1:52PM, Jun 08, 2009
The cutting edge studio behind the Ice Age series was founded by artists and technicians who had previously worked on the Disney film Tron.
Faced with competition from Star Wars, the 1982 sci-fi adventure met a cool reception on release and earned only $33m domestically against a budget of $17m.
The studio execs regarded it as a noble failure so - faced with little prospect of a follow-up - the creative team decamped to form Blue Sky Studios.
Although oirginally intending to begin making feature length cartoons, the 1987 Wall Street crash meant they first had to diversify into TV commercials and special effects.
Notable early successes included the talking coffee bean in the Chock Full O' Nuts advert and the orange goo form of the children's channel Nickleodeon mascot Nick Boy.
Other clients ranged from the American car giant Chrysler and confectionary-maker M&M to the US Marines.
On the big screen, the studio also worked on special affects for David Fincher's Fight Club in 1999, created several alien creatures for Star Trek: Insurrection and also designed the monsters of Alien Resurrection.
With the takeover by Fox in 1997, the studio had finally acquired the clout to embark on its own films and the first fruits of this were the family short Bunny.
Directed by Chris Wedge, who would go on to devise and direct Ice Age (as well as providing the voice of Scrat), the movie landed an Oscar for best short.
Pitched against the animation giants Pixar and DreamWorks (as well as the Japanese Studio Ghibli), Blue Sky's next project - and first feature - was Ice Age.
The story of the "sub zero heroes" - sabre-toothed Diego (voiced by Denis Leary), woolly mammoth Manny (Ray Romano) and ground sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) - was a massive hit, grossing $380m worldwide.
It also introduced the world to the actorn-hunting Scrat, the fictional sabre-toothed squirrel, who became a star in his own right in a series of stand-alone shorts.
Their next outing was the animated adventure Robots, starring Ewan McGregor and Robin Williams, which told the story of a futuristic world ruled over by machines.
"When it comes down to it, all of us at Blue Sky are basically a bunch of geeks: we do get excited about that kind of thing," said director Chris Wedge.
"At Blue Sky it's 'rendering' - simulating the way light works and the photographic quality that things have.
But you find out very quickly that you may be more interested in that than the audience, and that's the stuff that hits the cutting room floor first. I don't think there's any gratuitous showboating in Robots."
In 2006, the studio made the sequel Ice Age: The Meltdown, introducing Manny's love interest, the woolly mammoth Ellie (voiced by Queen Latifah).
Next up was the successful adaptation of the Dr Seuss story Horton Hears A Who featuring Horton the elephant (voiced by Jim Carrey) and The mayor of Whoville (voiced by Steve Carell).
The third instalment of the Ice Age franchise - Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - hit the big screen in summer 2009, introducing Simon Pegg's character Buck the weasel.
