History Creator / BlueSkyStudios

%%* SceneryPorn

** An adaptation of Creator/NoelleStevenson's webcomic ''WebComic/{{Nimona}}'' was well into production at the time the studio's closure was announced, but was cancelled.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The ''Bunny'' short and the first ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' film are both far more somber and moody than much of their later work, which [[FollowTheLeader tends to follow]] the snarky, pop-culture heavy comedy style that was popularized by Creator/DreamWorksAnimation in the early 2000s. ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/ThePeanutsMovie'' are exceptions. ''Nimoma'' presumably also would have been a exception as well if it wasn't cancelled.

* ''Ice Age: Scrat Tales''

Following [[Creator/{{Disney}} The Walt Disney Company]]'s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, questions arose concerning Blue Sky Studios' continued existence considering the company didn't need another animation studio with its juggernauts in [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Walt Disney Animation Studios]] and Creator/{{Pixar}}, and considering Blue Sky's own history of mixed critical reception, combined with the declining popularity of their FlagshipFranchise. The underperformance of ''WesternAnimation/SpiesInDisguise'', along with the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic leading to an industry-wide shutdown for months, plus warning signs later emerging when the announcement of the spin-off ''The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild'' lacked any visible references of the Blue Sky name and brand, only added to further uncertainty.

* DoingItForTheArt: Whenever the studio adapted a world-famous and beloved work (''Literature/HortonHearsAWho'', ''WesternAnimation/ThePeanutsMovie''), you can bet they would go out of their way to preserve its integrity.

** ''Left Tern'', a failed animated movie pitched described as "''Film/HomeAlone'' with Birds".

* SceneryPorn: Arguably the biggest saving grace for many of their films.

* SceneryPorn

On February 9, 2021, what many saw as inevitable happened: Disney announced that the studio would cease operations by April, with all intellectual properties being absorbed into the parent studio. Some employees of the studio are planned to be relocated to other divisions within Disney, while most of its upcoming slate was shelved. The studio was officially shut down on April 7 (a week before the exact 10th anniversary of their film ''Rio'' no less), and production of ''The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild'' was announced to be outsourced to Creator/BardelEntertainment.

* AvoidTheDreadedGRating: Averted. While the majority of their films are rated PG, they do intentionally aim for the G rating on certain films, with the first ''Rio'' being re-edited before its release to bring it down to that rating.

** ''WesternAnimation/IceAge2TheMeltdown'' (2006)
** ''WesternAnimation/IceAge3DawnOfTheDinosaurs'' (2009)
** ''WesternAnimation/IceAge4ContinentalDrift'' (2012)
** ''WesternAnimation/IceAge5CollisionCourse'' (2016)

Not to be confused with the [[Fanfic/BlueSky Portal fanfiction of the same name]]. Also no relation to Creator/BlueSkySoftware, the team who made, among many other things, the ''VideoGame/{{Vectorman}}'' series.

Following [[Creator/{{Disney}} The Walt Disney Company]]'s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, questions arose concerning Blue Sky Studios' continued existence considering the company didn't need another animation studio with its juggernauts in [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Walt Disney Animation Studios]] and Creator/{{Pixar}}, and considering Blue Sky's own history of mixed critical reception, combined with the declining popularity of their FlagshipFranchise. The underperformance of ''WesternAnimation/SpiesInDisguise'', along with the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic leading to an industry-wide shutdown for months, plus warning signs later emerging when the announcement of the spin-off ''Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild'' lacked any visible references of the Blue Sky name and brand, only added to further uncertainty.

On February 9, 2021, what many saw as inevitable happened: Disney announced that the studio would cease operations by April, with all intellectual property being absorbed into the parent studio. Some employees of the studio are planned to be relocated to other divisions within Disney, while most of its upcoming slate was shelved. The studio was officially shut down on April 7 (a week before the exact 10th anniversary of their film ''Rio'' no less).

