Blue Sky Studios

Blue Sky Studios was a US computer animation studio founded in February 1987 in New York by Chris Wedge, Michael Ferraro, Carl Ludwig, and colleagues following the closure of tech company MAGI. The studio built its reputation with the Oscar-winning 1998 short Bunny before transitioning to feature animation. Its franchise-defining ICE Age (2002) became a critical and commercial success, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature and generating $3.2 billion at the global box office across five films. Blue Sky was acquired by 20th Century Fox and subsequently came under Disney control when Disney completed its acquisition of 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets in 2019.

Disney shuttered Blue Sky Studios in April 2021, citing the economic disruption of Covid-19 as making it non-viable to sustain a third major feature animation studio alongside Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. The closure affected approximately 450 employees. Blue Sky's IP, including the ICE Age franchise, remains with Disney. The studio is referenced in coverage of the streaming animation market as a cautionary example of how consolidation under a dominant parent can terminate a creatively productive but financially redundant studio.