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Apple and Skydance Announce ‘Blush’ Animated Short

Written and directed by Emmy Award winner Joe Mateo, the CG film follows a horticulturist-astronaut trying to survive after crash landing on a desolate dwarf planet; short is first under new Apple/Skydance animated film and TV partnership.

Apple Original Films and Skydance Animation have just revealed Blush, the first short film from their new multi-year partnership to develop premium animated films and theatrical-quality TV series for distribution in over 100 countries on Apple TV+. 

Blush follows the journey of a stranded horticulturist-astronaut, struggling to survive after he crash lands on a desolate dwarf planet. When an ethereal visitor arrives, the once-lone traveler discovers the joy in building a new life and realizes the universe has delivered astonishing salvation.

The inaugural Apple/Skydance short film is written and directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Joe Mateo (Prep & Landing, Big Hero 6), and shares the storyteller’s deeply personal journey of healing, hope, and the undeniably human moments of being rescued by love. Mateo developed the short alongside the Skydance Animation team; the film is produced by Heather Schmidt Feng Yanu (Toy Story, the Cars Trilogy) and executive produced by Oscar winner John Lasseter (Toy Story, Monsters, Inc.Cars). Blush joins the features Luck and Spellbound, and the animated series The Search for Wondla, as the first joint Apple/Skydance animation projects announced, with several more feature films and television series to be revealed over the term of the pact. 

Apple’s Wolfwalkers, the latest film from two-time Academy Award-nominated director Tomm Moore and director Ross Stewart, was recently nominated for a best animated feature Oscar. Last month, Apple TV+ renewed Central Park, its hit animated musical comedy series from the creators of Bob’s Burgers, for a third season ahead of its Season 2 debut this June.

Films and series created and produced by Skydance Animation will premiere alongside other Apple Original Films, including the Academy Award-nominated Greyhound; Critics Choice Award-nominated Palmer; Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award-nominated film On The Rocks; the two-time Critics Choice Documentary Award-winner and Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner Boys State; and Critics Choice Documentary Award-nominee Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds.

Skydance Animation is a division of David Ellison’s Skydance Media, and is run by John Lasseter (Head of Animation) and Holly Edwards (President of Skydance Animation). 

Source: Apple TV+

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Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.