Product Description

Packed with unmistakable Disney magic, FLUBBER explodes on the screen, fusing adventure, eye-popping visual effects, and the gravity-defying comic genius of Robin Williams. The resulting concoction is a hilarious adventure for all ages. Brilliant but befuddled Professor Phillip Brainard (Williams) is on the brink of inventing a revolutionary energy source and missing his wedding to fiancee Dr. Sara Jean Reynolds (Marcia Gay Harden) -- president of financially challenged Medfield College -- for the third time! When Phillip experiments with his own big bang theory, a miraculous elastic good -- Flubber -- emerges, leaving him ecstatic, but unmarried! Phillip and his flying cyber sidekick, Weebo, soon discover that Flubber, applied to anything, enables it to bounce super high and fast. However, many questions remain. Is Flubber good enough to win Sara back, save Medfield from its financial problems, and slip through the hands of the evil financier who is bankrolling the college? FLUBBER slips, slides, giggles, glides, flips, and flies -- the stuff of surefire family entertainment. Now you can bring home Disney's box office hit that's two parts innovation, three parts imagination, and "100% pure fun!" (CNN)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10358 in DVD
• Brand: BUENA VISTA HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 1998-06-16
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Live, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 93 minutes

Amazon.com
Disney couldn't resist the temptation to remake 1961's popular comedy The Absent Minded Professor, so they cast Robin Williams as Professor Philip Brainard (a role vaguely related to the character originated by Fred MacMurray), and the result is a comedy that, frankly, doesn't fully deserve its modest success. It's admittedly clever to a point, and certainly the digitally "flubberized" special effects provide the kind of movie magic that's entertaining for kids and parents alike. The professor can't even remember his own wedding day (much to the chagrin of his fiancée, played by Marcia Gay Harden), and now his academic rival (Christopher McDonald) is trying to steal his latest and purely accidental invention--flying rubber, or ... flubber. The green goo magnifies energy and can be used as an amazing source of power, but in the hands of screenwriter John Hughes it becomes just another excuse to recycle a lot of Home Alone-style slapstick humor involving a pair of bumbling would-be flubber thieves. There's also a floating robot named Weebo and some catchy music by Danny Elfman to accompany dancing globs of flubber, but the story's too thin to add up to anything special. Lightweight fun, but, given the title, it lacks a certain bounce. Of course, that didn't stop Disney's marketing wizards from turning it into a home-video hit. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Cute But Absentmindedly Twisted
Recently I went to a theater showing the Disney remake, Flubber, starring Robin Williams. Although I still prefer the original The Absent Minded Professor, Flubber was a whole lot of fun.

Robin Williams plays a science professor looking for a new form of energy. As the film opens, Williams is already in danger of missing his own wedding for the third time. But while guests wait patiently Williams discovers the semi-intelligent Flubber. Much of the rest of the film is spent trying to win back the heart of his fiance and subsequently save the collage from bankruptcy and closure. Williams is aided in his endeavors by two robots. The first is an exceptionally capable housekeeping robot. The second is a levitating, self-aware intelligence with full emotions. While fun companions movie-wise, the technical aspects of these robots would be more than enough for Williams to save the college. In the End Williams wins back his fiancé, defeats the bad guys trying to close the college and finds a future for Flubber.

While Flubber is very enjoyable it seems like the writers added details for the sake of cuteness without thinking about the implications. Williams is looking for a new energy source yet he has a robot that can defy gravity and powered by simple electricity. He needs a discovery worth money yet he has two very successful and useful robots, one of them alive. Flubber itself has been made into some kind of life form. This may be good for merchandising but one can only wonder about the source of powdered Flubber or the implications of flight resulting from intentionally causing the organism's decay. Selling the rights to flying cars to Ford made for a funny scene but now there can potentially be millions of semi-responsible drivers flying through the country's airlanes while carrying radioactive materials. Additionally, a few scenes were changed from the original and are now less plausible. For instance, in the original, the fiancé calls the professor when he is late for the wedding again.

So if you are looking for fun then this is your movie. However, if you tend to rebel at inconsistencies and like your plots to make sense, then you might want to avoid this one. It's up to you.

Good family fun and inspiring for inventive types
The movie is a great escape, with some good humor and energy. After seeing the cool flying robotic assistant and the flying car, it made me enjoy dreaming and innovating. Some of those negative reviews were apparently given by those with the sense of humor of a piece of wood. Robin Williams is great at playing an absent minded professor, with some hillarious statements and events. His fiance was a great companion in the movie, with her sweet disposition.

Funny, but It Is Still a Remake
I am opposed to remakes in general. Rarely are they as good as the original. I have thought, and continue to think, that remakes are a way to admit that filmmakers are not as creative as they once were, and a remake begins with a completed product. Having said all that, I did like this movie. The movie has problems, but I managed to ignore the problems and have a few good laughs.

Professor Philip Brainard (Robin Williams) is a science genius. Professor Brainard has enough inventions in his house to keep a fleet of patent agents and attorneys busy for years. However, the movie ignores such trivialities to focus on Professor Brainard's need to develop a cheap source of power. The story has Brainard focusing on his pursuit of cheap power to the exclusion of his fiancée Dr. Sara Jean Reynolds (Marcia Gay Harden) and his impending marriage to her. Brainard also seems to be oblivious that Wilson Croft is out to steal his girl, his inventions and sink the college at which they are employed, all at the same time.

Robin Williams is in good form, providing laughs throughout the film. While Fred MacMurray had an air of absent-minded innocence that Williams fails to achieve, Williams brings his own style to the role and does a good job. Marcia Gay Harden almost seems unnecessary to the film though I did like her character. Williams's frenetic characterization of Brainard makes everyone else seem mundane in comparison.

Two of the biggest stars in this movie are special effects, the flubber and a flying robot. The flubber sings and dances and squeaks like a mouse. The robot watches too many soap operas and movies and is jealous of Sara Jean. The robot works diligently to keep the wedding from happening.

This movie does ignore a lot of things in order to keep the plot moving along. I kept wondering how Brainard created an intelligent flying robot the size of a football. Brainard also ignores the need for nuclear elements to power his flubber, with the attendant problems associated with nuclear materials. The missing of the wedding seemed an excessive plot detail, and I found that portion of the plot distracting.

I think the original "Absent-Minded Professor" movie remains superior to the remake. However, if you ignore that this movie is a remake and you are able to ignore the inconsistencies, the movie has a number of very funny moments. I would consider this movie for a family library, though some of the action is quite violent and I would probably limit watching to children ages 7 or 8 and above. Good luck!