By ABBY GROFF
Staff Writer
This year it was announced that Blue Sky Studios would be shut down by mega animation studio, Disney. When Disney acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019, Blue Sky was bought along with it. Only two years later would we find out that it’d be shut down due to financial concerns caused by COVID-19. The economic shutdowns have brought the studio down hard.
Blue Sky Studios was founded on February 22, 1987 and based in Greenwich, Connecticut. The new upcoming animation studio found great success with their first film Ice Age (2002) and was followed by four sequels and many special holiday episodes. The franchise was special to many and remains a significant part of 2000’s babies’ childhoods. Other significant films created by the studio that are worth acknowledging would be Rio (2011), Horton Hears a Who (2008), and Robots (2005).
While Blue Sky wasn’t around forever, or even as long as Disney itself, it’s still sad to hear the news of their closure. As for the employees based in Blue Sky’s Connecticut studio, Disney plans to find them new jobs or positions at their own studios. There were approximately 450 employees working for Blue Sky, so the shutdown of this big company is much bigger than it may seem. Another aspect that may have impacted the downfall of this brand was their last animated feature, Spies in Disguise (2019). The film only made $171,000,000 at the box office worldwide, while the budget for creating the film was $100,000,000. Blue Sky’s end is unfortunate, but thankfully their best animations will forever live on.