The Absent Minded Professor Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 23 out of 25 people found the following review useful: Good Fun for the Whole Family Author: Chuck Bryan 4 September 2004 It has been years since I have seen this movie! I am glad to see that it is still fun and my girls really enjoyed (4 & 6). What was kinda neat was that the Alonzo Hawk character also returns in Herbie Rides Again (same actor, same personality). Small coincidence, because the movie was also directed by Robert Stevenson. So, if you are looking for a film that will not offend, and offer a few chuckles and will captivate your child's attention, check out The Absent Minded Professor. Also, IMHO, do not wast time with the Flubber remake. Cheers Was the above review useful to you? 21 out of 23 people found the following review useful: Classic MacMurray from Los Angeles, California 30 October 2003 This is probably one of the best live action films Disney has ever released. Fred MacMurray once again proved how great a comedic actor he was and this film is just a confirmation of it.

Also, Nancy Olson was great as his frustrated fiancee, Betsy. However, the real scene stealer in this film is Keenan Wynne as old man Hawk. Mr. Hawk was probably one of the biggest weasels in cinematic history and Tommy Kirk is also great as his son Biff. Also, the best scene in the whole film is the basketball game. That scene alone is what makes this film a classic comedy. Was the above review useful to you? 20 out of 23 people found the following review useful: Better than "Flubber," that's for sure... 12 February 2004 The Absent Minded Professor Classic family from from Walt Disney that stars Fred MacMurray in the title role as a rather forgetful and absent minded professor who invents a strange putty substance that drives him and his close contacts bonkers. The movie is much more inspired, likable and family-friendly (not to mention funnier and more charming) than the remake starring Robin Williams, which was written by John Hughes long after his career had fallen downwards. This version is the definitive version--don't let the kiddies convince you to rent the other one before you see this one!

**** / ***** Was the above review useful to you? 15 out of 15 people found the following review useful: More Bounce To The Ounce from Buffalo, New York 4 April 2007 The Absentminded Professor was the second film that Fred MacMurray in his second career rebirth with Walt Disney as the midwife. He scored an enormous success in The Shaggy Dog and Disney films together with his My Three Sons TV series established MacMurray as the quintessential family father figure which would endure for the rest of his life. I do remember seeing this in the theater back as a youngster and back then the younger ones in the crowd were looking at Tommy Kirk who was at the height of his Disney popularity. Nevertheless MacMurray gives a delightful performance as science professor Ned Brainerd who's accidentally invented a variation on rubber which has a great deal more bounce to it. He's so wrapped up in his experiment that he's even forgetting his wedding day to Nancy Olson, AGAIN. She's about had it with him and ready to fall for the wolfish English professor Elliott Reid. MacMurray has his own troubles.

Other than helping his college win a basketball game with a team that they are way overmatched against, he's not quite decided what use this stuff he calls flubber is good for. But wealthy Keenan Wynn sure wants to get his hands on it. Funniest sequence in the film is Keenan Wynn after MacMurray and Olson trick him into wearing flubberized shoes is seeing bounce slowly into the stratosphere before a quick thinking Tommy Kirk devises a way to counteract his flubberized dad. The AbsentMinded Professor was so popular with audiences that Disney did another version with almost the entire same cast in Son of Flubber. That one was almost as funny, but this still has a lot of laughs even after almost fifty years. Was the above review useful to you? 13 out of 16 people found the following review useful: Watch This Fun, Screwball Romp - but ONLY If You Are Not Jaded and Have Lost Sight of What Simple Fun Is from Miami, FL 5 March 2002 I think it is time this movie is reviewed by its positive qualities and not just centered on how utterly sophisticated the reviewer would like to be remembered by the readers of IMDB.com.

