Blue Sky Studios

Background

Blue Sky Studios was founded in February 1987 by Chris Wedge, Carl Ludwig, and four other artists and technicians who had previously worked on the 1982 Disney film Tron while employed at MAGI/Synthavision. Blue Sky produced the famous Nicktoons Blob commercial bumper which aired on Nickelodeon from 1993 to 1997. Blue Sky has also produced full-length animated movies beginning with Ice Age in 2002. In 2000, the studio was acquired by 20th Century Fox (now known as 20th Century Studios). On January 5, 2009, the studio was moved from White Plains, New York to Greenwich, Connecticut. Blue Sky also animated 20th Century's final logo for the studio's 75th anniversary. On December 14, 2017, Disney officially confirmed its acquisition of 21st Century Fox's key assets, including Blue Sky. On February 9, 2021, Disney announced they would close Blue Sky in April of that year, stating that functioning a third animation studio wasn't viable due to the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Nimona, the studio's supposed fourteenth theatrical film, had to be switched over to another studio to take over in order for it to be completed. On April 7, 2021, the studio ceased operations, and its assets were now owned by Disney.

1st Logo (March 15, 2002-February 4, 2005)

Nickname: "The Blue Paintstroke"

Logo: On a black background, we see the words "Blue Sky" in white, accompanied by a blue paintstroke running underneath. Copyright info is seen at the bottom of the screen.

Variant: Sometimes, the logo appeared in a white oval. It's probably a prototype of the next logo.

FX/SFX: None for the appearances on the TV spots it appears on.

Music/Sounds: Part of the soundtrack from the trailer.

Availability: Near extinction. It made its only known appearances on two TV spots for Ice Age. It was long rumored that this appeared at the end of the films original theatrical release. The variant appeared on the Robots video game.

Editor's Note: It was unknown whether this elusive logo was real or not for a long time, until it was recently discovered (surprisingly) on the aforementioned TV spots.

2nd Logo (March 11, 2005-July 4, 2009)

Nicknames: "The Blue Sky Shield", "Blue Sky Studios Outline"

Logo: On a plain blue background, we see a plain white shield with a blue outline rotating over the gray words "Blue Sky", in the same font as the previous logo. Then the word "studios", in plain white, fades in underneath. Sometimes, the background is plain white and "studios" is in grey.

Variant: A still version appears on the Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs video game.

FX/SFX: The circle rotating, fading in of the text.

Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme of the movie.

Availability: Uncommon. Can be seen on Robots, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! and the 2-D version of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (July 1, 2009-July 13, 2012)

Nickname: "The Blue Sky Shield II"

Logo: Same as before, except that the words and outline zoom in slowly and have a drop shadow effect.

Variant: On the 2-D version of Rio, the background is black and the text below the logo is white.

FX/SFX: The zooming in of the words and drop shadow effects, fading in of the word below the logo.

Music/Sounds: Same as the previous logo.

Availability: Common. Seen on the 3-D versions of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Rio as well as Ice Age: Continental Drift in both 2-D and 3-D. Also seen at the end of TV airings of Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas (and at the beginning on home media releases). Also appears on video games based on Blue Sky properties. It was last seen on trailers and some TV spots for Epic.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (May 24, 2013-December 25, 2019)

Logo: On a white background, we see Scrat from the Ice Age films hopping along a solid blue surface towards an acorn turned on its side. When he reaches the acorn and embraces it, the surface suddenly tips to the right, so Scrat runs to the left and closer to the screen, causing the surface to tip towards the left, becoming increasingly vertical. Scrat panics and scrambles in vain to tip the surface back to the right, but ends up clinging to the vertical surface while his acorn falls off-screen. The camera then zooms out to reveal the vertical surface is the left side of the "B" in "Blue Sky" (the word "Blue" is in cyan while "Sky" is in dark blue), with "STUDIOS" seen below. Scrat then loses his grip from the "B" and falls from the logo off-screen, screaming.

Variants:

On the trailers for Rio 2 and Ice Age: Collision Course, Scrat is holding on to the "B".
A still version can be seen on the trailers for The Peanuts Movie, Ferdinand, and on video games based on Blue Sky Studios properties.

FX/SFX: Excellent CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: Just the sounds of the surface tipping back and forth, a "whoosh" noise as the camera zooms out, and Scrat (voiced by Chris Wedge) making his little noises; he does his trademark scream at the end as he dives off-screen. None or the opening theme of the trailer for the still version.

Availability: Common. Seen on the last films from the company before its closure, which are Epic, Rio 2, The Peanuts Movie, Ice Age: Collision Course, Ferdinand and Spies in Disguise.

Editor's Note: None.