Red Crow and the Ghost Ship

Red Crow and the Ghost Ship (赤いカラスと幽霊船, Akaikarasu to Yureisen) is a Japanese short film produced by NHK Enterprises for the 1989 Yokohama Expo.

A brother and sister in modern Japan are led by a talking red crow onto a flying ghost ship. The boy, Takuya, must take over steering the vessel from the ailing captain.

History
The red crow was created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, with John Stephenson supervising. Neal Scanlan built the mechanical bird and Val Jones made the skin and feathers. The red crow, attached to a pole, was puppeteered by Mak Wilson. The shoot for the crow scenes took three weeks.

For Japanese home video release, the film was accompanied by a making of documentary, including footage of Creature Shop personnel Scanlan, Jones, Stephenson, and Wilson. The ghost ship itself was designed by famed animator Hayao Miyazaki.