English name: Blue sky studios
Corporate headquarters: new york, USA.
20 13 In late April, when Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation Company, came to Beijing to promote Croods, chris wedge, co-founder of Blue Sky Studio, also came to Beijing with his new film Epic at almost the same time. Someone joked that if john lasseter of Pixar were here, the heads of the three major Hollywood animation studios would gather in Beijing.
Blue Sky Studio is a new force in Hollywood animation market. While DreamWorks and Pixar (owned by Disney) continue to devour the Hollywood animation market, the rise of some small studios such as Blue Sky and Lighting Entertainment (owned by Universal Pictures) has brought a new competitive landscape in this field.
The brand "Blue Sky" may not be as famous as its animation-Ice Age, which was born in 2002, made this squirrel named Scratt one of the favorite animation images of the global audience.
In the following 10 year, Blue Sky successively released three sequels of Ice Age, and animated feature films such as Rob ots and Rio, which were few in number, but basically gained good box office and word of mouth, making people shine at the moment. Forest Warrior is their latest work, which will be released in North America on May 24th, and is also expected to be introduced to China.
In terms of scale and output, Blue Sky can't be compared with Pixar and DreamWorks, but with a few high-quality animations such as Ice Age and Rio Adventure, it has occupied a place in the highly competitive industry. It can be said that Blue Sky Studio is the closest one to Pixar and DreamWorks.
But chris wedge is still very clear about the gap between the blue sky and the other two, and also knows his position. When it comes to DreamWorks' "Oriental DreamWorks" officially settled in Shanghai, the reporter asked Blue Sky if it had a similar development intention, and Wei Qi made it clear that there was no plan for the time being.
Similar to Pixar's development track
Blue Sky Studio was established in 1987, and its office is located on the second floor of a dentist's office in Blair Cliff Manor, new york. Chris wedge said that when several young people got together, they didn't have much money and didn't know how to manage the company. They only have a vision for the future of computer animation technology, and believe that they may do something in the future.
At first, the company was only responsible for the title production and CGI special effects of some movies and TV entertainment programs. /kloc-began to provide special effects technical support for many live-action movies in the 1990s. The monsters in Alien 4, some virtual scenes in Titanic, and the talking penguins that Edward Harrison Norton's character met in meditation in Fight Club were all written by Blue Sky Studio.
Speaking of it, Blue Sky Studio was born only one year later than Pixar. During the period of 1986, when Jobs acquired the computer animation department in george lucas and set up Pixar animation studio, chris wedge's plan to set up Blue Sky Studio had already taken shape.
The development track of Blue Sky is quite similar to Pixar's: both of them were born with special effects and launched their own commercial animated films when the time was ripe. But in 1995, Pixar had its own fist product-the world's first toy story, which completely used computer animation technology and was a great success after it was released.
The Blue Sky Studio continued to wait for three years. 1998, they released a 7-minute animated short film "Rabbit" and won the best animated short film award at the 7 1 Oscar Awards. At this time, 20th century Fox, who suffered a box office nightmare because of Iron Triangle, saw the advantages of Blue Sky, decisively removed its animation department, signed a cooperation agreement with Blue Sky, and undertook the distribution of Blue Sky animation works.
In 2002, the ace work Ice Age, which truly belongs to Blue Sky Studio, was born. For chris wedge, this can be said to be the work of The Last Stand.
What impressed everyone in Blue Sky Studio was the Ice Age: Dawn of Dinosaurs in 2009. To everyone's surprise, it became the world's top box office animation in 2009, with a box office income of 888 million US dollars, easily surpassing Pixar's Travels around the Flying House and DreamWorks' War with Aliens. At that time, it even ranked among the top three computer animation works in the world, second only to Finding Nemo and Shrek 2.
20 1 1, Rio Adventure adds weight to Blue Sky Studio. Film critic Luc specifically mentioned that recalling the first ice age, the treatment of animal hair was actually the weakness of the blue sky. Elephants and sloths only have rough fur attached to them, and the success of the film depends entirely on the charm of the characters and actions. Since Ice Age 3, Blue Sky has overcome this difficulty-the audience can see the fine hair on animals and colorful background rendering. These two items are also the most intuitive selling points of Rio Adventure.
According to The New York Times, during the production of Rio Adventure, employees specially went to the Bronx Zoo in new york to draw bird sketches, learn samba and watch the famous Caboville dance in Brazil. Chris wedge (2065438+03) is 55 years old, with fluffy curly hair, sunken eyes and slightly dark circles. Seeing him can't help but remind people that animation is really a tiring profession. In the blue sky, each animator only makes 4 to 5 seconds of material every week on average. It takes three to five years to prepare and release an animated film. No matter at the press conference or in the interview, Wedge repeatedly stated: "You have been working hard and have no other secrets."
