Montreal’s Laughing Dragon Studios Is Shutting Down, Blames Quebec Government For ‘Gutting’ Animation Industry
Yet another animation studio is shutting down in Montreal, with no end in sight for the province’s ailing industry.
Montreal-based animation company Laughing Dragon Studios has closed its doors after 23 years in business, the company announced this afternoon.
The full-serve 2d studio, which at times employed over 100 people, worked on major franchise titles, including Central Park for Apple TV+, Mario vs. Sonic for Youtube, and Disenchanted for Disney.
In a note posted to Linkedin, company co-founder and CEO Ryan Sohmer placed the blame for the company’s demise on the government policies of Quebec’s premier François Legault. “[Closure] was a decision that was forced on us due to many circumstances outside of our control, chief among them the Legault government’s decision to cut our industry off at the knees,” Sohmer wrote. “While we’ve built this sector up over the last 20 years, the government gutted it in less than 2.”
The industry’s struggles, as Sohmer pointed out, are largely a self-inflicted wound. Last year, Quebec’s government revised its tax credit system and said that it was redirecting its investments in animation/vfx into live-action film.
Between fall 2022 and 2024, over half of all the jobs in Quebec’s animation and vfx were lost. The collapse, which was accelerated by the general slowdown following the writers’ and actors’ strikes in Hollywood, has intensified in recent months with the closure of Montreal studios like On Animation, The Mill, MPC, and Mikros Animation (the latter of which was restarted a few weeks ago).
Laughing Dragon, which developed its own IP but mostly functioned as a service studio, started experiencing difficulties last summer, when it laid off 38 employees, its largest staff reduction in company history. The company committed to rehiring as many of those employees as possible, and less than three months later (in November 2024) it had rehired 15 people, mostly animators and compositors.
Below is the full text of Sohmer’s statement on Linkedin about the company closure:
This is the LinkedIn post I never thought I’d have to write, yet the fear of one day having to do it; I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t kept me up at night.
As of today, Laughing Dragon Studios is closing its doors.
It was a decision that was forced on us due to many circumstances outside of our control, chief among them the Legault government’s decision to cut our industry off at the knees. While we’ve built this sector up over the last 20 years, the government gutted it in less than 2.
While my heart is hurting, it is almost impossible to not look back at the last 23 years and not smile. Through hard work, through laughter and love, the team at LDS has never ceased to amaze, or amuse. Whether you were here for a year, or 15, you understood this place was special; and you made sure to leave your mark.
To everyone who has walked through our doors, my only hope, as always, is that you left greater than you arrived. If we achieved that, well, we did what we set out to do.
Thank you for joining us on this journey, and though the destination is not where we hoped or planned; having you along for the ride made it worthwhile.
As for what’s next, well, I’m too stupid to know when to quit; and I’m not willing to give up on this art form I love so much —
LDS’ time might be over, but for the people who made it, our story is far from over.
I will have more to say shortly, but let me leave you with this:
Being the CEO of LDS was the honor of a lifetime, and though I never won that Oscar, I did get to make cartoons with my favorite people on the planet.
And that’s enough for me.
