Raven Steals the Daylight



Raven Steals the Daylight is an animated short that is adapted from a story from the Pacific Northwest. It is an episode part of the series "Animated Tales of the World". The design of the characters is based on the totem poles of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

Summary
"Long, long ago, in the beginning of time, there was no light in this world. What we call night was all there was, but a night with no moon and no stars. Everything was dark and gray, but not completely dark. There was a little light; there was fire light, torch light, even glow worm light. Some people knew that through the hole in the sky was a place of light and color. They just didn't know what it was like. And life wasn't easy in the world of darkness; it means some things were very difficult. Of course for some, the darkness made things easier. In the darkness, not everything was what it seemed. Many strange things can happen under cover of darkness."

- Narration at the start of the episode.

In a world with very little light, Raven the Trickster fools his sidekick Petrel to know if she is hungry for fish upon seeing the fisherman hunting for food. Raven then tricks two fishermen in which he upsets them for capturing the fish they first caught first. Stealing the fish, the fishermen are upset at him for stealing their fish, telling the two that it wasn't him who stole the fish. However, Raven ends up lying to the fishermen about being called a thief as one of the fishermen says that if there was better light, Raven could see almost everything if there were light and the light is located in the hole in the sky. Raven and Petrel plan to go to the hole in the sky to retrieve the light and bring it to the human world for everyone to see with the light.

Meanwhile at the Sky Chief's Domain, Raven makes a plan to retrieve the daylight at the Sky Chief's home. The two see the Sky Chief's daughter in which Raven makes a plan to get in the Sky Chief's home. Upon seeing the Sky Chief's daughter who is drinking water, Raven transforms into a fish and then is swallowed by the Sky Chief's daughter on the water in which the chief's daughter is drinking. Moments later, Raven is then reborn is a baby in human form, starting to cry without anything to play with. The Sky Chief gently takes care of Raven who was transformed into a baby as Petrel asks him to give him one of the gifts. The gift that Raven received was some stars which eventually fly away. Beginning to cry again, Petrel asks the Sky Chief to give him the daylight in which the Sky Chief gives the gift to Raven which is actually a moon rather than the daylight. Crying again, the Sky Chief tells Raven that the last gift left is the box which contains the daylight inside, a very precious object. Upon receiving the gift, Raven who is still in his baby form then begins growing in an attempt to receive the last gift. Raven suddenly transforms to his bird form upon receiving the daylight. Raven and Petrel leave the faraway domain of the sky kingdom and return to the world after receiving the gift.

Raven then tells the people that he brought the daylight in which the two didn't see the light yet. Raven then opens the box which contains the daylight inside the box. Suddenly, the daylight rises up in the sky and everyone is happy that they can see Raven with daylight in the land. Everything is different when Raven brought the daylight in the sky.

Voice Cast

 * Matthew Hendrickson - Raven


 * Stefan Lander - Narrator / Fishermen


 * Garrick Hagon - Sky Chief


 * Tamara Letendre - Daughter / Petrel


 * Thomasine Heiner - Aunt

Differences between the animated short and the original story

 * The character Petrel was not in the original story


 * In some versions of the legend, the Sky Chief transforms into an eagle and chases Raven who steals the daylight after tricking him and attempts to bring it to the real world. This did not occur in the animated short.