Starring the wacky Robin Williams, the 1997 Walt Disney Pictures comedy, Flubber, is a remake of the iconic 1961 Disney classic, The Absent-Minded Professor.
Good old Medfield College returns to the big screen with the forgetful Professor Philip Brainard (Williams, in the role made famous by Fred MacMurray) once again concocting all manner of scientific breakthroughs in his lab. As in the original, the discovery of "flubber," (flying rubber) leads to mayhem and hilarity as the good Professor utilizes the substance with the college's basketball team, which of course, helps them win the "big game."
Fairly faithful to the original, Flubber benefits from Williams' signature "ad-libbing," although at times his shenanigans reduce the rest of the cast to bystanders as he goes off on his own.
Marcia Gay Harden, Will Wheaton and Christopher McDonald are effective in re-creating characters from the original, and director Les Mayfield is smart enough to not stray far from the 1961 template.