First of all, let me say there is nothing wrong with "hokum" or old American values or screwball comedies or old Disney movies. As with anything, it's always in the eye of the beholder. This movie was fun to watch and funny in enough places to warrant a watch by any self-respecting human being with a warm sense of humor. Second of all, The Absent-Minded Professor elicited a wonderful collection of chuckles from me. Perhaps I didn't expect them...but they did come and especially in one joyful moment during a basketball game. Believe me, I am not even an NBA fan...but that scene cured a lot of ills. Maybe it was my frame of mind on that particular day. But, the record stands that I did laugh, and with some old-fashioned "glee", I might add. Third of all, I believe comedies are sometimes taken too seriously: As if we were supposed to come away with some vastly profound elucidation from the experience. Fourth of all, one has to be rather shallow not to appreciate the the wonderful collection of character actors in this and many Disney movies - before the prohibitive cost of making movies made it impossible to have a diverse collection of actors.

I miss this kind of movie where character actors litter the celluloid landscape as if in some garden of earthly theatrical delights "a la Frank Capra or Preston Sturges". One last thing, it was a travesty that this 1961 movie, though nominated for some Oscars, did not win at least in the Technical categories. Yes, it's goofy to us in these 'Post-2001 A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, ET, Independence Day' times, but all of them owe a bit of thanks to the legacy of the past. And this movie is part of that legacy of fun effects which advanced us ever so kindly into our present state of "sophistication", and sometimes, Ungrateful Complacency and Ennui. Was the above review useful to you? 9 out of 10 people found the following review useful: fun for kids from Bath, England 2 November 2005 The Absent-Minded Professor was a typical Disney classic that I watched when I was younger. In short, this film is about a professor who creates an anti-gravity substance known as 'flubber'. This substance makes his car fly, sort of reminiscent of the car in 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'.

Of course, someone is trying to kidnap this idea, and it's up to some children to save the day. I am not sure what children today would think of this film, but I did find it enjoyable, and I would have seen it in the mid-1980s. I would like to think that children today would find it just as enjoyable and entertaining. Was the above review useful to you? 7 out of 8 people found the following review useful: Good old movie; now we know what Flubber actually is!!!!! from (Near) D/FW Airport, Texas, USA 31 July 2006 *** This review may contain spoilers *** Disney made this movie in 1961. "The Absent Minded Professor" is about, well, see the title!!!!! He makes this flying rubber stuff known as "Flubber," and it can do many things from bounce off walls to making automobiles fly in the sky!!!!! This was seen in two versions: the colorized version, which I recall played on the Old Disney Channel so many times, and the B&W version, the version that I had seen first. My family rented this original version on VHS back in January 1998.

And now, check out what I found in the trivia section: a recipe for Flubber: "To one pound of salt water taffy add one heaping tablespoon polyurethane foam, one cake crumbled yeast. Mix till smooth, allow to rise. Then pour into saucepan over one cup cracked rice with one cup water. Add topping of molasses. Boil till lid lifts and says 'Qurlp'." As Bill Nye says, "Well Now You Know!!!!!" 10/10 from Alberta 4 September 2003 When I was younger, Fred MacMurray was my Colin Farrell. He was everywhere, and never seemed to make a bad movie. Sure, they might be campy and silly, but that's what works for a younger age group. And this one holds up. The flubber is quite possibly one of the neatest inventions in movie history. And though the Robin Williams remake gave it the new age CGI, the black and white gives the movie such a good feel. I still get a kick out of Fred torturing the man trying to muscle in on his girl. Was the above review useful to you?

7 out of 8 people found the following review useful: An old-fashioned, unsophisticated, excellent family comedy. from Ellicott City, Maryland 24 August 2003 My wife and I saw this with our four young sons when it was first released, and we thought it was great. We have seen it several times since, and it is always entertaining. Unlike some critics, I thought Fred MacMurray was perfect in the title role, and the supporting cast was great. The humor may seem a bit unsophisticated and hokey by present day standards, but in my eyes it makes the movie even more enjoyable. Show this film to your unprejudiced younger children and grandchildren and watch them delight in it. Was the above review useful to you? 14 out of 22 people found the following review useful: The Original 'Flubber' Is A Bit Dated But Has Its Moments from United States 17 November 2006 Some parts of this are very funny, some parts are silly stupid and all parts are very dated and make little sense. Maybe that's why someone figured a re-make was appropriate. That, and the fact that it's still a very entertaining movie, almost a classic.

