Chris Wedge

John Christian Wedge (born March 20, 1957) is an American animated film director, producer, writer, cartoonist and voice actor, whose films include Ice Age (2002), Robots (2005), Epic (2013) and Monster Trucks (2016). He is a co-founder of the animation studio Blue Sky Studios and voiced the character Scrat in the Ice Age franchise.

Chris Wedge
Wedge in 2014
Born	John Christian Wedge March 20, 1957 Binghamton, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Fayetteville-Manlius High School
Alma mater	State University of New York at Purchase Ohio State University
Occupation	Film director, film producer, screenwriter, cartoonist, voice actor
Years active	1982–present
Notable work	Bunny Ice Age Robots Epic Monster Trucks
Spouse(s)	Jeanne Markel[1]
Children	2

Early life

Wedge was born in Binghamton, New York.[2] 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."[3]

He attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School, graduating in 1975.[4] 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.

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 Where the Wild Things Are (1983), George Shrinks, The Brave Little Toaster (1987), and Santa Calls.

Wedge is co-founder and Vice President of Creative Development at Blue Sky Studios, one of the premier computer animation studios and producer of Wedge's films. He is the owner of WedgeWorks, a film production company founded by Wedge.

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

In 1998, he won an Academy Award for the short animated film, Bunny. In 2002, Wedge directed Blue Sky Studios' first computer-animated film Ice Age and served as a producer for its sequels. He also voiced Scrat in the film series, performing the character's "squeaks and squeals."[5] 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.[6]

In 2007, it was announced that Wedge would direct Hugo though he was subsequently replaced by Martin Scorsese.[7] 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.[8]

Wedge directed the science fiction/action film Monster Trucks (2016), with a $100 million budget, and starring Lucas Till and Jane Levy.[9] Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger wrote the script for the film,[9] produced by Mary Parent.[10]

Personal life

Wedge lives in Katonah, New York[3] with his wife Jeanne Markel.[1] They have a daughter and a son, Sarah and Jack.[11]

Filmography

Feature Films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Executive Producer	Other	Voice Role	Notes
1982	Tron	No	No	No	Yes		Scene Programmer: MAGI Synthavision (as "Christian Wedge")
1996	Joe's Apartment	No	No	No	Yes		Animation Director
1997	A Simple Wish	No	No	No	Yes		Executive Creative Supervisor: Blue Sky Studios
	Alien Resurrection	No	No	No	Yes		Creative Supervisor: Blue Sky Studios Senior Staff
2002	Ice Age	Yes	No	No	Yes	Dodo/Scrat
2005	Robots	Yes	No	No	Yes	Wonderbot/Phone Booth
2006	Ice Age: The Meltdown	No	No	Yes	Yes	Scrat
2008	Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!	No	No	Yes	No
2009	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	No	No	Yes	Yes	Scrat
2011	Rio	No	No	Yes	No
2012	Ice Age: Continental Drift	No	No	Yes	Yes	Scrat
2013	Epic	Yes	Story	No	No	Scrat (Blue Sky Logo)
2014	Rio 2	No	No	Yes	No
2015	The Peanuts Movie	No	No	No	No
2016	Ice Age: Collision Course	No	No	Yes	Yes	Scrat
2017	Monster Trucks	Yes	No	No	No
	Ferdinand	No	No	Yes	No	Scrat (Blue Sky Logo)
2019	Spies in Disguise	No	No	Yes	Yes		Senior Creative Team

Short Films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Animator	Producer	Other	Voice Role	Notes
1985	Tuber's Two-Step	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
1987	Balloon Guy	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
1990	The Mind's Eye	No	No	No	Yes	No
1998	Bunny	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
2002	Gone Nutty	No	No	No	Executive	Yes	Scrat
2005	Aunt Fanny's Tour of Booty	No	No	No	Executive	Yes	Hacky
2006	No Time for Nuts	No	No	No	Executive	Yes	Scrat
2008	Surviving Sid	No	No	No	Executive	Yes	Scrat
2011	Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas	No	No	No	Executive	Yes	Scrat	TV Special
2016	Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade	No	No	No	Executive	Yes	Scrat	TV Special

Television

Year	Title	Art department	Voice Actor	Voice Role	Notes
1996	Quack Pack	Yes	No		Character designer, Prop designer
2006	Family Guy	No	Yes	Scrat	Episode: "Sibling Rivalry"
2015	The Simpsons	No	Yes		Episode: "Treehouse of Horror XXVI" (as Chris "Scrat" Wedge)

