It was a sad day for animation fans last year when Blue Sky Studios, the team behind the Ice Age series, ceased operations.
Blue Sky went extinct due to the huge merger of Disney and 20th Century Fox, although the studio had been on a slippery slope for several years, films like Ferdinand not connecting with audiences in the same way Sid the Sloth and his mates did previously.
Almost two decades to the day since the first Ice Age, and almost a year to the day since the end of Blue Sky, the studio’s artists took to social media to share a heartwarming brief animation that will satisfy any Ice Age fan.
Yes, Scrat, the popular squirrel from the series, finally secures the acorn it’s been so desperate to keep safe and eats it. What a triumphant moment for the earnest little animal.
“In the final days of @BlueSkyStudios, a small team of artists came together to do one final shot. This shot is a farewell, a send-off on our own terms,” the caption on Twitter touchingly reveals.
The brief clip has quickly gone viral, clearly connecting with a generation of millennial fans who grew up rooting for Scrat to achieve his acorn-related dream.
The Ice Age saga continued this year without the involvement of Blue Sky Studios but it didn’t receive a good reaction. The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild spinoff film was released on Disney+ back in January.
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It followed Simon Pegg’s Buck Wild and two other possums called Crash and Eddy, as they try to keep the Lost World from being overtaken by dinosaurs and find a place of their own. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics, with the recasting of voice actors and animation quality being criticised.
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In the final days of @BlueSkyStudios, a small team of artists came together to do one final shot. This shot is a farewell, a send-off on our own terms —— Blue Sky Studios 🌰#IceAge #IceAgeScratTaleshttps://t.co/CA3klgo98x pic.twitter.com/tkcXwyLcMS
— DTVA News (@DisneyTVANews) April 13, 2022