Film Review - Flubber

Flubber is fun, the same sort of fun all slapstick comedy provides. The heroes are innocent; the villains know and understand their actions and should be allowed to defend themselves in a court of law. There's magic, and a love story.

Robin Williams is reprising the role of Professor Philip Brainard, which Fred MacMurray created in the 1961 original Absent Minded Professor. Williams brings his boyish wonder and curiosity to the part, and his character never loses its innocent qualities.

The Flubber, well it's a little more than goo this time. It's goo on drugs, with a silly personality. Added to this, we have several new non-humans on the set, Weebo and the other house hold robots. The funny thing is Brainard is trying to invent something to save the financially screwed college. Any one of his robots, not the least Weebo, would do this. But we learn Weebo is unique and can't be duplicated. In fact, she turns out to be very human. Very little here you might not want your young ones to see, and lots of sight gags we grown ups will laugh at.

What one really wants to know is why can't we get people to see older films? Disney has a great history of re-releasing its films every seven years (There's a new crop of kids who haven't seen them every seven years). But this only seems to be true for certain films, such as the color animated features. If you can release Star Wars 20 years later, why won't the American movie-going public see older non-animated films? Is color the issue? The 1961 original Absent Minded Professor was in black and white. Maybe it's just a prejudice against monochrome. I once had to drag a friend kicking a screaming to see Citizen Kane only to be told how great it was afterward. Her only reason for not wanting to see it was that it was without color. Sad, when you consider the century of film history we have is mostly black and white.

That aside, this production does bring the story into the '90s with state-of-the-art computer animation of the goo. The story is punched up with multiple subplots that never existed in the 1961 production. There's great chemistry between the characters, and a great dance scene with the Flubber. If you've ever laughed at the Marx Brothers, Harold Lloyd, Saturday morning cartoons, or Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, you'll like Flubber.

Slight Suction!

Film Facts

Directed by Les Mayfield

Released in 1997

MPAA Rating: PG

Reviewed by Mongo