Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions

Wallace has his many inventions. He also has his best friend-dog Gromit. His many contraptions often end up cracked.

It is ten short episodes in total, each about three minutes long. It doesn't seem to have been shown individually which is what I expected. Even together, they are only twenty four minutes in total. They do blend together which is a problem. One should really savor each short individually. For those who love Aardman Animations, there is nothing better. That's me. I love these guys and their imaginative work. Of course, it is time-intensive work which probably led them to make shorts.

These here are a collection of 2 minute shorts of Wallace and Gromit.

They were made 3 years before the movie and 6 years after the Close Shave.

What's cool about them is each one features a different new gadget.

A lot of the gadgets are cool looking too.

Still features Peter Sallis as Wallace. And Gromit is still a smart dog.

Sure each one is short, but if you see them all at once, that's like seeing a 20 minute short film.

There's at least one laugh to each of the shorts. Some of them might features something familiar from the 3 old shorts too.

This collection of shorts is a must see for all the die hard Wallace and Gromit fans out there.

These use to be shorts only shown in England, but now it's easier to see now that it's released on the new Wallace and Gromit DVD.

I give this collection an 8 out of 10.

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.

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.

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.