Blue Sky Studios, the team behind the animated franchise Ice Age, may have gone extinct thanks to the recent megamerger of Disney and 20th Century Fox, but as a brief goodbye, the artists that brought this franchise to life, Blue Sky posted a brief animation of the popular squirrel finally securing the acorn and eating it.
The clip, which is posted to a Youtube account called “Finale” and remains unlisted as of this writing, emerged just over one year after the studio’s closure in 2021. It has gained a lot of traction on social media from fans who remember laughing at the slapstick squirrel and his perilous journeys. The description of the video is far from the tone of Blue Sky’s films, reading as a final message that wouldn’t otherwise get out.
“In the final days of Blue Sky Studios, a small team of artists came together to do one final shot. This shot is a farewell, a send-off on our own terms.”
This by no means means its the end of the Ice Age Franchise!
Disney may have canceled all production on Blue Sky projects, but seems intent on continuing the Ice Age franchise in their own way.
The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild premiered on Disney+ this past January, spinning off Simon Pegg’s character from prior films as the main star. Disney is said to be the sole creative force behind this entry, which recast voices from past films and received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Scrat himself has also reappeared on Disney’s streaming service in Scrat Tales, a series of shorts developed before Blue Sky’s closure that center on the squirrel becoming a father.