The re-make was done in 1997 with the movie, "Flubber." Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Tommy Kirk.....wow, there are some familiar names from the '50s and '60s Olson had lost her youthful looks from "Sunset Boulevard," but that had been a decade earlier. MacMurray didn't look a whole lot different from his 1944 film noir classic of "Double Indemnity," proving once again how much better men age than women. Kids of today would still laugh at this film, although they have dead spots in here which are not prevalent in modern-day films. Was the above review useful to you? Page 1 of 3: The Absent-Minded Professor Movie Review Review this title! What's the story? In this Disney classic, absent-minded college professor Ned Brainard (Fred MacMurray) keeps forgetting to show up to his own wedding but manages to create an amazing substance called Flubber. Like rubber with wings, Flubber can make an object bounce high up into the sky. Brainard's invention results in many comical situations, including a UFO sighting and a basketball game that's out of this world.

Is it any good? QUALITY Unlike the dreary 1997 remake, Flubber , which sacrificed the human element for more showy and less pleasing special effects, this movie's is a masterpiece of Disney storytelling magic. Director Robert Stevenson keeps the pace lively and the laughs abundant. Parents might furrow their brows when the professor rigs a basketball game by ironing Flubber to the soles of the home team's shoes. But the payoff is huge once those players take to the court, bounding high over their taller opponents' heads, sending the crowd into a frenzy. As the title character, Fred MacMurray is irresistible. He's not a nutty professor (that was Jerry Lewis). He's just a simple man of science dedicated to bettering the American way of life. His unflagging sincerity and kindheartedness warm you to him immediately. You want him to succeed. You want him to outwit greedy Alonzo Hawk and save the college from bankruptcy. And for crying out loud, you want to see him finally get to that altar with Betsy and get hitched. On all counts, you won't be disappointed. Families can talk about... Families can talk about real inventions that are almost as amazing as Flubber.

Also, do you think something like Flubber will really ever be invented? What are some recent inventions that would astound Professor Ned Brainard? Movie details The Absent-Minded Professor | Disney Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia [ show ] Plot Professor Ned Brainard (pronounced BRAY-nard) is an absent-minded professor of physical chemistry at Medfield College who invents a substance that gains energy when it strikes a hard surface. This discovery follows some blackboard scribbling in which he reverses a sign in the equation for enthalpy to energy plus (rather than minus which is correct) pressure times volume. Brainard names his discovery Flubber, a portmanteau of "flying rubber." In the excitement of his discovery, he misses his own wedding to Betsy Carlisle, not for the first time. Subplots include another professor wooing the disappointed Betsy, Biff Hawk's ineligibility for basketball due to failing Brainard's class, Alonzo Hawk 's schemes to gain wealth by means of Flubber, the school's financial difficulties and debt to Mr. Hawk, and Brainard's attempts to interest the government and military in uses for Flubber.

Looking for backers, he bounces his Flubber ball for an audience, but his investment pitch proves so long-winded that most of the crowd has left before they notice that it bounced higher on its second bounce than on its first. For a more successful demonstration, he makes his Model T fly by bombarding Flubber with radioactive particles. Other adventures and misadventures result as Flubber is used on the bottoms of basketball players' shoes (in a crucial game) giving them tremendous jumping ability; Brainard (at a school dance) making him an accomplished dancer, and the scheming businessman (who must be tackled by a full football team to bring him down after Brainard tricks him into testing Flubber on the bottom of his shoes). Eventually, Brainard shows his discovery to the government and also wins back Betsy, culminating in a wedding at last. Cast Ed Wynn as Fire Chief Production Notes The aforementioned Prof. Alyea (1903–1996), professor of chemistry at Princeton University, earned the nickname "Dr. Boom" from Russian observers of his demonstrations at the International Science Pavilion of the Brussels World's Fair in the 1950s, which had Walt Disney in attendance.

