Après lui, le déluge

Proving that the Disney studios didn't become cash-mongers solely in the Michael Eisner era, this sequel to 1961's "The Absent Minded Professor" is nothing more than repackaged goods. Lamebrained slapstick has Fred MacMurray returning to role of small town inventor who attempts to save the local high school from ruin. There are a few funny digs at the advertising business but, as with the original, MacMurray's romance problems and his run-ins with the law are dull. Terrific supporting cast (Jack Albertson, Joanna Moore, Paul Lynde, William Demarest) looks like a who's-who of suburban comedies, and the movie is fairly easy to sit through if you don't mind completely innocuous fare, but even the special effects are mechanical. ** from ****

Son of Flubber

Fred MacMurray returns to his famous role of a wacky, absent-minded professor who invents a strange substance that he calls "flubber." In this sequel (the strangely named "Son of"), he does little but jump through the same hoops.

Entertaining, but not fresh.

2.5/5 stars.

• John Ulmer

This is the sequel to "The Absent Minded Professor" [1961]. Slower, and more uneven. The "Absent Minded Professor" was mainly a one-joke affair; Fred MacMurray's fantastic invention "flubber", and by the time "Son of Flubber" came out, it had worn a bit thin. For instance, the SoF copied the AMP with a sports contest. In AMP it was the basketball game half-way through, but in SOF it was a football game as the grand finale [which shows you the tired plot line]. It does have its moments, though...watch for Paul Lynde as the sportscaster, as well as the father/son team of Ed and Keenan Wynn.

There is no disguising that this is an obvious attempt on Disney to cash in on the success of "The Absent Minded Professor" made 2 years earlier. No one can fault them for that - however, there seems to be little originality in this version. You would think they would have made a greater attempt at new gags and originality. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

There is the same sports scene set-up. In AMP it was a basketball game. In SOF it is a football game. There is the same romantic rivalry between Brainard (Fred McMurray) and Professor Shelby Ashton (Elliott Reid), over Brainard's wife, Betsy (Nancy Olsen). They do throw in a 4th party in this film for good measure -Desiree de la Roche (Joanna Cook Moore) - as Brainard's old flame who has her sights set on him again. There is another prank on Professor Shelby while he is driving in his car (this time its filling with water from a Brainard created rain cloud inside the car). You still have Alonzo Hawks (Kennan Wynn) trying to destroy Medfield College by calling in their overdue loan. You have the same cops from the prior moving getting their new squad car destroyed again. So as you see, not a lot of originality here.

The worst scene in my opinion is the ending of the court room scene. The giant fruit and the marching band were way over the top. I did like the stunts on the football field, however. Some of the jumping and flying ball players looked very realistic. I also liked the closing shot of the satellites, the flying football, and earth in the background. Pretty good special effects.

It is interesting that McMurray was an accomplished saxophone player, so look for him playing the actual music during the Halloween party. Also, Paul Lynde makes his film debut in this movie. I liked seeing William Demarest (later to be Uncle Charley on "My Three Sons") in a small role that matches him up with McMurray. He doesn't begin "MTS" until 1965 which is 2 years after this film. Also, you may remember Joanna Cook Moore as the actress that played Andy's girlfriend Peg on "The Andy Griffith Show" for 4 episodes in 1962. Perhaps it helped her land this role. She has another claim to fame - she married Ryan O'Neal in 1963 and is the mother of Tatum O'Neal.

Overall, this sequel doesn't play quite as well as the first. It is still entertaining in places and has a host of noteworthy supporting players.

I first saw 1997's "Flubber", starring Robin Williams, not long after it was released on video, and never knew it was a remake at the time, but found that out around the time I watched the movie again many years later. That was how I later got around to watching the original 1961 film, "The AbsentMinded Professor", starring Fred MacMurray. It's been nearly a year and a half since I watched that film, but I still remember thinking it was better than the lacklustre remake. "Son of Flubber" is the 1963 sequel to the 1961 live action Disney movie, so I was bound to end up watching it eventually. As with most sequels, I was expecting this one to be downhill from the original, and I think it is (just slightly), but it's definitely still better than the 1997 movie.

Professor Ned Brainard has introduced his invention of Flubber to the U.S. military, but when he goes to get paid for his amazing invention, he learns that the Pentagon has decided that the substance must be kept top secret, and they can't give the professor his payment for it yet. This doesn't help the fact that the future of Medfield College is once again in jeopardy due to financial problems, and that Ned and his wife, Betsy are broke and get a huge tax bill. However, the absent-minded physical chemistry professor has a new discovery which he hasn't unleashed upon the world yet. It's called Flubber gas, and it can change the weather! He believes this new gas can end his current troubles, and Biff Hawk plans to use it to help the college football team win a game. However, as Ned experiments with this Flubber gas, he ends up causing trouble which he is unaware of, and he also finds that his marriage is in trouble.

This sequel didn't seem that interesting to me at first when I got around to watching it, but that soon changed. As a comedy, "Son of Flubber" certainly isn't hilarious, but the gags are often funny, even if there are no huge laughs. Memorable ones include the scenes with a certain Medfield College football player's uniform filled with Flubber gas, Ned making it rain inside with his new invisible substance and the way the dog reacts to it, and the professor not realizing that the Flubber gas is making glass shatter all over town, with people not knowing how it's happening! However, there also may be times when it gets a little too silly, and I wouldn't say most of the film is really that funny. Still, at least I can say I laughed at times, definitely more often than I did when I last watched "Flubber", the 1997 film. Aside from the humour, the story isn't exactly great, but it was enough to hold my interest, at least somewhat, though it did seem a tad overlong to me. I also think the cast is mostly good here, including Fred MacMurray.

Since I waited quite a while to watch this sequel after watching "The AbsentMinded Professor" early last year, they're not as easy for me to compare as they would be if I had watched one just after the other. However, I clearly remember that I wasn't amazed by the 1961 Disney film, but still thought it was pretty good family fare, and unsurprisingly a case where the original is superior to the remake. This 1963 sequel isn't as popular as its predecessor, and even though I watched it a while after the original, I guess I can understand that, but it does come close in quality. Neither is an absolute classic (many animated Disney films that Walt Disney was around to produce are superior to these two live action ones made only several years before his death), but they still have their charm decades after they were originally released in the early 60's, even if this one was more of a cash-in and didn't have much new to offer after the original.