Blue Sky Studios Animated Movies Ranked
Blue Sky Studios burst onto the animation scene in 2002 when its debut feature Ice Age earned over $380million at the worldwide box office and amassed a string of fairly positive reviews. The studio had actually been around since 1987, having spent the previous 15 years working as a special effects production house and music video producer, but after being bought out by 20th Century Fox in 1997, Blue Sky shifted direction to become one of the conglomerate’s most trustworthy sources of original material, amassing a total of 13 films in 17 years (including 4 Ice Age sequels), before eventually being closed down when Disney bought Fox and folded the animation group into its already existing animation arm.
In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine will take you through each of these thirteen feature film releases, ordering all of the now defunct studio’s movies from worst to best in terms of artistic merit and cultural importance. These are, the Blue Sky Studios Animated Movies Ranked.
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13. Ice Age: Collision Course (2016)
Budget: $105million
Worldwide Box Office: $408.6million
Starring: Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, Stephanie Beatriz, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Adam Devine, Max Greenfield, Jessie J, Jennifer Lopez, Nick Offerman, Keke Palmer, Josh Peck, Simon Pegg, Seann William Scott, Michael Strahan, Wanda Sykes
In making less than half of the $877million its predecessor made, Ice Age: Collision Course inevitably became the final ever instalment of the central Ice Age franchise.
Unfortunately, this meant the series went out with a whimper, as Collision Course was a shallow and perhaps even hollow presentation of the characters, voices and animation that the studio had so wonderfully delivered in its past.
Blue Sky finally reached the bottom of the creative barrel with this one, offering by far their poorest release.
12. Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)
Budget: $95million
Worldwide Box Office: $877million
Starring: Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, Aziz Ansari, Peter Dinklage, Drake, Nick Frost, Josh Gad, Jennifer Lopez, Nicki Minaj, Keke Palmer, Josh Peck, Simon Pegg, Seann William Scott, Patrick Stewart, Wanda Sykes, Alan Tudyk, Rebel Wilson
Ice Age: Continental Drift Review
Ice Age 4 (Continental Drift) marked an important moment for Blue Sky Studios as the film came in the height of the studio’s popularity and their central franchise’s popular appeal, yet on the cusp of their downward trend.
It was, officially, the second highest-grossing movie in the history of the studio, yet it can be seen so clearly to define the very reason as to why Blue Sky struggled to bring audiences to their movies in the years that followed.
Continental Drift was the first sign of the studio beginning to lose creative credibility, turning to another sequel to bring audiences back to their product in the name of money. This time however, there wasn’t such universal appeal to the film as had occurred elsewhere; an issue that turned a lot of audiences away from the franchise following this film’s release. To adults, Ice Age had finally began to suffer from accidental self-parody, one of the least respectable traits of any film/franchise.
It was better than Ice Age 5 because it held a sense of nostalgia for the characters and their journeys, but Continental Drift still only ranks at number 12, in the 2nd lowest position on this list.