''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' was the film that made Blue Sky Studios a major competitor in the animated feature film industry, and they have released around one new animated film every two years since. Their existence also helped boost the morale in the pretty dismal animation circle of the northeast United States, as they were the ''only feature animation studio'' in the region, having been originally located in White Plains, New York before moving under a mile across the state border to Greenwich, Connecticut, in 2009 [[MoneyDearBoy for the tax breaks.]] They were notable for being one of the first studios to use raytrace rendering in feature films. They were also known for using more naturalistic lighting design than other studios, depending completely on sculpture maquettes to create the 3D forms of their characters, and utilizing cartoon squash-and-stretch more frequently in their later features. Chris Wedge directed the studio's first two films, and continued to executive produce many of their later ones.

''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' was the film that made Blue Sky Studios a major competitor in the animated feature film industry, and they have released around one new animated film every two years since. Their existence also helped boost the morale in the pretty dismal animation circle of the northeast United States, as they were the ''only feature animation studio'' in the region, having been originally located in White Plains, New York before moving under a mile across the state border to Greenwich, Connecticut in 2009 [[MoneyDearBoy for the tax breaks.]] They were notable for being one of the first studios to use raytrace rendering in feature films. They were also known for using more naturalistic lighting design than other studios, depending completely on sculpture maquettes to create the 3D forms of their characters, and utilizing cartoon squash-and-stretch more frequently in their later features. Chris Wedge directed their first films, and continued to executive produce many of their later ones.

** Left Tern, a failed animated movie pitched described as "Home Alone with Birds".

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The ''Bunny'' short and the first ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' film are both far more somber and moody than much of their later work, which [[FollowTheLeader tends to follow]] the snarky, pop-culture heavy comedy style that was popularized by Creator/DreamWorksAnimation in the early 2000s. ''WesternAnimation/ThePeanutsMovie'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'' are exceptions. ''Nimoma'' presumably also would have been a exception as well if it wasn't cancelled.

** An adaptation of Creator/NoelleStevenson's webcomic ''WebComic/{{Nimona}}'' was well into production at the time the studio's closure was announced, but was cancelled and will not be released.

** Originally, the first Blue Sky feature was meant to be a film called ''Santa Calls'' based on the children's book by William Joyce, but due to [[TroubledProduction production problems]] the project was scrapped, so ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' became their first animated feature instead. This was before they would work with Joyce again on WesternAnimation/{{Robots}} and to adapt The Leaf Men into WesternAnimation/{{Epic}} in 2013.

** In September 2003, 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios planned to adapt Tony Johnson and Mark Teague's children's book The Iguana Brothers: A Tale of Two Lizards into an animated film.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The ''Bunny'' short and the first ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' film are both far more somber and moody than much of their later work, which [[FollowTheLeader tends to follow]] the snarky, pop-culture heavy comedy style that was popularized by Creator/DreamWorksAnimation in the early 2000s. ''WesternAnimation/ThePeanutsMovie'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'' are exceptions.

Following [[Creator/{{Disney}} The Walt Disney Company]]'s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, questions arose concerning Blue Sky Studios' continued existence considering the company's ownership of [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Walt Disney Animation Studios]] and Creator/{{Pixar}} and Blue Sky's own history of mixed critical reception, combined with the declining popularity of their FlagshipFranchise. The underperformance of ''WesternAnimation/SpiesInDisguise'', along with the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic leading to an industry-wide shut down for months, plus warning signs later emerging when the announcement of the spin-off ''Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild'' lacked any visible references of the Blue Sky name and brand, only added to further uncertainty.

** A film titled ''Foster'' (the studio's first film with a female director) was scheduled for 2021, but after the Disney/Fox merger, ''Nimona'', prior to its own cancellation, was moved to its former release date, leaving the fate of the film unknown (presumably deceased as of the studio's closure).

