Blue Sky Studios Being Shut Down by Disney

Blue Sky Studios, the previous Fox animation division that created the Ice Age franchise in addition to Robots, The Peanuts Film, and the current Spies in Disguise, isn't any extra. Now that Disney owns Fox, and by extension Blue Sky, the Home of Mouse has determined to shutter the animation studio this April. Disney cites “current economic realities” behind the choice. In consequence, the upcoming Blue Sky animated movie Nimona has been canceled.

Deadline has the news on Blue Sky Studios shutting down. They report that attributable to COVID-19, the “past year has been challenging for Disney on many fronts, of course due to the pandemic, not just on the studio side but with theme park closures and cruise line dockings as well,” and that working a “third feature animation studio was no longer viable for Disney given the current economic realities caused by COVID.” Disney at the moment operates each Disney Animation Studios and Pixar. Additionally they personal Lucasfilm Animation, however that studio hasn’t produced any characteristic movies since 2015.

A Disney spokesperson provides: “Given the current economic realities, after much consideration and evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to close filmmaking operations at Blue Sky Studios.” Blue Sky was at the moment in manufacturing on the animated characteristic Nimona, which informed the story of a “young shape-shifter who teams up with a mad scientist named Lord Ballister Blackheart to expose the ruler of the kingdom.” Nimona, which was being directed by Patrick Osborne, was slated to open on January 14, 2023, however the movie is now useless and gained’t be launched. There have been about 10 months of manufacturing left on the movie. This choice makes 2019’s Spies in Disguise the ultimate Blue Sky movie.

Blue Sky Studios was based in 1987 by Chris Wedge, Michael Ferraro, Carl Ludwig, Alison Brown, David Brown, and Eugene Troubetzkoy after their employer MAGI, one of many visible results studios behind Disney’s Tron, shut down. Once they struck out on their very own, Blue Sky initially labored on visible results for commercials and movie earlier than deciding to commit themselves to animated options. Their first characteristic was 2002’s Ice Age, distributed by Fox.

Ice Age spawned a whole franchise for Blue Sky and Fox, and the studio additionally produced animated titles like Robots, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, Rio and Rio 2, Epic, The Peanuts Film, and Ferdinand.

The shutdown will have an effect on 450 staff, and Disney is reportedly “working with the employees at the Greenwich, CT based animation house to explore open positions at the other internal studios.” Cool Posts From Across the Net: