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Disney is closing down Ice Age animation studio Blue Sky and canceling its final film

bitbydeath

bitbydeath

Member
That’s a shame, can’t say I was a big fan of their work, Ice Age had its moments and Spies in Disguise was alright.
The reason cited by a studio spokesperson is the “current economic realities,” likely referring to COVID
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Blue Sky previously operated under 20th Century Fox’s animation department
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Disney will be absorbing all of Blue Sky’s characters and IP, including its most popular franchises, Ice Age and Rio.
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The studio also produced a variety of CGI movies I remember fondly from my childhood, like Robots, and some recent movies I really enjoyed, such as 2015’s The Peanuts Movieand Ferdinand. The studio’s latest, and apparently last, movie was 2019’s Spies in Disguise. The movie it was working on, Nimona, is being canceled with 10 months left in production.
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www.theverge.com

Disney is closing down Ice Age animation studio Blue Sky and canceling its final film

The studio’s last movie was Spies in Disguise.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com
 
mortal

mortal

Gold Member
That's really unfortunate. Hope folks manage to land on their feet :/
Canceling a production with less than a year left seem like a major dick move.

I loved Robots, rather underrated imo.
 
E

e&e

Banned
ManaByte said:
You own Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. Why keep around Fox's imitation of those?
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Hmm to release more content for Disney+ or is it a bad idea to bulster your service?

Edit: On another note Disney Animation Studio has a new movie coming out next month called Raya and it looks amazing but I’ve never heard of it till a few minutes ago. Like what? COVID did these companies dirty.
 
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A

AnotherDayAnotherDollar

Banned
sol_bad said:
Spies in Disguise didn't do well at the box office. Maybe thats part of the reason.
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Their movies overall have not done well at the BO outside of Ice Age and Rio. Ice Age at the BO has been declining and both franchises have gone in down in quality. Blue Sky movies were going to struggle in a post covid world where huge movies have done piss poor at the BO. When you consider the 2.5x rule of thumb to turn a profit for movies then even in a pre covid world Blue Sky's future was iffy, especially with 20th Century Animation still being a thing.

I still hoped they would keep them around for smaller budget movies, i.e. 100MM or lower movies and content for Disney+, but they are likely going the outsourcing route for that. 20th Century Animation will still produce some movies so any of the IP that Blue Sky owns will likely be produced by them (such as the Disney+ spin off Ice Age movie). Sucks they completely cancelled Nimona too.

Alcibiades said:
Government should have never approved the merger. I don't care about Xmen in the MCU if it means less competition and more consolidation of media into even fewer companies.
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Block the merger on what grounds? This is an honest question.
 
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Dural

Dural

Member
sol_bad said:
Spies in Disguise didn't do well at the box office. Maybe thats part of the reason.
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Yeah, there last couple of movies haven't performed great and the last Ice Age did half what the two prior did. I've enjoyed their output, sad to see another animation studio gone.
 
Ikutachi

Ikutachi

Member
Methos#1975 said:
I like the Ice Age franchise, hopefully Disney continues it with their own animation studios.
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Kenan Thompson Reaction GIF
 
Alcibiades

Alcibiades

Member
AnotherDayAnotherDollar said:
Their movies overall have not done well at the BO outside of Ice Age and Rio. Ice Age at the BO has been declining and both franchises have gone in down in quality. Blue Sky movies were going to struggle in a post covid world where huge movies have done piss poor at the BO. When you consider the 2.5x rule of thumb to turn a profit for movies then even in a pre covid world Blue Sky's future was iffy, especially with 20th Century Animation still being a thing.

I still hoped they would keep them around for smaller budget movies, i.e. 100MM or lower movies and content for Disney+, but they are likely going the outsourcing route for that. 20th Century Animation will still produce some movies so any of the IP that Blue Sky owns will likely be produced by them (such as the Disney+ spin off Ice Age movie). Sucks they completely cancelled Nimona too.



Block the merger on what grounds? This is an honest question.
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Some sort of anti-trust concern. Even though it's not a monopoly yet, it is leading to more consolidation and less competition.
 