He told Alyea that he had given him an idea for a movie, and invited Alyea to California to give a demonstration for actor Fred MacMurray, who later mimicked Alyea's mannerisms for the film. MacMurray would later state that he had never understood chemistry until his meeting with Alyea. The special effects were created by Robert A. Mattey and Eustace Lycett, who were nominated for an Academy Award, and included the sodium screen matte process, as well as miniatures and wire-supported mockups. The film's "Medfield Fight Song" was written by Richard and Robert Sherman, their first song for a Disney feature. Ed Wynn and son, Keenan, appear together in this film. Ed plays the Fire Chief (an inside joke, as he hosted the popular radio program The Fire Chief for most of the 1930s). Keenan also played Alonzo Hawk in Son of Flubber and again in Herbie Rides Again (1974). In the bounce scene, Keenan's character called Ed's a fathead. Keenan's son, Ned, also appears uncredited in a bit part.

Medfield College of Technology was used again as the setting for the sequel, Son of Flubber, as well as a later trilogy of Disney "Dexter Riley" films: The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes , Now You See Him, Now You Don't , and The Strongest Man in the World , each starring Kurt Russell and Cesar Romero . Awards The film was nominated for three Academy Awards. Best Art Direction (Carroll Clark, Emile Kuri, Hal Gausman). Best Cinematography (Edward Colman) Best Effects, Special Effects Releases The film was reissued to theaters in 1967 and 1975, and released to video in 1981, 1986, and 1993. It was released as a pan and scan print on VHS in black and white in 1981 and 1993, and in a colorized version in 1986, after successful airings on the Disney Channel in March of that year.

In 2003, the film finally got a widescreen treatment: The Walt Disney laserdisc #028AS is letterboxed to produce a 1.85:1 aspect ratio format. In 2008 the film was released in the United States as part of a 2 disc set with its sequel, Son of Flubber. Legacy Sequel This film was followed by a sequel Son of Flubber , released less than two years later in 1963 also featuring MacMurray, Olson, Reid, and Kirk reprising their roles. Hewitt also returns (now as District Attorney), as well as the three Wynns (Keenan reprising the role of Alonzo Hawk, Ed Wynn as a Hank Kimball-like county agent, and Ned as the student manager of Rutland's football team). Remakes The film has been remade twice, once as a 1988 television version with Harry Anderson and Mary Page Keller as the renamed characters Prof. Henry Crawford and Ellen Whitley; and once more as a theatrical film entitled, Flubber , with Robin Williams as the renamed Professor Philip Brainard, with Marcia Gay Harden as his love interest, Dr.

Sara Jean Reynolds (Nancy Olson appears in a cameo). Neither remake was as successful or is as highly regarded as the original, but the 1997 version was still a considerable success. Both were made in color. Gallery Flubber (1997) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error An absent-minded professor discovers "flubber," a rubber-like super-bouncy substance. Director: Samuel W.

Taylor (short story "A Situation of Gravity"), John Hughes (screenplay) | 1 more credit » Stars: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 33 titles created 24 Aug 2011 a list of 32 titles created 07 Sep 2012 a list of 44 titles created 15 May 2013 a list of 26 titles created 05 Sep 2014 a list of 37 titles created 14 Oct 2015 Search for " Flubber " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. 3 wins & 1 nomination. See more awards » Videos A doctor discovers that he can communicate with animals. Director: Betty Thomas A woman kidnaps puppies to kill them for their fur, but various animals then gang up against her and get their revenge in slapstick fashion. Director: Stephen Herek A paranormal expert and his daughter bunk in an abandoned house populated by three mischievous ghosts and one friendly one.

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Director: Joe Pytka When Captain Hook kidnaps his children, an adult Peter Pan must return to Neverland and reclaim his youthful spirit in order to challenge his old enemy. Director: Steven Spielberg A rich young boy finds his family targeted in an inside job and must use his cunning to save them. Director: Donald Petrie Edit Storyline Professor Phillip Brainard, an absent-minded professor, works with his assistant Weebo, trying to create a substance that's a new source of energy and that will save Medfield College where his sweetheart Sara is the president. He has missed his wedding twice, and on the afternoon of his third wedding, Professor Brainard creates flubber, which allows objects to fly through the air. It looks like rubber, so he calls it flubber. This film is based on the 1961 Disney classic, "The Absent-Minded Professor. Written by Anonymous What is flubber?

