Manborg is a chroma-key science fiction movie that uses stop motion animation to create it's villains. What you see here is a monster called the champion which demonstrates the stop motion technique used. This film is a modern example of stop motion as it was released in 2011 with a budget of just over 1000 Canadian Dollars.
This film specifically aims to homage an era animation from the 1980's it plays on nostalgia and targets its appeal to now adult young boys of the era who grew up with bad direct to VHS movies like "Attack of the Super Monsters". Direct to VHS films worked on the lowest budgets possible to save the costs. A lot of crap made it out there and this is the sort of thing man borg is homaging. Even the films poster is a direct throw-back to the 1988 film R.O.T.O.R. Of course this is a hugely niche audience.Robot Jox is a science fiction giant robot movie made in 1990. It bombed at the box office but has a steady cult following for it's pioneering special effects in giant robot fighting. The film aimed to have a huge box office response and appears to be aimed at a mid teenage boy audience who can go see this popcorn buster with their friends.
Television
This clip here is from the cult 70's television show Bagpuss. This still has a strong following most of its original viewers still feel sentimentality towards the show. This was a childrens show animating the toys to show that they are "alive" this is a great technique for childrens entertainment as it means you can give life to any object that can be moved. This TV show is another that generates nostalgia for the now older audience who watched it as children.
Robot Chicken on the other hand to Bagpuss is aimed at a much older audience along with most of the other Adult Swim shows. Its humor appeals more to adults and teenagers because of its vulgar themes and is therefore a different demographic. This means that stop motion ( if applied rightly, can be just as successful if sold to adults as well as children.
Music videos
LCD sound system used an evolution of stop motion animation called pixalation in their video "Daft Punk is playing at my house". The technique is when you take photos of people as if the were stop motion puppets or armatures. The target audience for this music video can be applied to is a late teenage early 20's demographic that is into obscure cool music. This music video is probably the most traditionally cool media text as it is connected with a really popular alternative dance band.
Of course the other classic stop motion music video is Peter Gabriels "Sledgehammer". This experiments with stop motion is a really surreal. People who saw this video when it came out 30 years ago have either grown up or grown old however it should have a level of nostalgia to it for those people.
Adverts
Lurpak Spreadable is known for having a stop motion mascot the Lurpak man he has appeared in several of their commercials. This advert unlike the other media texts above is themed at a much more mature audience, mostly because speaking from the vantage point of a younger demographic, Young people don't care about margarine spreads so aiming an advert towards them would be a futile en-devour.
Channel idents
These television idents were commissioned for the the Russian television channel 7 in a re-branding effort and feature a really pleasant easy on the eye but none the less engaging look to watch. This television ident for the Russian "Channel 7" was not only the winning entry to an ident competition but also won numerous awards and nominations for Art direction subsequently I feel Channel 7 based on this ident aims it's audience at creative, artsy, 20 to 40 year olds.
Who is stopmotion for?
Dare I say everyone? If you look back at all of the examples I have shown there is a fantastically broad range of media for different audiences shown.
Childrens shows are a big part things like Pingu, and Bagpuss have been popular TV shows for decades but if you go back even further to the Jasper the Scarecrow shorts and The Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV movie. The ability to turn inanimate object or animals into loving characters is a fantastic feat that stop motion seems to hold. Of course a secondary audience to these shows need to be parents who feel OK with sitting down to watch this with their kids. In fact a lot of these shows now are old enough to be cross generational so children who have grown up since watching these shorts themselves have come back to it to show their own children. In fact soon you will be able to argue that Grandparents as well will be bringing their Grandchildren to children stop motion with films like King Kong and Jason and the Argonauts.
Stop motion for young adults who want action and gore is just as easy to find, Movies like Robocop and the Terminator are great examples of using stop motion to create a threatening monster for the late teens early 20's audience. This demographic fits snugly between children and parents enough to mean that whatever age you are there's probably something stop motion for you.
Things can become niche-er as well if you look at things like music videos. "Sledge hammer" and "Daft Punk are playing at my house" are great examples of were popular music converges bringing in the Primary audience of Music lovers and mixing them with a secondary audience of stop motion fans who feel nostalgia from the things they watched as a child.
Easy watching comedy is even available for both children and young adults beginning with things like "Wallace and Gromit" and "Shawn the Sheep" for children to Celebrity Death Match and Robot Chicken for Adults. Comedy has a place in stop motion.
Even Artistic things belong in stop motion. The brothers Quay's dark surrealism is another great example of filling in a niche in the same way music videos and comedy do above. Its indisputable that when It comes to stop motion there is something for everyone.
What does the future hold for stop motion?
I think the future looks ok for stop motion Aardman Animations last flick "Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists" doubled its budget of 55 Million internationally in 2012. Which shows that a stop motion movie can seriously bring in cash, however I don't see a future in Plasticine, Although Aardman are as strong as ever I think stop motion films (and other media products ) will remain a popular niche. Even Phil Tippet "Made extinct" by Jurassic Park is making new stop motion films with his "Mad God". CGI in things Like the Avengers and Gravity are what pull in the most money at the Box Office however they still sometimes lack the sense of physicality that stop motion can.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES97NAjjkog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj8JrQ9w5jY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cizlx6ODhuE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUxDmKFCD2o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHDzj6W_Hso
http://images.moviepostershop.com/rotor-movie-poster-1989-1020210329.jpg
http://twitchfilm.com/assets_c/2012/10/Manborg-Edmiston-Poster-thumb-630xauto-34392.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g93mz_eZ5N4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9beAp3TG2E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICIEzHgJAaA
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