'Amazing Adventures' never stop

For the first time, Nick Park's three Oscar-nominated animated shorts have been put together on one DVD introducing, "Wallace & Gromit in Three Amazing Adventures." While only two of the films came away with the Academy Award, this British-based franchise has quietly become popular all around the globe for its claymation. Crazed inventor Wallace and his dependable dog Gromit make up the only characters who consistently play a part in these 30 minute shorts. "Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out," "Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers" and "Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave" make up this DVD. In each of the stories the tandem is put in danger by a machine that went unexpectedly wrong. While Wallace is a respectable but clumsy character that continues to make many mistakes, he relies heavily on his dog Gromit to bail him out of these situations. Whether Gromit can respond to the problem is another question.\nAll three of these films are very charming and funny, but the most enjoyable part of this DVD is the ten three-minute shorts, "Crackling Contraptions." While these are very short and don't have the story development of the other three, they manage to pack more of a quick and simple comedic punch.\nAmongst all of these shorts there is also a behind-the-scenes to "Crackling Contraptions" and a sneak preview to their upcoming feature film, "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." With the numerous shorts on the disc it would be hard to imagine Dreamworks not inserting that into the mix. The behind-the-scenes feature explains each character and how they animated each shot, which is quite fascinating if you would like to know where the characters came from and how the crew did some minor work, but it does not stack up against most movies. Odds are the things that you wonder about are not covered in this short feature and there is nothing left to turn to in order to find out with exception to their Web site listed in the credits. Most surprisingly, there was no director or producer commentary to go along with the shorts like most movies, which was pretty disappointing to say the least.\nWhile the special features didn't amaze, the "Wallace & Gromit" shorts were great and definitely worth seeing more than once. They also incite anticipation for the feature film. Andy MacCormack, director of photography, put it best by saying, "Kids from age six to 60 will love that. There's a kid inside all of us." I couldn't agree more.