See more » Genres: Rated PG for slapstick action and mild language | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 26 November 1997 (USA) See more » Also Known As: The Absent Minded Professor See more » Filming Locations: $35,892,031 (USA) (28 November 1997) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia In the film poster where Brainard is wearing his goggles and Flubber is not wearing his glasses, a few bubbles of flubber in the upper right-hand corner form a hidden Mickey. See more » Goofs When Wesson and Smith are in Brainard's basement trying to steal the Flubber, Smith says something to Wesson and Wesson replies, "What?" But Wesson's lips aren't moving when he says this. See more » Quotes Father : There's not a darn thing to be afraid of, pal. How can anything get in your window? It's closed, OK?

[Flubber crashes through the neighbor's window, bounces around and the boy covers himself in a blanket] (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews An absent minded professor discovers a new type of rubber that can be harnessed as an energy source. However his discovery causes him to miss his wedding and lose his girlfriend. While trying to demonstrate his discovery to Sara Jean to win her back, he gets the attention of mobster Hoenicker who wants the discovery for himself. The story here is unimportant - it's all a bit daft and if you look too closely at it, it all falls apart. For example - the professor has created a flying robot that has full intelligence and character but yet he hasn't made any money for himself or his college!, is the flubber alive or not? etc. But really it's all about the set pieces and the jokes. As such it falls down a little - it's good for kids but there's nothing in the crude slapstick for adults. Jokes include the usual "people getting hit in the head" style humour. Williams character is not funny at all - a bit of a weakness in a comedy lead.

In fact his forgetfulness is just stupid at times and doesn't have any charm to cover it. The funniest bits actually revolve around McDonald's Wilson - he doesn't get good lines but he has lots of incidental laughs. Ted Levine and Clancy Brown have both done better than this and are limited to comedy thugs - although both were probably glad to be in a big movie. Other well known faces include Raymond J. Barry and Wil Wheaton, although these are also underused. It's not really a movie about performances but I think it's still important. The best characters are Weebo and the flubber. Weebo is quite funny and actually has a deep character - she's the secretary in love with her boss type - she also creates a strangely moving scene. The flubber is good - best in one big musical number halfway through and I wonder if they could have had more imaginative scenes with it as a character rather than just a bouncy ball. Overall it's a kids film - don't expect anything more than that. 24 of 33 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes FILM REVIEW; High-Tech Gunk Returns: Splat!

- The New York Times The New York Times Movies |FILM REVIEW; High-Tech Gunk Returns: Splat! Search Continue reading the main story Flubber, the magical flying rubber substance first invented by Fred MacMurray in the 1961 hit ''The Absent-Minded Professor,'' is a souvenir of the innocent past. Thanks to John Hughes's head-bashing approach to children's comedy, flubber is now more akin to a dangerous weapon. Just as the ''Home Alone'' films acquainted tiny viewers with the joys of throwing bricks off rooftops, the new ''Flubber'' (written by Mr. Hughes and Bill Walsh, and directed by Mr. Hughes's ''Miracle on 34th Street'' protege Les Mayfield) has fun with flying bowling balls. It also has fun with Robin Williams, but he takes a back seat to the film's main attraction: green Jell-O with attitude. ''Flubber,'' which may seem all but unavoidable to viewers looking for live-action children's features over the holiday season, has the promising idea of casting Mr. Williams as its wildly forgetful hero, and of giving him enough Rube Goldberg-style toys to establish him as a nutty inventor.

