In a surprise move, Toronto’s CORE Digital Pictures closed its doors late Monday, with the apparent loss of around 150 jobs at the ambitious visual effects and animation house that William Shatner built.

Also Tuesday, Cookie Jar Entertainment said it has cut 35 animation production jobs as it refocuses more on live-action programming during the economic downturn.

Bob Munroe, who launched CORE in 1994 along with Shatner, John Mariella and Kyle Menzies, in an e-mail Tuesday confirmed to Playback Daily the sudden closure of the effects house. (Know more? Email us!)

Munroe could not be reached for additional comment at press time.

The website canadiananimationresources.ca late Monday first reported that around 150 employees at work on Nickelodeon’s Planet Sheen project were called to a hastily arranged meeting at CORE and told an apparent cash crunch had ended their employment as the company tipped into receivership.

The effects credits at CORE, dating back to Shatner’s 1994 sci-fi series Tekwar, included the 2006 Disney CGI film The Wild, The Tudors and Vincenzo Natali’s upcoming creature feature Splice.

Elsewhere, Cookie Jar Entertainment said it was cutting 35 animation jobs to do more live-action programming.

‘We are re-aligning our resources and investments in response to the current environment in the global economy and new opportunities in our industry,’ the Toronto-based studio said in a statement.

‘Consequently, we have made the difficult decision to right-size our activities, mainly in animation, so that we can invest further and faster in live-action programming to complement our industry-leading animation library,’ the company added.

Cookie Jar said it was expanding its copyright promotions licensing group, and shifting its headquarters to London, and would continue to maintain 16 offices around the world.

The studio’s shift to live-action fare started in 2008 when Cookie Jar acquired the global brand management group DIC Entertainment, based in Los Angeles, for $83 million.