Stop-motion animator David Allen passes away

David Allen, one of a handful of truly great stop-motion animators, died of cancer on Monday, August 16. He
was 55. Allen's work in commercials includes animating the Swiss Miss and
early Pillsbury Doughboy in the 1960s, and his feature work includes
CAVEMAN (1981), Q-THE WINGED SERPENT (1982), WILLOW (1988) and FREAKED
(1993). For ten years he had been working on an independent project, a
feature called PRIMEVALS. (The film will be finished at Full Moon Studios
where the film was being animated before Allen's death.) Allen began his
film career as an assistant to stop-motion master Jim Danforth on WHEN
DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (1970). He worked with Danforth again, as well as
with special effects pioneer Dennis Muren, on EQUINOX (1971), before
contributing to the infamous X-rated FLESH GORDON (1972). Recently, he
recreated King Kong for the IMAX documentary, SPECIAL EFFECTS: ANYTHING CAN
HAPPEN (1996).