Disney to shutdown 'Blue Sky Studios', the animation house behind the 'Ice Age' Franchise

The Walt Disney Co. has decided to shut down Blue Sky Studios, the animation production house behind 13 feature films including the beloved Ice Age franchise. The past year has been challenging for Disney studios on many fronts due to the pandemic. It was not just regarding the work at the studio but also because of the shut down of the theme parks and cruise line dockings that they have been facing financial crises. It was no longer viable for Disney to sustain a third feature animation studio, after Pixar and Disney Animation Studio, given the current economic realities caused by covid.

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More about Blue Sky Studios

The studio was founded in 1987 by Chris Wedge, Michael Ferraro, Carl Ludwig, Alison Brown, David Brown, and Eugene Troubetzkoy after the visual effect studio MAGI, which was behind the production of Tron in 1982, was shutdown. The studio worked on visual effects for commercials and films using its in-house rendering software before completely dedicating itself to animation film production. The studio’s first feature film was Ice Age by 20th Century Fox that was released in 2002. One can say that word for Blue Sky Studio shutdown was already on the wall after Disney acquired the studio upon their acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets in 2019.

A studio spokesperson told Deadline that because of the current economic realities, after much consideration and evaluation, they have made the difficult decision to close the filmmaking operations at Blue Sky Studios. The last day for Blue Sky will be in April. Over 450 employees at Blue Sky have been affected by this shutdown. Disney will be working with the employees at the Greenwich, CT-based studio to explore positions at other internal studios.

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Blue Sky Studios' Movies

Due to the shutdown, the production of Nimona, a feature film directed by Patrick Osborne has been cancelled. The film still had 10 months remaining on the production and was supposed to release in January 2022. The film followed the story of a young shape-shifter who teams with a mad scientist named Lord Ballister Blackheart to expose the ruler of the kingdom.

The last release by the production house was with Spies in Disguise distributed by Disney in December 2019 that starred Will Smith and Tom Holland. The film did not do so well, grossing $66 million at the domestic box office and $171 Million worldwide. The Ice Age series by the Blue Sky Studio was their most successful franchise which grossed $3.2 billion at the global box office with the five movies. The animated musical comedy Rio in 2011 was another successful film that grossed $484 Million worldwide. Whereas their feature films Horton Hears a Who! and The Peanuts Movie was its most critically praised films.

Image Source: Blue Sky Studios' Twitter

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