Last Updated on November 10, 2025 by YGK News Staff
As Kingston looks to continue to grow as a home for film and television production, the city will soon have a full fledged animation and digital media studio that calls Kingston its permanent home.
The new studio will be coming out of the gates with a fairly high-profile IP, with their first project already in development: an animated series alongside the renowned American author, R.L Stine – best known for the Goosebumps series.
Donnie Macintyre, co-CEO and co-founder of Limestone animations said he thinks launching with such a recognizable piece of IP reinforces the studio’s commitment to making itself, and the city of Kingston, a source of globally competitive animated content.
He says while excited for the project to launch, they can’t yet get into details about it other than that it will be based off of the author’s newest anthology series, Stinetinglers.
Macintyre said having a bit of a recognizable name associated with the launch was a goal for he and his co-founder Sean Connolly, and they’re excited to be able to have that be a creator they themselves are fans of, and serve a market that has somehow slipped through the cracks.
“We needed a big buzzy name, a big buzzy brand to go along with that launch to catch people’s attention,” Macintyre said.
“We both grew up reading R.L Stine’s works… we realized that even though for over 30 years now his works have been adapted for film and television, no one has ever adapted his works into an animated series before, which is actually kind of surprising.”
The two founders, who have over 30 years of combined experience in the animation industry, were able to pitch to Stine and his team through a mutual connection, and said they were on board for the animated series right away.
Macintyre said the studio will eventually be moving into 3D animation and more experimental styles of projects – partnering with consultants with expertise ranging from streaming to video game development – but are focusing on 2D animation to start as they get their feet underneath them and grow their team.
Stinetinglers, he says, provides a great opportunity to do that with a big brand.
“Ultimately, we are going to be very wide and cover all aspects of animation and digital media, but we’re of course being careful not to bite off more than we can chew at the very beginning,” Macintyre said.
“On day one, we’re going to be focusing on traditional 2D animation… We think it’s really great for the demographic that we’re aiming for with our first project with R.L Stine.”
Stine, now 82, is best known for his Goosebumps series which has sold over 400 million copies worldwide, the second best selling book series of all time.
Stinetinglers is the author’s most recent series, published by Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan with four volumes already released and a fifth scheduled for 2026.
The two co-founders of Limestone Animation aren’t originally from Kingston, but Macintyre spent 2023 and 2024 working as Kingston’s Film Commissioner, and said during that time he saw how strong a creative community Kingston already had, and when the co-founders began looking into starting a studio, Kingston was a clear frontrunner.
“So through my time working as a film commissioner in Kingston, I just got to know the local creative community, it’s very strong,” Macintyre said.
“During COVID, a number of people with experience in the animation industry have left Toronto and Ottawa and Hamilton and moved to the Kingston area… there’s a strong animation base already there. I just proposed to Sean that we look to Kingston to set up our studio. He saw the potential right away and it just grew from there.”
The two co-founders also saw the potential for growth and support in Kingston from a municipal level, with the city’s creative strategy making supporting creative industries like film a priority.
With a release from Limestone Animations stating that the global animation market is currently valued at roughly US $400 billion and is projected to more than double to US $896 billion by 2034, it’s a market the city of Kingston can see value in being a part of.
As such they’re providing a fair amount of support to Limestone Animations in the way of a rent-free space, a property tax exemption, and up to $250,000 to help cover start up costs and capital expenses, previously approved by city council.
Macintyre credited the city for the huge amount of support they’ve given to make this a reality, and he says he thinks the community can also benefit from their presence and become a powerhouse in digital media and animation, with local programs and courses at schools like Queen’s and Loyalist already providing a bit of a pipeline.
He said while Canada’s three largest cities are the most known for animation as for many other industries, smaller cities throughout Canada are starting to carve out a place, and Kingston could be one of them.
“They [the municipality] fostered it and gradually as years went by more and more studios started popping up around them and they did grow into really strong creative hubs and we see Kingston having the potential for that 100%,” Macintyre said.
“That is a big part of our strategy. We want Kingston to become the next hub of animation in Canada and we’re doing everything we can to support that.”
