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