Ludo Studio Releases New Film Allen on Netflix

Ludo Studio, the team behind the animated hit Bluey, released its debut feature film Allen on Netflix, introducing a goggle-eyed alien creature designed by Steve Boyle.

The Australian family film stars T.J. Power alongside Charlotte Nicdao, Emily Barclay, Benedict Hardie, and Josh Helman. Daley Pearson and Jeffery Walker directed the project, which was filmed entirely across south-east Queensland.

The titular character is a short-statured, big-eared alien that befriends a 10-year-old boy named Petey, played by Edward A O’Sullivan. Creature designer Steve Boyle built the alien using a mix of traditional puppetry and digital effects.

“We knew we wanted Allan to be something a 10-year-old would pick up,” Pearson says.

“I always had a dream that Allen would come from the ocean, so we based him on amphibious things. But he also has a bit of a baby hippo feel to him,” director Daley Pearson said. Pearson said that the narrative takes the characters to unexpected places.

“We also knew he needed to be very cute and appealing because the sort of midpoint, where the story takes Allen and the things he does, you need to keep loving him,” Pearson says.

The story jumps forward 20 years to find an adult Petey, played by Power, working at a local shop and living in a basement while monitoring radio waves for signs of the alien. The narrative explores themes of nostalgia, ambition, and arrested development.

For Ludo Studio, the release marks a new experiment following episodic projects like Thou Shalt Not Steal and Content. The studio’s flagship animated series Bluey pulled in 45.2 billion viewing minutes across the United States last year.

Pearson hopes the new film encourages more local productions to take creative risks with genre stories and fairy tales. Allen is streaming on Netflix now.

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