I just got back from this movie in the theatre, and there were some notable things in the credits worth discussing, especially concerning the direction of Blue Sky Studios now that they're owned by Disney.Andrew Stanton and Inside Out co-writer Meg FeFauve were given Special Thanks credits. While I doubt they had a large influence (they probably just gave some last minute notes) this kind of cross-study interaction is not unusual at Disney. Finding Dory featured a Special Thanks to Zootopia director and Walt Disney Animation Studios veteran Rich Moore (he and Dory director Andrew Stanton previously collaborated on The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse), while Frozen 2 credited Stanton, Pete Docter and Brad Bird.More importantly however, it appears that Blue Sky has formed it's own Pixar style Brain Trust.Credited under "Senior Creative Team", just like with Disney Animation and Pixar releases, the names of more or less every notable director who ever worked at Blue Sky is present, plus a few other smaller talents.Joseph Antonuccio (animator at Blue Sky since Ice Age 3)Robert L. Baird (writer for Blue Sky's Ferdinand, plus a former Disney Animation and Pixar screenwriter for Big Hero 6 and Monsters University)Nick Bruno (Co-Director of Spies in Disguise and Blue Sky animator since Ice Age 2)Jony Chandra (Blue Sky artist and animator since Ice Age 2)Galen T. Chu (Additional story on the first Ice Age, plus a director of several direct-to-DVD Ice Age shorts and the co-director of Age Age 5)Adam Cootes (Blue Sky story artist since Epic)Maria Criscuolo (Production manager at Blue Sky since Ice Age 1)Karen Disher (Blue Sky artist since Robots, Director of Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas and planned to direct Foster before it was supposedly cancelled)Hank Driskill (actually not a Blue Sky veteran, he was a technical director at the Walt Disney Animation Studios)Lisa Fragner (Executive Director of Development on Epic)Brian A. Keane (Various executive positions since the original Ice Age)Donnie Long (Storyboard artist on The Peanuts Movie and Ferdinand, and also an animator for Disney during the late 90's/early 2000's)Steve Martino (Director of Horton Hears a Who, Ice Age 4 and The Peanuts Movie)Patrick Osborne (Director of Blue Sky's upcoming film Nimona, plus a former Disney animator, notably directing the short film Feast)Troy Quane (Co-Director of Spies in Disguise and a Blue Sky story artist since The Peanuts Movie, plus a former animator on Disney's direct-to-video sequels)Elizabeth Reddy (no other known film credits)Carlos Saldanha (Director of Ice Age 1, 2 and 3, Robots, Rio 1 and 2 & Ferdinand)Mike Thurmeier (Director of Ice Age 4 and 5, plus a Blue Sky animator going back to Ice Age 1)Chris Wedge (The co-founder of Blue Sky and one of the most important people in the early development of Computer Animation, including the animation for Tron, one of the first live action movies to incorporate CGI)James C.J. Williams (former Sony and DreamWorks animator, this is his first Blue Sky credit)I went back to the credits of Blue Sky's last release, Ferdinand, to see if this was a new development or not. Sure enough, Spies in Disguise is the first film to feature this Brain Trust.When Pixar was acquired by Disney in 2006, the Walt Disney Animation Studios was facing creative and financial failures, so John Lasseter implemented a Story Trust similar to the one at Pixar, using existing Disney talent to help give notes and suggestions for Disney animated features. It helped the studio become more filmmaker oriented rather than executive driven and improved studio morale. Perhaps the same thing could happen to Blue Sky, which itself has had a rocky road in recent years wth middling returns and mediocre reviews. via /r/movies https://ift.tt/2snZ2WA
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