When Disney completed its acquisition of 20th Century Fox, it shuttered Blue Sky Studios, the company behind the beloved Ice Age franchise. Disney is still in the Ice Age business, using a new movie and shorts series to bolster its Disney+ streaming lineup, but the original studio behind the franchise is no more. As their final act, however, some animators at Blue Sky teamed up to deliver a farewell to the studio on their terms.
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Ice Age began with the tale of Scrat, a rodent obsessed with securing an acorn who spent five entire movies trying to accomplish that simple goal. With the release of Ice Age: Scrat Tales on Disney+ Wednesday morning, the final animation from Blue Sky was also unveiled. It shows Scrat eating his acorn at last, enjoying his spoils before moving on to another adventure. Take a look!
“In the final days of [Blue Sky Studios], a small team of artists came together to do one final shot,” reads the message from the former Blue Sky animators. “This shot is a farewell, a send-off on our own terms.”
Earlier this year, Disney+ released a new Ice Age movie, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, focusing on Simon Pegg’s character from the sequels. Scrat was nowhere to be found.
Ahead of Adventures of Buck Wild‘s debut in January, producer Lori Forte talked with ComicBook.com about why Buck Wild was the right character to lead the franchise’s first spinoff.
“I think he’s just become a beloved character, not only for us, but for audiences,” Forte told us. “He’s an eccentric character, he’s wacky, he’s joyful, he’s lovable. He’s an action adventure hero and he’s so physical. He’s funny and he’s a protector and guardian of the lost world of dinosaurs. I mean right there, it feels like this is a character you want to spend time with, you want to get to know a little better than we’ve been able to get to know him in the other movies. He’s so unique because he’s been down there so long. He’s lived a solitary life, now let’s see him with other characters and see how he can grow and change.”
The entire Ice Age franchise is now streaming on Disney+.