''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' was the film that made Blue Sky Studios a major competitor in the animated feature film industry, and they have released around one new animated film every two years since. Their existence also helped boost the morale in the pretty dismal animation circle of the northeast United States, as they were the ''only feature animation studio'' in the region, having been originally located in White Plains, New York before moving under a mile across the state border to Greenwich, Connecticut [[MoneyDearBoy for the tax breaks.]] They were notable for being one of the first studios to use raytrace rendering in feature films. They were also known for using more naturalistic lighting design than other studios, depending completely on sculpture maquettes to create the 3D forms of their characters, and utilizing cartoon squash-and-stretch more frequently in their later features. Chris Wedge directed their first films, and continued to executive produce many of their later ones.

On February 9, 2021, what many saw as inevitable happened: Disney announced that the studio would cease operations by April, with all intellectual property being absorbed into the parent studio. Some employees of the studio are planned to be relocated to other divisions within Disney, while most of its upcoming slate was shelved. The studio was officially shut down on April 7.

Once upon a time, there was a little Elmsford, New York-based studio called MAGI/Synthavision. In 1987, having completed some of the effects on the ground-breaking Creator/{{Disney}} film ''Film/{{Tron}}'' and some CG animation for commercials, an employee named Chris Wedge gathered a bunch of his co-workers and formed a studio of his own. They produced some effects for live-action films like ''Film/JoesApartment'', ''Film/FightClub'' and ''Film/AlienResurrection'', along with their first short film ''Bunny'', which Wedge directed. In the wake of the CG cartoon movement (Creator/{{Pixar}} had released ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'' a year before ''Bunny'' was awarded Best Animated Short in the Oscars), the studio just happened to be bought by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox to help fish them out of their failing 2-D feature animation unit. And the rest is [[WesternAnimation/IceAge prehistory]].

''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' was the film that made Blue Sky Studios a major competitor in the animated feature film industry, and they have released around one new animated film every two years since. Their existence has also helped boost the morale in the pretty dismal animation circle of the northeast United States, as they are the ''only feature animation studio'' in the region, having used to originally located in White Plains, New York before moving under a mile across the state border to Greenwich, Connecticut [[MoneyDearBoy for the tax breaks.]] They are notable for being one of the first studios to use raytrace rendering in feature films. They are also known for using more naturalistic lighting design than other studios, depending completely on sculpture maquettes to create the 3D forms of their characters, and utilizing cartoon squash-and-stretch more frequently in their later features. Chris Wedge directed their first films, and continued to executive produce many of their later ones.


Following [[Creator/{{Disney}} The Walt Disney Company]]'s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, questions arose concerning Blue Sky Studios' continued existence considering the company's ownership of [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Walt Disney Animation Studios]] and Creator/{{Pixar}} and Blue Sky's own history of mixed critical reception combined with the declining popularity of their FlagshipFranchise. The underperformance of ''WesternAnimation/SpiesInDisguise'', along with the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic leading to an industry-wide shut down for months, and warning signs later emerging when the announcement of the spin-off ''Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild'' lacked any visible references of the Blue Sky name and brand, only added to further uncertainty.

On February 9, 2021, what many saw as inevitable happened: Disney announced that the studio would cease operations by April, with all intellectual property being absorbed into the parent studio. Some employees of the studio are planned to be relocated to other divisions within Disney, while most of its upcoming slate was shelved.

!!Tropes present in their work:

''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' was the film that made Blue Sky Studios a major competitor in the animated feature film industry, and they have released around one new animated film every two years since. Their existence has also helped boost the morale in the pretty dismal animation circle of the northeast United States, as they are the ''only feature animation studio'' in the region, having used to originally located in White Plains, New York before moving under a mile across the state border to Greenwich, Connecticut [[MoneyDearBoy for the tax breaks.]] They are notable for being one of the first studios to use raytrace rendering in feature films. They are also known for using more naturalistic lighting design than other studios, depending completely on sculpture maquettes to create the 3D forms of their characters, and utilizing cartoon squash-and-stretch more frequently in their later features. Chris Wedge directed their first films, and continues to executive produce many of their later ones.