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 1997, the studio was acquired by Twentieth 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 Studios also animated 20th Century Fox's final logo for the studio's 75th anniversary, the Star Studios logo, the Fox International Productions logo, and the final Searchlight Pictures logo under the Fox Searchlight Pictures name.

On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company officially confirmed its acquisition of 21st Century Fox's key assets, including Blue Sky. The purchase was completed on March 20, 2019. 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. As a result, various upcoming films from Blue Sky were cancelled, but some of them had revived production by other studios. Two examples include Foster (later renamed Wish), being revived by Disney and Walt Disney Animation Studios, and an animated film adaptation of the webcomic Nimona, being revived by Annapurna Pictures, Netflix, and DNEG Feature Animation. On April 10, 2021, the company ceased operations, and its assets are now owned by Disney. The last official production from the studio, Ice Age: Scrat Tales, was released as a Disney+ miniseries on April 13, 2022.

At the time of closure, they were well known for the Ice Age and Rio franchises, and the films Robots, Horton Hears A Who!, Epic, The Peanuts Movie, Ferdinand, and Spies in Disguise. Scrat from the first title was the studio's mascot from 2013-19.

1st Logo (March 15, 2002-February 4, 2005)
Logo: On a black background, we see the serif 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 appears in a white oval. It's probably a prototype variant of the next logo.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: Part of the soundtrack from the trailer, or none.

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 film's original theatrical release, but it did not in reality.
 * The variant appeared on the Robots video game and the GBA and NDS ports of Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, while the next logo was on the actual films.

Legacy: It was unknown whether this elusive logo was real or not for a long time, until it was discovered on the aforementioned TV spots and video games.

2nd Logo (March 11, 2005-July 1, 2009 [2006-2012 for video games])
Logo: On a plain white background, we see a plain white shield with a blue outline rotating over the words "Blue Sky", in the same font as the previous logo. Then the word "studios" fades in underneath. The logo fades to the opening shot of the movie.

Variants:
 * On Robots (the first movie to have it), the logo is set against the blue sky atmosphere with "studios" in white. The logo fades out and the opening scene begins.
 * A still print version appears on the Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Angry Birds Rio, and Ice Age: Continental Drift video games.

Technique: Simple computer animation.

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

Availability: Uncommon.
 * Can be seen on Robots (first film with a Blue Sky logo), Ice Age: The Meltdown and the console ports of its video game adaption, Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! and the 2-D version of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
 * When the next logo was introduced, this logo continued to appear on video games (in print form) until 2012, as seen on Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Angry Birds Rio, and Ice Age: Continental Drift.

3rd Logo (July 1, 2009-July 13, 2012)
Logo: Same as before, except that the words and outline zoom in slowly and have a drop shadow effect.

Variants:
 * On Rio, the background is black and "studios" is white, and the logo instead fades out.
 * On the video game adaptation of Rio, the drop shadow is lighter.

Technique: 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: Just as uncommon as before.
 * The normal version can be seen on the 3-D version of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs as well as Ice Age: Continental Drift in both 2-D and 3-D (the previous logo is on the 2-D version of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and on both films' video game adaptations).
 * The variant with a black background and "studios" in white is extremely rare and was only seen Rio (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 of said special), and with a lighter drop shadow on the video game adaptation of Rio.
 * It was last seen on trailers and some TV spots for Epic, while the next logo makes its debut on the actual movie.

4th Logo (May 24, 2013-December 25, 2019, April 13, 2022)
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 as the left side of the "B" in "Blue Sky" (in a similar serif font as before), with "STUDIOS" seen below. Scrat then loses his grip on the "B" and falls from the logo off-screen, screaming. A drop shadow appears behind the text, and the logo then fades out.

Alternate Descriptive Video Description: Scrat hops over a blue surface, grabs his acorn, and snuggles it. The blue surface tilts right, then left, dramatically. Scrat scrambles, drops his acorn, and clings to the now vertical surface. The view widens, revaling blue letters on a white background. Blue Sky Studios.

Variants:
 * Sometimes, Scrat is seen holding on to the "B".
 * On one trailer for Rio 2, it is raining confetti.
 * On Rio 2, it fades into the opening shot.
 * On The Peanuts Movie, the text fades out and a black rectangle outline draws in as the opening titles play. Then, black outline circles which become winter snowflakes begin to animate, as it dissolves into the opening shot.
 * There is also a still version without Scrat. It is used mainly on video games and shorts.
 * On one trailer for The Peanuts Movie, the still logo is seen on a TV.
 * On trailers and TV spots for Spies in Disguise, the logo is made of metal and colored bluish-purple, and the background is black.

Technique: CGI animation from Blue Sky themselves.

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.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * None or the opening theme of the trailer for the still version.
 * On Rio 2, Scrat's scream segues into the opening theme of the movie.
 * On Ferdinand, the sound effects (except for Scrat's little noises and scream) are different.

Availability: Common.
 * Seen on later Blue Sky Studios films before its closure, from Epic (the first film to use this logo) and ending with Spies in Disguise (the last film released before Blue Sky's closure).
 * Also seen on trailers and TV spots for the films that used this logo, as well as the games Snoopy's Grand Adventure and Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure, and the TV special Ice Age: The Great Egg-scapade.
 * This made a surprise appearance on Ice Age: Scrat Tales, which was produced prior to its closure, but was released afterwards. However, don't expect to see this logo nor the 20th Century Studios logo on The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild since that movie was animated by Bardel Entertainment and released by Disney.
 * It is currently unknown whether this will appear on Nimona as well, as 75% of the film had already been completed prior to the shutdown of the studio.