Wallace and Gromit's contraptions are created purely for gags, but we all have the urge to invent - especially children. If they're bored, kids will make something from cardboard boxes, yoghurt pots, tape and elastic bands. Often, those constructions are the best.
It can only be a good thing from my point of view. With all the kind of movement toward computer animation and as great as many of those films are, there's more people who have been employed in stop-motion animation in the last year than ever before.