Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions (2002) User Reviews

'Let the machine do the work'...

[TheOtherFool · 8/10 · 11 June 2004]

... 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.

10 exclusive shorts of Britain's famous Inventor and Dog!

[emasterslake · 8/10 · 19 November 2005]

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.

Wallace & Gromit are great

[rbverhoef · 8/10 · 3 January 2004]

Possible minor spoilers

'Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions' is a collection of ten short animated movies about inventions of Wallace. Some of them work almost the entire time, some of them do things they should not do, some of them explode, some of them have side effects, some of them attack Wallace or Gromit and two of them perfectly work, although that was not what Gromit was hoping for.

With inventions like the snowmanotron, the 525 crackervac, the bully proof vest and the tellyscope, my personal favorite together with the snoozatron, you know there are going to be some very hard laughs. The enthusiastic Wallace and the worried dog Gromit are very funny characters and in animated shorts like this they are perfect. Very well done.

Wonderful little festive treats!

[bob the moo · 3 January 2003]

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.

Wallace's Great - And Very Humorous - Inventions

[ccthemovieman-1 · 10/10 · 1 August 2007]

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 love these!!!

[tigrerippy3 · 10/10 · 25 April 2006]

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.

Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions

[studioAT · 6/10 · 18 June 2020]

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.

Very funny

[matdrummo · 9/10 · 1 March 2024]

Wallace & Gromit's first tv series called Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions still just as great as I remember it. The story of this whole tv series is about Wallace showing his new inventions that he has made to Gromit and so each episode shows something new that Wallace has invented. I really like how the story of this show of it being about Wallace trying to make new inventions. Each episode is so funny with the way the inventions eather work properly or fail completely like how in the episode A Christmas Cardomatic Wallace's invention work properly and he manages to make christmas cards where as in the episode The Autochef the invention malfunctions and the top of it explodes. So overall I like how each episode showcases something new that Wallace has made and I also like the episodes for how funny they are as well many when Gromit just wants to have a rest and Wallace keeps on bothering him. Here are the ratings for each episode.

Episode 1: Shopper 13 5/10.

Episode 2: The Autochef 10/10.

Episode 3: A Christmas Cardomatic 8/10.

Episode 4: The Tellyscope 9/10.

Episode 5: The Snowmanotron 10/10.

Episode 6: The Bully Proof Vest 10/10.

Episode 7: The 525 Crackervac 10/10.

Episode 8: The Turbo Diner 9.5/10.

Episode 9: The Snoozatron 10/10.

Episode 10: The Soccamatic 9.5/10

The main characters is this show those being Wallace & Gromit are once again great, very likeable and very funny mainly when Gromit wants alone time and Wallace keeps on wanting him to help him with everything. The Animation for this show is once again great to look at from the character designs to Wallace & Gromit's house to the football field. Peter Sallis once again does a great job as the voice of Wallace in this show and the music by Julian Nott is just as great as it's always been. I really like the new main music remix at the beginning of each episode and the music throughout each episode. 9/10.

Pretty fun Wallace & Gromit shorts!

[AhmedDaReviewer · 7/10 · 19 September 2021]

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.

Short clips to help with the full-length film

[rebeljenn · 5/10 · 22 October 2005]

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.

Good, but obviously a bit rushed

[Horst_In_Translation · 5/10 · 8 July 2015]

Do not be fooled by the description "television series" for this 2002 movie here. Well, you could see it as a series that consists of several extremely short snippets, but I prefer to perceive it as one 20-minute short movie. It is maybe the least known project involving the two famous protagonists. It's probably not really a good watch if you have not seen anything else with the duo, but if you are familiar with the franchise, including the very early short films, then this is a nice little addition. Maybe it's a bit too much action and one or two inventions too many for such a short runtime, but it's not bad by any means. And it was nice to have Sallis' unique and spot-on voice for the entire thing. All in all, I recommend this one. The animation is the same as always with these two. It's a decent little watch and another worthy addition to Nick Park's basically flawless body of work. I would say it's not the best W&G film (that would be the one with the evil penguin, nice reference here too about penguins turning), but also not the worst. Thumbs up.