Disney is shutting down Fox's once great Ice Age Blue Sky Studios

Consider a chapter of your childhood permanently closed. Disney is shutting down Fox’s Blue Sky Studios, the animation studios behind the Ice Age franchise as well as popular movies such as Robots, Rio, Ferdinand and more.

The studio was owned by Fox until 2019 when Disney acquired 21st Century Fox’s assets. A studio spokesperson said that the closure was due to financial reasons.

“Given the current economic realities, after much consideration and evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to close filmmaking operations at Blue Sky Studios,” said a company spokesperson in a statement (via Deadline).

Likely referring to the Covid-19 pandemic that has impacted the film industry in many ways, co-presidents Robert Baird and Andrew Millstein, as well as 450 employees will be leaving the company.

Prior to the news of shutting down, Blue Sky was working on bringing She-Ra and Lumberjanes writer Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona webcomic to the screens.

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Blue Sky was founded in 1987. The studio originally worked on commercials and other short-film work before moving into feature animation with Ice Age in 1999 after being acquired by Fox.

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This article was first published in Geek Culture.