Classic 'Prancer' a sweet memory for Hollywild owner

Hollywild Animal Park's executive director has coached animals in 62 films, but his favorite experience is the Christmas holiday classic "Prancer."

David Meeks, owner of Inman's star animal attraction, furnished, trained and coached all the animals in the 1989 movie. In the film, Rebecca Harrell plays 9-year-old Jessica Riggs, who finds an injured reindeer that she believes belongs to Santa Claus in the woods near her home.

Throughout the film, Jessica nurses the reindeer back to health to get it back with Santa before Christmas, but no one else shares her conviction that the injured deer is anything more than a woodland creature.

" 'Prancer' is an amazing film because it captures the imagination of children, and it tells a great story about a grieving family going through hard times," Meeks said. "Jessica wanted to get Prancer back to Santa, and even though no one else believed her, she succeeded in what she aimed to do."

He supplied all of the animals in the movie, but he almost didn't work on the film.

"I almost didn't do the film because the filmmakers wanted to use a species of deer that I thought would be too aggressive," he said. "So, after some mishaps with other animal trainers, the filmmakers called me again and agreed to let me use a caribou," a variety of large North American reindeer.

Once the compromise was made, Meeks began training the caribou at the animal park before taking her to Indiana, where the film was shot, to be a movie star.

"Caribou don't gallop the way the deer in the film did," Meeks said. "I had to train the deer to gallop the way she did. We also had to teach the deer how to hop around and act like she was wounded, and that was difficult work."

Meeks says his favorite scene in the film is the one where Jessica tries to open the top of Prancer's cage so the deer can fly out of it, but she falls down and gets hurt in the process. The deer does manage to get out, though not by flying, and lies down beside Jessica to keep her warm.

"I promised the director I would give him a powerful, moving scene if he gave me a lot of time to get it right," Meeks said. "The director said I could take all the time I needed, and I think that scene turned out to be the most touching scene in the entire film."

Meeks didn't work on the 2001 sequel "Prancer Returns" but says he was asked to do it. He has coached and worked with animals in a variety of other films, including "The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking" and "The Big Chill."

He has acted in films such as the original "Manhunter," based on the Thomas Harris novel "Red Dragon," and worked with the menacing monkeys that terrified audiences in horror guru George Romero's "Monkey Shines."

During the films, Meeks is responsible for directing all the animal action. He says every movement, every growl, everything the animals do has to be perfectly choreographed and timed. He also trains and rehearses with the animals to get their parts right and sets up all of the stunts that they perform.

Meeks enjoys his work with animals in films, but he said running Hollywild remains his passion. He uses all the money he makes in the films to help operate the animal park.