At first glance, Netflix’s new Australian feature “Allen” looks like a love letter to the 1990s. There are Goosebumps books, Ninja Turtles toys, Bubble O’ Bill ice creams, Cheezels and enough childhood references to send an entire generation down memory lane.
But beneath the colourful nostalgia and larger-than-life sci-fi adventure lies a more personal story about grief, growing up and learning when to let go – one that draws on creator Daley Pearson’s own experiences and complicated relationship with the past.
“I personally had a bit of a tragedy in the past,” Pearson tells Variety Australia. “But it’s not so much about that, but more about the feeling of that.”
Reflecting on that experience, Pearson says he began to recognise that his attachment to childhood films, music and memorabilia was about something deeper than the objects themselves. “I started to realise that all this stuff, the Happy Meal toys, the music, the movies, I wasn’t loving them in and of itself,” he says.
“It was more about how watching it brought back the people I watched it with, and the family that we were then, or the friends I had then.”
That realisation eventually shaped “Allen,” the first locally produced live-action feature from Ludo Studio, the Emmy and BAFTA-winning Brisbane production company behind “Bluey.” Created by Pearson, co-directed alongside Jeffrey Walker and co-written with Sophie Miller, the film follows Petey (played by TJ Power), whose childhood best friend was an alien named Allen.
After mysteriously disappearing without saying goodbye, Allen returns 20 years later with a secret that could change the world. But while the reunion presents an extraordinary adventure, it also forces Petey to confront the past he’s never quite managed to leave behind.
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The film also stars Charlotte Nicdao, Josh Helman, Emily Barclay and Benedict Hardie, with its Queensland coastal setting drawing heavily on Pearson’s own experiences living in Coolum.
While “Allen” draws heavily on the childhood adventure films Pearson grew up loving, he was equally interested in exploring what happens when someone becomes so attached to those memories that they struggle to move forward.
For Petey, Allen’s disappearance represents more than the loss of a childhood friend. Pearson describes the character as someone who has become so attached to the past that it has left him in a state of arrested development. And readily admitting to being something of a nostalgia obsessive himself, he says the challenge was finding a way to explore that attachment without dismissing the genuine joy it can bring.
“I am that person, I love that stuff,” he says. “But, you know, too much of a good thing is a bad thing, as they say. But we definitely didn’t want to tell a story that said screw you to the people who love that stuff, because that in and of itself isn’t bad.
“We definitely didn’t want to tell a story that said it’s okay to be Peter Pan, but we also didn’t want to tell a story that said you’ve got to grow up as well, because both felt wrong.”
Instead, Pearson, Miller and Ludo Studio co-founder Charlie Aspinwall began discussing the qualities they admired in the people around them.
“The best people we met, we talked about it, held wonder and responsibility,” Pearson says. “They held them both in equal measure. They weren’t totally mortgages, and they also weren’t totally waiting for ‘Indiana Jones 6’, you know. They managed to hold them both.”
That balance feels particularly relevant at a time when nostalgia has become such a defining force in popular culture, with familiar characters and franchises continuing to dominate film and television.
“I just don’t remember my grandma or granddad being obsessed with, like, looking forward to the new Mickey Mouse film,” he laughs. “I wasn’t like, ‘Man, ‘Wizard of Oz 4’ is coming out. Are you ready?'”
For Pearson, “Allen” ultimately became about more than celebrating childhood nostalgia. He wanted to explore why people hold onto the past, and what it takes to move forward without losing the things that once brought them joy.
“It started to become a bit of a story about, you know, a bit of grief and a bit of reconciling with loss in the past and trying to figure out how to move on from that as well.”
Allen is now streaming on Netflix.