Wallace and Grommit are back with Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions -- a series of ten new films featuring Aardman's Oscar-winning pals and their dubious inventions, available from AtomFilms. The first of the series, "The Soccamatic," is available for free viewing now.

Creator Nick Park won Oscars for two Wallace & Gromit shorts and a nomination for the third, and then went on to work on the feature-length "Chicken Run." Park also produced the current set of shorts, but they were directed by Chris Sadler and Lloyd Price, both previous collaborators with Park. The one- to three-minute pieces each show one of Wallace's oddball inventions in action.

"Soccamatic" is clever if brief, as the dog Gromit outwits technophile Wallace at every turn.