Chris wedge has no airs of leadership at all, and he is easy-going, humble and full of energy. At the press conference, at the request of the host, he generously imitated the squirrel's cry in Ice Age for the audience, which attracted a laugh.
He is also an ideal interviewee, who doesn't beat around the bush, answers questions and has few reservations. But you can still find that when the blue sky is compared with Pixar, his feelings are a little subtle.
Wedge has a close relationship with john lasseter, who is one of the founders of Pixar and the most famous cartoon director in Hollywood (he directed Toy Story, Car Story and other films). In fact, he took the initiative to mention this matter to reporters in many interviews. It can be seen that Wedge cherishes this friendship very much, and he doesn't want to turn the competition between the two companies into a contest between himself and lasseter.
Moreover, he doesn't think there is competition between him and lasseter. "In fact, none of us will interfere with anyone. Two studios shoot Ice Age at the same time, and then finish it first. Who can win the audience's love will form a competitive relationship. But you know, people go to the movies at least twice a quarter, and children are more open to cartoons. Therefore, the real competition is with ourselves-see if we can come up with the best ideas. " Wedge told reporters.
The friendship between chris wedge and john lasseter can be traced back to the early 1980s. They just graduated from college. Wedge lives in new york and lasseter lives in California. "When we first met, we thought about working together. Although I didn't go to the same university, I still became friends who trusted each other. " Wedge said.
After that, chris wedge went to MAGI/Synthavision as an animator, while lasseter worked for Disney. Lasseter once recalled to the media that the first computer animation he saw in his life was made by chris wedge.
1983, Disney released the sci-fi movie Chuang. According to lasseter's memory, two of his friends created split-screen scripts and action arrangements for computer animation in the electronic world, and sent the edited scripts to MAGI/Synthavision Company in new york. "My good friend chris wedge is making computer animation at Maggie Company. Their computers access the Internet through dial-up, and chris wedge can only send them the preliminary pictures frame by frame. It was the first time in my life that I saw computer animation, which made my blood boil. I remember that the first shot I saw was the scene of the lightcycle sequence, and I was completely shocked. " Lasseter said.
1984, lasseter jumped to Lucasfilm, called Wedge and asked him if he wanted to go with him. But Wedge chose to stay in new york. A year later, Blue Sky Studio was formally established, and Wedge parted ways with his former friends to fight for his animation dream. Gradually, some media called chris wedge "john lasseter on the East Coast". In fact, Wedge's personal relationship with lasseter almost turned Forest Warrior into an animation made by Pixar. As early as 2006, Wedge intended to direct the film, but at that time Fox did not give Blue Sky financial support. In desperation, Wedge decided to give the film to Pixar for production. Just when the deal was about to fall through, Fox changed his mind and got the copyright back, and formally established the project in 2009. The film was named Ye Ren and later changed to Epic.
This is the third animated feature film directed by chris wedge after Ice Age and Adventures of Robots. The film is adapted from the children's literature Ye Ren and Brave Good Bug published by William Joyce 1996.
The story revolves around the contest between good and evil that happened in the forest. One day, a girl was walking in the forest, her body suddenly became smaller, and then she found an unknown microscopic world hidden in the forest. The film's voice actors include Amanda Seyfried, josh hutcherson (The Hunger Games), Colin Farrell and Christopher Valts. In particular, Beyonce, the pop music "Tianhou", was invited to play "The Queen of the Forest"-"Everyone is too familiar with her singing, but they are not familiar with her voice. I have to say that she is also quite talented in dubbing, completely injecting her feelings into the role. " Wedge said.
Wedge emphasized that Forest Warrior was not only made for children. "This is not just an animation, this is a movie, a large-scale action adventure blockbuster. The core of the first two animations is interesting characters. This time, we added adventure elements, just like Star Wars and Avatar. This movie will show you things you have never seen before and take you to places you have never been. " Wedge told reporters. The title Epic is literally translated as "epic", and we can also see the ambition of Blue Sky Studio this time.
We can really find the shadow of Avatar from the magnificent picture and soundtrack of this movie. Forest warriors fighting on hummingbirds are also easily reminiscent of soldiers flying on big birds on Pandora. Wedge admitted that Avatar really inspired him. "About five years ago, I went to see Avatar with my 10-year-old son. After watching it, my son excitedly said to me,' Dad, this is what the Ye Xia movie looks like in my imagination!' "
As for the theme that the protagonist's body becomes smaller and falls into the micro-world, or believes that there is a micro-world in nature itself, it will be reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, Lilliput and Little People Borrowing Things written by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Miyazaki Hayao. Later, the reporter learned that Miyazaki Hayao is one of Wedge's favorite animation masters.