: Voiced by Randy Edmonds

An 84-year-old Kiowa/Caddo elder and Native rights crusader.  Brought to California by the 1950’s relocation acts in Oklahoma, he founded the National Urban Indian Council.  It was critical to Baobab that the story be narrated orally in honor of the age-old tradition from which it was inspired, and perhaps the most famed master of ceremonies — for his deep, resonant voice.

"All Native American tales have a tradition of deep meaning and that’s why we tell the stories, sharing down the generations.  When I look at the impact these legends have, the insights they represent, taking that storytelling to a modern medium is extremely exciting. The beautiful work being created -inspired by our folklore- is like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my many years.”

— Randy Edmonds


 

CHARACTER DESIGN

 

Inspired by the Native American legend, Crow: The Legend, is an interactive tale of community and sacrifice exploring themes of self-discovery and selflessness.  In this animated short movie, YOU matter playing a key role as the “Spirit of the Seasons.” Crow, voiced by John Legend, must give up everything he values to save his friends – or so he thinks.  

 

WORLD DESIGN

 

In a time before mankind walked the face of the Earth there exists only Spring. The world is always sunny and the animals live content and free of worry. Of all the animals, Crow is the most admired for his dazzling  plumage and mellifluous voice. Then, for reasons unknown, the Spirit of the Seasons brings Winter to the forest for the very first time. As the temperature plunges, the once carefree animals realize their very lives are in danger. 

Who among them can soar into the heavens and make the journey to persuade “The One Who Creates Everything by Thinking” to help them in their time of need?  The answer is obvious, yet the solution not so, for what must Crow sacrifice to save his friends?