The best of these is a U.F.O.-shaped Tinkerbell, a little floating robot named Weebo who is jealously protective of Prof. Phillip Brainard (Mr. Williams). Weebo has a computer screen that flashes film clips to illustrate moods, so that a petulant ''No!'' may come with an image of Shirley Temple pouting, hands on hips. Nothing else about ''Flubber'' is as clever as this. Though Mr. Williams sometimes seems on the verge of ''Aladdin''-caliber improvisation with the ever-morphing green flubber, the film bogs him down with a fiancee (Marcia Gay Harden) hellbent on making him remember a wedding date, and with the full Hughes retinue of thugs and bullies. The bad guys (Ted Levine and Clancy Brown), who always come in twos and remain staunchly moronic, are this time repeatedly smashed in the head by that flubberized bowling ball. Their employer (Raymond Barry), a tycoon who insists that his spoiled, lazy son be given good grades at the university where Professor Brainard and his fiancee work, is another standard-issue heavy.

Piling on the villainy, the film also gives the Professor a romantic rival (Christopher McDonald), who hopes to capitalize on Brainard's forgetfulness about the altar. The film devotes much more attention to these by-the-numbers shenanigans than to its neater tricks, like making the Brainard convertible fly through the clouds. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Technological advances in filmmaking make these flying scenes pleasant and even allow the flubber a Busby Berkeley dance routine. Flubber-related flatulence is also rendered vividly, which is not necessarily progress over flubber antics of the past. ''Flubber'' is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). It includes mild profanity, lighthearted but noxious violence, and partial nudity at a university art class. FLUBBER Directed by Les Mayfield; written by John Hughes and Bill Walsh, based on a story by Samuel W. Taylor; director of photography, Dean Cundey; edited by Harvey Rosenstock and Michael A. Stevenson; music by Danny Elfman; production designer, Andrew McAlpine; produced by Mr. Hughes and Ricardo Mestres; released by Walt Disney Pictures. Running time: 93 minutes. This film is rated PG.

WITH: Robin Williams (Prof. Philip Brainard), Marcia Gay Harden (Sara Jean Reynolds), Christopher McDonald (Wilson Croft), Raymond Barry (Chester Hoenicker), Clancy Brown (Smith) and Ted Levine (Wesson). The Absent-Minded Professor - Wikiquote The Absent-Minded Professor Let's see, flying rubber... Flubber! Corners beautifully, doesn't it? I'm an American! See it? My credit cards! Substance X, we dub thee... Flubber! Mr. Hawk, let me get this straight. You want me to turn my discovery over to you so you can blackmail our government? Others[ edit ] First Referee: There's nothing in the rule book that says one team can't jump higher than the other. Biff Hawk: Oh, it's just Neddy the Nut out flying his old Model T. Dialogue[ edit ] [The fire crew has arrived to rescue Alonzo Hawk, who is now bouncing out of control.] Fire Chief: [shouting through a megaphone] Mr. Hawk! This is the Fire Chief speaking! We'll have everything under control in just a moment. Now Mr. Hawk, try to relax. Alonzo J.

Hawk: Relax? How can I relax, you fat-head? [The fire crew's net has been accidentally broken by Alonzo Hawk during their attempt to rescue him.] Fireman: I told you we needed a new one. Fire Chief: You told me? What do you think I've been telling the town council? How am I supposed to buy a new net without an appropriation? Fireman: Well, don't get hot. I only mentioned it. Fire Chief: Well, you just keep the kinks out of the fire hose. That's all I want from you. I'm the Chief! [Prof. Brainard has repeatedly slammed his "Flubberized" Model T down of Prof. Ashton's car roof while in motion, causing to go out of control and crash into a police car.] Prof. Shelby Ashton: [as he and the two officers get out of their crashed cars] Officer! Help me! It's after me! Help me! Officer Hanson: I do hope that you will excuse my appearance, but I was just having a cup of boiling hot coffee. Prof. Shelby Ashton: But it's after me! Officer Hanson: What's after you? Prof.

