Also, I'm good friends with writer Karen Disher, designer Peter DeSeve and storyboard artist William Frake, who all work for Blue Sky. I've admired many of their films, like "Robots", "Ferdinand", "Epic", and of course, "Horton Hears a Who", which is a classic. Plus they had two money-making franchises, the "Ice Age" series and the "Rio" films.
I've even lectured up there (Greenwich, CT) and was very impressed by their abundant talent and the joy they take in their craft. But when Disney bought out Fox, everyone was nervous about the future of Blue Sky, why would they need an East Coast version of Pixar that competes with Disney and Pixar? That wouldn't make sense. But Disney let Blue Sky continue to make their films, until "Spies in Disguise" came out and wasn't much of a success. I think after that, the writing was on the wall, as they say.
Now, a lot of very talented people are going to be out of work, and may be forced to move to L.A. to continue their animation careers. My hope is that they can write and create remotely, or maybe form another studio here on the East Coast. Dream on, right?
Even though my mini-indie studio often has trouble surviving, at least I'm able to continue to produce films without worrying that Disney executives will be pulling the rug out from under me. That's the biggest benefit of working as an independent. Although if Disney were to offer me a boatload of money to buy my studio, I might consider it.
You can read more about the closing of Blue Sky on Cartoon Brew here:
Here's this week's gag cartoon - thanks for listening!
--Bill
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