What's particularly painful about this news is the fact that the Vancouver studio had recently worked on two major projects, The Lion King and Sonic The Hedgehog - one of which, at least, had a demanding deadline. Someone claiming to be an ex-employee has taken to Reddit to share their account of the past year:



"We've all put in extreme hours wrapping two infamous projects in the last couple of months. We've done multiple weeks without a day off, regular 17-plus hour shifts to the point that most of us are seriously sleep deprived and are suffering still. We've worked really f*cking hard to get this work out the door for MPC, and I'm genuinely ashamed that they are happier prioritising their profit margins and tax incentives over the insane talent and commitment of hundreds of dedicated VFX artists in Vancouver. I honestly feel insulted, like I've given MPC my all and in return they gave me the finger."



And, in a later post:



"Very rarely were people doing less than 10 hours in a day. If you wanted to leave after your eight hours, you had to ask permission to go home. Didn't want to work OT at the weekend? You had to give a satisfactory reason as to why you couldn't do it or they'd label it an unauthorized absence."