Blue Sky Studios, best known for its Ice Age movies, was shut down in April 2021 after Disney bought over its parent company 20th Century Fox, as part of Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets in 2019. And in the studio’s final days, a team of artists allegedly got together to produce a final video featuring Ice Age‘s squirrel Scrat, stating “This shot is a farewell, a send-off on our own terms.”
In the Ice Age movies, it has always been a running joke that the squirrel Scrat never gets his acorn. In all five Ice Age movies produced by Blue Sky, Scrat always gets tantalisingly close to eating the acorn, but something always goes wrong. You can’t help but root for the little guy each time.
In this final video (released as an unlisted video on a throwaway account), aptly named ‘The End’, Scrat gets his hands on the acorn, looks around furtively for something to take it away, and finally, eats it. It is both a beautiful and sad moment because while you are happy for the little guy, it also has that finality in it, a statement that the adventure is over and, as Scrat hops off the screen, signifying that perhaps another tale awaits.
And Scrat does head on to another adventure. Though Blue Sky Studios is no more, Disney which now owns the Ice Age franchise is moving the brand into the future. The new Ice Age: Scrat Tales is a 6-episode animated short series about Scrat and his offspring Baby Scrat bonding while also battling each other for an acorn. The series begins streaming on Disney+ on 13 April 2022.
Blue Sky Studios was founded in 1987, focusing on creating special effects for commercials and films before it started producing its own films. Its first feature film was 2002’s Ice Age released by 20th Century Fox. It produced 13 films during its time, including Rio, Robots, Horton Hears a Who!, and its final film, 2019’s Spies in Disguise. The third Ice Age movie, 2009’s Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs was Blue Sky’s most commercially successful movie, making US$886 million in sales worldwide. Scrat was the studio’s mascot.
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