Chris Wedge

 ( 1957 Births ) 

John Christian Wedge (born March 20, 1957)

is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. He is best known for being the lead animator of the sci-fi action film Tron (1982), co-founding the now-defunct animation studio Blue Sky Studios, and directing the short film Bunny (1998) and the feature films Ice Age (2002), Robots (2005) and Epic (2013). Wedge has received two Academy Awards nominations: one for Bunny, for which he won Best Animated Short; and Ice Age, nominated for Best Animated Feature. He also created and voiced the character Scrat in the Ice Age franchise (2002–present).

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Early life Wedge was born in Binghamton, New York. During his teenage years, Wedge lived in Watertown, New York which was rumored to be the inspiration for the town where his film Robots takes place, however he later dismissed this in an interview. He became interested in animation when he was 12 years old: "Back then, there was a TV special about kids making cut-out animation in a workshop—as I recall it was Yellow Ball Workshop—it was a clear technique to follow and I followed it. That fascinated me and it got me started. It was so simple, effective and magical in outcome and I stuck with creating things throughout my childhood, teenage years and then college."

He attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School, graduating in 1975. He received his BFA in Film from State University of New York at Purchase in Purchase, New York in 1981, and subsequently earned his MA in computer graphics and art education at the Ohio State University. He has taught animation at the School of Visual Arts in New York City where he met his future film directing partner, Carlos Saldanha.

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Career In 1982, Wedge worked for MAGi/SynthaVision, where he was a principal animator on the Disney film Tron, credited as a scene programmer. Some of his other works include The Brave Little Toaster.

Wedge is the founder of the now-defunct Blue Sky Studios, once one of the exclusive computer animation studios, and was its Vice President of Creative Development until the studio was closed by the Walt Disney Company in 2021. He is the owner of WedgeWorks, a film production company founded by Wedge.

In the 1990s, he and his studio worked on CGI visual effects for the movies Alien Resurrection and Titan A.E.

In 1998, he won an Academy Awards for the short animated film Bunny. Wedge later directed Blue Sky Studios' first computer-animated film, 2002's Ice Age, and served as executive producer for its sequels. He also voices Scrat in the film series, performing the character's "squeaks and squeals." In 2005, Wedge directed Robots, based on a story he created with William Joyce. In 2013 followed Epic, loosely based on Joyce's book, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs.

In 2008, it was announced that Wedge would direct Hugo, though he was subsequently replaced by Martin Scorsese. In 2009, it was reported that Wedge would direct an animated feature film adaptation of Will Wright's Spore, but since then there has been no further news about the film.

Wedge directed the science fiction/action film Monster Trucks (2016). Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger wrote the script for the film, produced by Mary Parent.

Wedge reprised the role of Scrat in a series of shorts for Disney+ titled . The shorts premiered on the streaming platform on April 13, 2022.

In 2023, it was announced that Wedge had joined Annapurna Animation, which had revived Nimona after it had been initially canceled following the closure of Blue Sky Studios, where he would direct a new animated film called FOO about "the first fish ever to climb out of the water and onto land."

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Personal life Wedge lives in Katonah, New York with his wife Jeanne Markel. They have two children, Sarah and Jack.

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Filmography

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Feature films

1982	Tron						Scene Programmer: MAGi / SynthaVision (as "Christian Wedge")
1996	Joe's Apartment						Animation Director
1997	A Simple Wish						Executive Creative Supervisor: Blue Sky Studios
	Alien Resurrection						Creative Supervisor: Blue Sky Studios Senior Staff
2002	Ice Age					Scrat / Dodo
2005	Robots					Wonderbot / Phone Booth
2006						Scrat
2008	Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!
2009						Scrat
2011	Rio
	Adventures in Plymptoons!					Himself	Documentary
2012						Scrat
2013	Epic
2014	Rio 2
2015	The Peanuts Movie						Uncredited role
2016						Scrat
	Monster Trucks
2017	Ferdinand
2019	Spies in Disguise						Senior Creative Team
2023	Nimona						Blue Sky Studios; Special Thanks
	FOO

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Short films

1982	The Daymaker
1985	Tuber's Two-Step
1987	Balloon Guy
1990	The Mind's Eye
1998	Bunny
2002	Gone Nutty						Scrat
2005	Aunt Fanny's Tour of Booty						Hacky
2006	No Time for Nuts						Scrat
2008	Surviving Sid
2010	Scrat's Continental Crack-Up							Act as Teaser Trailers #1 & #2
2011	Scrat's Continental Crack-Up Part 2
2015	Cosmic Scrat-tastrophe							Acts as extended Teaser Trailer
2016	Scrat: Spaced Out							Ice Age: Collision Course archive and deleted footage
2022								Disney+ Original Short Films; Ice Age Creative Trust

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Television episodes and specials

1996	Quack Pack						Episode: "Heavy Dental"
2006	Family Guy					Scrat	Episode: "Sibling Rivalry"
2011							Television Special
2015	The Simpsons						Episode: "Treehouse of Horror XXVI" (as Chris "Scrat" Wedge)
2016							Television Special

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Video games

2006		Scrat
2009
2012	Ice Age: Continental Drift - Arctic Games
2015	Ice Age Avalanche
2019	Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure

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Critical reception

61%

64%

52%

41%

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Awards and nominations

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External links

• IGN interview
• BBC interview

Categories: 1957 Births, Living People, Animators From New York, American Animated Film Directors, American Animated Film Producers, Animal Impersonators, Animation Screenwriters, Ohio State University Alumni, Artists From Binghamton, New York, State University Of New York At Purchase Alumni, Fayetteville-manlius High School Alumni, People From Manlius, New York, Directors Of Best Animated Short Academy Award Winners, Blue Sky Studios People, People From Katonah, New York, Film Directors From New York, Male Actors From Binghamton, New York, People From Watertown, New York

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