Steineded
How sad is this?
Spoonatects
Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
Casey Duggan
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
Janis
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
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.
rebeljenn
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.
TheOtherFool
... 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.
bob the moo
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.