Video Games

Year	Title	Voice Role
2006	Ice Age 2: The Meltdown	Scrat
2009	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
2012	Ice Age: Continental Drift - Arctic Games
2015	Ice Age Avalanche

Special Thanks

Year	Title	Notes
2011	Adventures in Plymptoons!	Documentary
2020	Sonic The Hedgehog

Critical reception

Film	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic	IMDb
	Overall
Ice Age (2002)	77%[12]	60%[13]	7.5[14]
Robots (2005)	64%[15]	64%[16]	6.3[17]
Epic (2013)	64%[18]	52%[19]	6.7[20]
Monster Trucks (2016)	31%[21]	41%[22]	5.4[23]

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
1996	Ottawa International Animation Festival Award	Best Production Under 10 Minutes in Length	Joe's Apartment	Won
1999	Academy Award	Best Animated Short Film	Bunny	Won
	Drama International Short Film Festival Award	Special Prize for Animation		Won
	Nashville Film Festival Award	Best Animation		Won
	Jury Award	Best Short		Nominated
	Oberhausen International Short Film Festival Award	Prize of the Children's Short Film Competition		Won
2003	Academy Award	Best Animated Feature	Ice Age	Nominated
	Annie Award	Outstanding Directing in an Animated Feature Production Shared with Carlos Saldanha (co-director)		Nominated
	DVD Exclusive Award	Best Audio Commentary, New Release Shared with Carlos Saldanha (co-director)		Nominated
	ShoWest Convention Award	Animation Director of the Year		Won
2013	Behind the Voice Actors Award	Best Vocal Ensemble in a Feature Film Shared with Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, Keke Palmer, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Wanda Sykes, Jennifer Lopez, Alan Tudyk, Joy Behar, Patrick Stewart, Simon Pegg & Rebel Wilson	Ice Age: Continental Drift	Nominated
2014	Annie Award	Outstanding Achievement in Directing in an Animated Feature Production	Epic	Nominated

References

1. Staudter, Thomas (March 21, 1999). "'Bunny' From Harrison Competes for Oscar". The New York Times. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
2. "Behind The Voice Actors - Chris Wedge". Retrieved April 14, 2014.
3. Buchman, Lisa (September 12, 2012). "Meet Chris Wedge, 'Ice Age' Creator, Katonah Resident". Patch. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
4. "Chris Wedge, Class of 1975, Inducted in 2000". Fayetteville-Manlius Hall of Distinction. Fayetteville-Manlius Schools. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved May 29, 2011.
5. LaRue, William (November 2, 2006). "'Ice Age' director gives students a look into animation". The Syracuse Post-Standard. Syracuse.com. Retrieved January 27, 2007.
6. Schneider, Karl (August 24, 2006). "Chris Wedge to direct THE LEAF MEN AND THE BRAVE GOOD BUGS". Movie News, Mania.com. Mania Entertainment, LLC., citing The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved January 27, 2007.
7. Siegel, Tatiana (May 5, 2008). "Chris Wedge to direct 'Hugo Cabret'". Variety. Retrieved August 24, 2012.
8. Graser, Marc (October 1, 2009). "EA sets up 'Spore' at Fox". Variety. Retrieved October 7, 2010.
9. "Paramount Animation Plans 'Monster Trucks' Live Action-Toon Franchise: In Final Talks With Blue Sky's Chris Wedge To Direct". deadline.com. July 31, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
10. "Paramount Animation Planning Live Action/Animated Franchise 'Monster Trucks' With Blue Sky's Chris Wedge". indiewire.com. August 1, 2013. Archived from the original on May 21, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
11. "Chris Wedge Acceptance Speech". The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved June 2, 2013. And so to my beautiful wife and family, Jean*, Sarah and Jack...
12. "Ice Age (2002) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
13. "Ice Age Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
14. "Ice Age (2002) - IMDb". Uk.imdb.com. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
15. "Robots (2005) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
16. "Robots Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
17. "Robots (2005) - IMDb". Uk.imdb.com. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
18. "Epic (2013) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
19. "Epic Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
20. "Epic (2013) - IMDb". Uk.imdb.com. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
21. "Monster Trucks (2017) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
22. "Monster Trucks Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
23. "Monster Trucks (2016) - IMDb". Uk.imdb.com. Retrieved April 19, 2017.

External links

• Chris Wedge at IMDb
• IGN interview
• BBC interview