Fbh

Fbh

Member
Haven't really liked any of their recent movies but it's still a shame to see them go.

Hopefully Disney never gets their hands on Dreamworks.
 
epicnemesis

epicnemesis

Member
I didn’t know they owned Blue Sky until this news. I always thought they were a universal studio.

They put out average movies at best. Sad for the job loss though.
 
A

AnotherDayAnotherDollar

Banned
Alcibiades said:
Animation consolidation, box ofice consolidation, streaming consolidation for starters.
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Consolidation is not a reason to block a merger otherwise every single merger in the history of the US would have been blocked.

You either have to be detailed on why, legally, it should have been blocked or you have to come to terms there are no reasons to block it legally but you think that it should have been because you don't like.
 
DKehoe

DKehoe

Member
Sad that these big corporate mergers mean there will be less jobs available. Hope everyone who worked there lands on their feet.
 
Alcibiades

Alcibiades

Member
AnotherDayAnotherDollar said:
Consolidation is not a reason to block a merger otherwise every single merger in the history of the US would have been blocked.

You either have to be detailed on why, legally, it should have been blocked or you have to come to terms there are no reasons to block it legally but you think that it should have been because you don't like.
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Well not consolidation in general, but there are tipping points. When you start approaching 50% of the box office market, combined with removing one of the few threats to Netflix amd Disney Plus (Hulu), then I think it all adds up.

If this was say Lion's Gate merging with MGM, that'd be a different story.

It's a judgment call but I think this is an easy no. I'd say any of the top 4 (NBC Universal CBS/Viacom, Disney, and Warner) should not be allowed to merge with one another, and Fox was in that group.
 
N

NahaNago

Member
e&e said:
Hmm to release more content for Disney+ or is it a bad idea to bulster your service?

Edit: On another note Disney Animation Studio has a new movie coming out next month called Raya and it looks amazing but I’ve never heard of it till a few minutes ago. Like what? COVID did these companies dirty.
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Although I could never remember the release date Raya has been talked about by youtubers for awhile. The issue though is that Disney hasn't really pushed this movie as hard as the other Disney films. Like you mentioned Covid, otherwise Disney would have been pushing this movie like crazy for those theater numbers.
 
SirTerry-T

SirTerry-T

Member
I think as soon as that deal went through, Blue Sky were living on borrowed time. A damn shame, loved what they did with the Peanuts movie.
 
A

AnotherDayAnotherDollar

Banned
Alcibiades said:
Well not consolidation in general, but there are tipping points. When you start approaching 50% of the box office market, combined with removing one of the few threats to Netflix amd Disney Plus (Hulu), then I think it all adds up.

If this was say Lion's Gate merging with MGM, that'd be a different story.

It's a judgment call but I think this is an easy no. I'd say any of the top 4 (NBC Universal CBS/Viacom, Disney, and Warner) should not be allowed to merge with one another, and Fox was in that group.
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Box office tickets is not a reason to block a merger. This is a misconception brought up by the internet. Even if it was it doesn't approach what a monopoly is according to the Sherman Antitrust Act, The Clayton Act or the FTC Act. Disney+ wasn't even a thing when the merger was completed and even if it was it wouldn't be a reason to block it.

There is no logical reason why NBCU, CBSV, Disney, Warner couldn't merge. None. Curious why you wouldn't include Columbia there, but they'd be able to merge as well.

Your arguments are based on what you think is fair, not what the law says. Don't like the law, change the law. According to the law there are no grounds to block these mergers and there were no grounds to block DIS - FOX either. Put it another way regulatory bodies throughout the world looked at it and the only things that Disney was required to divest were:

- FSN in the US, due primarily to over concentration and ownership of sports broadcasting in specific markets
- A&E Network in EU due to worry about cable concentration since Disney would own NatGeo and FX
- Fox Sports Network in Mexico and Brazil, the latter later conceded and Fox Sports Brazil will be merged into ESPN in Jan 2022.

None of these regulatory bodies ever brought up BO tickets and streaming. This is something internet folks who don't know the law and legalities of M&A bring up and they are wrong every single time.
 
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