BLUE SKY STUDIOS

Blue Sky Studios is a subsidiary of 20^TH Century Fox. It is a studio that specializes in high resolution, computer-generated character animation and rendering. It is located in Greenwich, Connecticut. They have created feature-length animation films, and have worked on many high-profile films, particularly those that mix computer-generated animation with live-action.

Blue Sky was founded in February 1987 by Chris Wedge, Carl Ludwig and four other artists and technicians. These people had previously worked on the 1982 Disney film Tron while employed at MAGI/Synthavision. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the studio concentrated on television commercial production and visual effects for film. Blue Sky worked on some memorable commercials during this time, including a Chock Full O’ Nuts spot with a talking coffee bean, and an introduction for a Nickelodeon block called Nicktoons.

In August 1997, 20^TH Century Fox’s Los Angeles-based effects company, VIFX, obtained Blue Sky Studios to form Blue Sky|VIFX. This new company produced visual effects for films that include The X-Files (1998), Blade (1998), Armageddon (1998), Titanic (1997) and Alien Resurrection (1997). In 1998, Chris Wedge produced the Academy Award-winning animated short film Bunny.

Thanks to the f/x market crash, Fox decided to put their visual effects business behind them. In 1999, they sold VIFX to Rhythm & Hues Studios, and then considered selling Blue Sky. At the time, Blue Sky had the script for Ice Age and the studio received the opportunity to turn it into a comedy. In 2002, Ice Age was released and it was a commercial and critical success. The film got a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and established Blue Sky as the third studio, after Pixar and DreamWorks, to launch a successful CGI franchise.

Blue Sky Studios has released six animated feature films, with three upcoming films and more in development:

·       Ice Age (2002)

·       Robots (2005)

·       Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)

·       Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! (2008)

·       Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)

·       Rio (2011)

·       Ice Age: Continental Drift (July 2012)

·       Leafmen (2013)

·       Rio 2 (2014)

Blue Sky’s six released films so far have taken an overall gross of over $2.4 billion.