Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions

This is a series of little sketches that feature Wallace testing out a series of new inventions. Naturally, they pretty much always go wrong in one way or another.

For what they are, they are amusing enough. Brief set up... silly nonsense... end. Not much more to it.

It is always nice to see Wallace and Gromit as they have actually got surprisingly few films given how long they have been around. But... due to the incredibly short length, these shorts just don't hold a candle to any of the longer projects.

Obviously, there is no time to build up any emotion... the jokes are swift... the background gags are minimal. Everything that you would expect from Wallace & Gromit is there... just significantly less than normal.

... 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.

Wallace and Gromit are Oscar winning stars that are in 3 famous short films.

And in 2002 they are come to our TV screens with Wallace and Gromit's cracking contraptions.

Nick park and the crew have made this the same style as the shorts and the feature film.

I love these, they made me grin then laugh then scream with joy! I like snowmanatron best.It is funny and a good scene to watch.

So now with more success Wallace and Gromit are coming to the CBBC channel with a 40-part series with Shaun the sheep.

As we know a lot of people love Shaun but my best is the evil robot/cooker from Wallace and Gromit's first film, a grand day out.

If you don't like cracking contraptions you are not a real Fan.

So stay tuned to CBBC for more Adventures.

If you want a quick fix of the loveliness that is Wallace and Gromit, then these should do the trick.

Each focusing on a 'cracking contraption' Wallace has dreamed up, these are a lot of fun.

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.