D. (11 April 1914 – 27 January 1987) was a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

[6] At the age of 21, he travelled to Soviet Union for a holiday which confirmed his communist beliefs, although his father had paid for the trip in hopes of dispelling them.

One of his earliest extant films, Seven Till Five (1935), a "day in the life of an art school" was influenced by Eisenstein and displays a strongly formalist attitude.

McLaren used what would later be called 'pixilation' effects, superimpositions and animation not only to display the staging of an art school ball, but also to tap into the aesthetic sensations supposedly produced by this event.

[1][7][8] McLaren worked at the GPO from 1936 to 1939, making eight films including Defence of Madrid, Book Bargain (1937), Mony a Pickle, Love on the Wing (1938), and News for the Navy (1938).

McLaren found recruits for his fledgling animation unit at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and the Ontario College of Art, including René Jodoin, George Dunning, Jim McKay, Grant Munro and his future collaborator, Evelyn Lambart.

[1][8] During his work for the NFB, McLaren made 70 films, including Begone Dull Care (1949), Rythmetic (1956), Christmas Cracker (1963), Pas de Deux (1968), and the Oscar-winning Neighbours (1952), which is a brilliant combination of visuals and sound, and has a strong social message against violence and war.

Also in 2006, the Film Board marked the 65th anniversary of NFB animation with an international retrospective of McLaren's restored classics and a new DVD box set of his complete works.

The programme was a key focus within the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival in June, and ran through to the end of the XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in August.

The McLaren 2014 Programme was managed by the Centre for the Moving Image, working in partnership with the National Film Board of Canada, and over 20 partners in Scotland and the UK.

[17] In April 2014 his only surviving nephew Douglas Biggar (younger son of Sheena) unveiled a blue heritage plaque on his childhood home marking the centenary of his birth.

[25][26] Glasgow School of Art[27] GPO Film Unit Independent National Film Board of Canada[28] Hen Hop (1942)[29] A Little Phantasy on a 19th-Century Painting (1946)[30] Fiddle-de-dee (1947)[31] Begone Dull Care (1949)[32][33] Dots (1940) and Loops (1940) (released together 1949)[34][35] Pen Point Percussion (1951)[36] Now is the Time (1951)[37] Around Is Around (1951)[38] Neighbours (1952)[39] A Phantasy (1952)[40] Blinkity Blank (1955) Rythmetic (1956) A Chairy Tale (1957) Le Merle (1958) Short and Suite (1959) Serenal (1959) Lines: Vertical (1960)[42] New York Lightboard (1961) Christmas Cracker (1963) Canon (1964)[43] Mosaic (1965)[44] Pas de deux (1968) Spheres (1969) Synchronomy (1971) Ballet Adagio (1972) Animated Motion (1976)[46] Narcissus (1983)