A to Z of Animation Studios: B Is for Blue Sky
The underdog studio that turned a squirrel and an acorn into a worldwide icon.
B is for Blue Sky Studios
Founded: 1987, in New York, by a group of computer graphics pioneers including Chris Wedge. Several of them had worked at MAGI, a company that created some of the computer imagery for the 1982 movie Tron.
The early years: Blue Sky spent its first decade making commercials and visual effects while building its own rendering software, the program that turns 3D models into finished images.
The big break: Wedge's short film Bunny won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1999. A few years later, Blue Sky made a feature for 20th Century Fox.
Greatest hits
Ice Age (2002). A mammoth, a sloth and a saber-toothed tiger take a lost baby home. A simple, sweet road trip that launched a massive franchise.
Scrat. The squirrel chasing one acorn through every movie, without a word, became the studio's mascot and maybe its biggest star.
Robots (2005). A colorful world built entirely of machines.
Horton Hears a Who! (2008). A faithful, funny take on Dr. Seuss.
Rio (2011). A rare blue macaw who can't fly travels to Brazil. Bright, musical and full of energy.
Ferdinand (2017). A bull who would rather smell flowers than fight. Gentle and lovely.
The Blue Sky formula
Silent comedy. Scrat proves that a great physical gag needs no dialogue.
Bright color and motion. Rio's Carnival scenes still pop.
Big-hearted misfits. Almost every Blue Sky hero is someone who doesn't fit in.
The ending
REAL: when Disney bought 21st Century Fox in 2019, Blue Sky came with it. In 2021, Disney closed the studio. One project in progress, Nimona, was later finished by another studio, released in 2023 and nominated for an Academy Award. Blue Sky's last film still found its way to the screen.
Honorable mention: Big Idea (VeggieTales)
Talking vegetables telling Bible stories, starting in 1993. Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber became a huge home-video hit. REAL: the company went bankrupt in 2003, and the characters were sold, but the "Silly Songs with Larry" live on in a lot of people's memories.
The lesson
Blue Sky's biggest star never said a word. Scrat reminds every animator: if your character's goal is clear (one acorn), the audience will follow them anywhere.
Up next
C is for Cartoon Network Studios.
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