Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions

I've always gotten a kick out of Wallace's inventions to this collection of 10 two-minute "shorts" was great fun for me. Each one is about a different invention. Most of them, if not all, had flaws but they also worked pretty darn well, too. Regardless, all of them were fun. I laughed at things I saw in all 10 of them.

Not only was the humor outstanding but the DVD picture was great, too, and I used the subtitles to further enjoy listening to the many British expressions our Mad Inventor uses. I just loved everything about this.

Apparently, many of these little stories were made before these two animated characters became famous, first in Britain and now worldwide.

I wouldn't know where the start in picking out my favorites but the first one, with Gromit showing his goaltender skills, was tough to beat. In all of these, Wallace's comments and Gromit's expressions are priceless.

If you own the "Wallace & Gromit Three Major Adventures" DVD, don't pass up these bonus feature.

I think the biggest problem with these shorts is that they are.. waaaay too short, Like.. I know that claymation is pretty expensive and time consuming, but seriously some of these shorts doesn't even hit the 2 minutes mark and some of the them (Like for example The Turbo Diner) doesn't even have a conclusion, It just.. ends and I found that kinda bizarre but other then that, This was a pretty enjoyable watch, I didn't mind it very much, It's always nice to see more Wallace & Gromit content.

The animation is beautiful and fluent as always, Peter Sallis was excellent as always as Wallace (RIP ❤) and the inventions and wacky scenarios that Wallace & Gromit get their selves into were pretty funny.

My favorite is the Shopper 13 one with Shuan The Sheep (also being the longest one outta the bunch) and generally these shorts were pretty enjoyable, Doesn't come close to the greatness that is The Wrong Trousers or The Cures of The Were-Rabbit but still, If you're a big Wallace & Gromit fan like me, You'll have a great time with these cracking shorts.

In a series of very short films, Wallace the inventor demonstrates his newest inventions to his faithful dog Gromit. Some are useful but more often than not they cause more trouble than they're worth. Trouble that usually has to be remedied by Gromit.

Who doesn't like W&G? For at least three Christmas times on the BBC we had a new 30 minute film from them that was always wonderful but now I understand they are working on a full length film they haven't been making them for the BBC anymore. Happily Christmas 2002 was different as they made a series of very short (3 minutes generally) films to be shown randomly throughout the BBC1 schedule. I wasn't able to see all of them but saw a few.

Generally they are clever, witty and to the point - a western-style stand-off between a cracker hoover and Gromit was a nice touch, and there are other examples in each short or their unique touches. It's always pleasing to hear Sallis as Gromit - I enjoy Last of the Summer Wine and Wallace just reminds me so much of Sallis' character in that.

I don't know where you are able to see these shorts. I suspect they will be made into a 30 minute video for sale or will turn up as extras on the DVD of the feature length movie at a later stage. By themselves they are just about worth trying to find - but at 3 minutes they'll be tricky. However spread over the Christmas schedule these were quite refreshing little treats.

... says Wallace to his faithfull dog Gromit in one of the 10 short clips 'Cracking Contraptions' contains. So the machines do the work: from going shopping to changing the channel and from building a snowman to making diner. It comes as no surprise these inventions aren't faultless...

Obviously, with a set-up like this, one likes the one story better than the other, and my favorite is the first one, with a robot doing shopping. Second favorite: the vacuum cleaner. The least bit in my opinion is the robot chef. But overall the stories are amusing and the clay animations incredible. They make up for a very fun 18 minutes or so, although it's not the level of geniality 'The Wrong Trousers' was in my opinion.

8/10.

These Wallace and Gromit short clips were originally broadcast over the BBC web site in 2002, and they featured Wallace demonstrating many different inventions to Gromit. These shorts were developed as a test (and to practice animation) before the full-length film was in production. They used these as a sort of training before making the film.

These short clips were enjoyable and clever in their own right. However, they are not very memorable. The only one that seems to stick with me in any way or form is Wallace and Gromit playing tennis with some sort of automatic tennis player.

Die-hard Wallace and Gromit fans and any fan of this technique of animation would enjoy these, but I would recommend the Wallace and Gromit shorts 'The Wrong Trousers' and 'The Close Shave' to anyone who hasn't seen Wallace and Gromit.