David W. Allen
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David Allen (1944-1999) was a film and television animator.
Considered among the finest[citation needed] stop-motion model animators, Dave Allen has contributed some of the best[citation needed] stop-motion sequences to many feature films, rivaling[citation needed] the work of other premier model animators Ray Harryhausen and Jim Danforth.
Although he had been working for years in animation, mostly doing commercials like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, Allen made a splash on movie viewers when he animated the "Nesuahyrrah" monster who appears at the climax of the semi-porn low-brow parody comedy, Flesh Gordon, produced by Howard Ziehm in 1974. The film also featued an impressive animation sequence from long-time allen friend Jim Danforth.
Allen's ground-breaking model animation opus contribution was a legendary Volkswagen commercial made in 1977 in which King Kong spots a giant version of the car from his Empire State Building perch in New York. Climbing down from the building, Kong puts his human "date" into the passinger seat, gets in the car, and drives down fifth avenue out of sight. The spot aired only once on network TV, and in spite of favorable public response, was pulled because VW executives decided that they didn't like the image of an ape driving their car.
Allen joined with Jim Danforth, a long time friend, to provide model animation for the low-budget horror film, The Crater Lake Monster (1978).
Allen also did model animation of the aliens in another low-budget sci-fi film, Laserblast, (1980).
With Danforth, Ray Harryhausen, a host of other model animators, visual effects artists, film producers and directors, Allen helped organize an event in March, 1983 at Mann's Chinese Theater commemorating the 50th anniversary of the release of King Kong, loaning his VW Kong model for display at the Rosevelt Hotel across the street from the theater.
Allen animated the impressive creature that highlights the best sequences of the 1985 thriller, The Gate.[dubious — see talk page]
Allen was also hired by Steven Spielberg to animate the little flying saucers for the hit feature-length theatrical film Batteries Not Included (1987), a story that was originally intended to be an episode of Spielberg's Amazing Stories TV series.
His production company, David Allen Productions, also did visual effects and model animation for the bizarre monster movie, Freaked in 1992.
Up until his death from cancer in 1999, Allen was intermitently working on the stop-motion effects for the film "The Primevals", his own production. The film dates from early on in his career, in the late sixties, when he pitched an epic fantasy to Hammer film executives. He developed the idea over the years, and in 1978 he began production with producer Charles Band. The film was the subject of a cover story in Cinefantastique Magazine that year, but despite the interest, the production was shut down. An Allen protoge, Chris Endicot, has done some further animation work on the film and is currently seeking to acquire the rights from Charles Band and funds to complete the film.