Shelby Ashton: I don't know, some kind of a... thing! Officer Hanson: A thing? Can you describe it? Prof. Shelby Ashton: I don't know. I didn't see it. But it flies. And it made a noise, like, uh, "Aaa-OOO-gah! Aaa-OOO-gah!" And then it banged down on the top of my car! BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! And when I looked, there wasn't anything there. Officer Hanson: Oh, that kind of a thing. No. 1903: Flubber Click here for audio of Episode 1903. Today, Flubber. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. We've seen the relationship between movies and product-marketing steadily grow over the years. When Clark Gable took off his shirt in the movie It Happened One Night, back in 1934, he was wearing only his manly chest -- no undershirt. Two things happened as a result. First, the sales of undershirts sharply dropped in the United States.

Second, advertisers sat up and took notice. Movies and marketing have, ever since, developed a disturbing intimacy . One example is the display soft drinks and beer. Attractive actors smoking cigarettes has been as influential as Clark Gable's undershirtlessness, and far more destructive. Then there's the influence of movies on fashion -- like the Annie Hall look. Movies have also driven countless new products, especially toys. Superhero dolls and Star Wars light swords, but nothing with as strange a history as Flubber. Flubber was invented onscreen by Fred MacMurray in the movie The Absent Minded Professor -- a kind of antigravity goo that gained energy with each impact. Flubber stood for flying rubber for, with it, you could fly. When a sequel, Son of Flubber , was made two years later, the Hasbro Company created a new product called Flubber, for kids. It was reportedly made of rubber and mineral oil and it behaved a lot like Silly Putty. It stretched like bread dough when you pulled slowly, and resisted like rubber when you jerked it. It'd bounce if you dropped it, and it would transfer images from the comics. Flubber was marketed as nontoxic and non-staining.

But then, certain people's hair follicles proved to be allergic to it. It caused enough trouble that it had to pulled from the market. And here the fun begins. How to get rid of tons of Flubber balls? When they tried to burn them, the nearby City of Providence, Rhode Island, complained of huge clouds of black smoke. Next they tried next to put the Flubber balls in the city dump. But kids turned up trying to steal them. So they got permission to weight them down and sink them off the coast. But Flubber balls got loose and floated to the surface. The Coast Guard had to collect fifty thousand of them and return them to Hasbro. Finally, they buried their stock in an area near their factory and paved it over as a parking lot. That worked for thirty-five years. Then employees began seeing Flubber rising like the undead through cracks in the pavement. That was just as Disney released a remake of the old movie. The 1997 movie Flubber was roundly panned by three quarters of the major reviewers. And, although neither reappearance was welcome, I can recommend one latter-day Flubber reincarnation.

A widely-circulated recipe tells children how to make their own Flubber-like material from water, white glue, and borax. When they're done, they'll be embryonic chemists who've made their own long-chain polymeric material. And they'll have made their own fun as well. I'll post a link on how-to-do-it, on the Engines web site. I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work. (Theme music) The absent minded professor (DVD video, 2008) [WorldCat.org] Find more libraries Librarian? Claim your library to The absent minded professor Burbank, Calif. : Disney DVD, [2008] Series: DVD video : NTSC color broadcast system : English : Double feature 2-DVD set View all editions and formats Database: WorldCat Summary: Absent-minded professor: A college professor develops an anti-gravity substance by accident and equips his Model T and his college's basketball player's shoes with it. He tries to convince the Pentagon of its value but has problems with a local crook who wants to profit from the idea.

Son of flubber: In this sequel to 'The Absent-Minded Professor, ' the scientist has now invented Flubbergas, and anyone who inhales it floats away. Read more... You are connected to the University of Washington Libraries network Hide local services for this item OCLC FirstSearch Add library to Favorites Please choose whether or not you want other users to be able to see on your profile that this library is a favorite of yours. Allow this favorite library to be seen by others Keep this favorite library private Find a copy in the library Finding libraries that hold this item... Details Video recordings for the hearing impaired Material Type: Visual material All Authors / Contributors: 251428536 Language Note: The absent-minded professor: soundtracks: English, Spanish; closed captioned. Son of flubber: soundtracks: English with optional subtitles in Spanish and French. Notes: Based on a story by Samuel W. Taylor. "Black and white presentation as original created: -- container. Absent-minded professor: originally issued as a motion picture in 1960. Son of flubber: originally broadcast in 1963.

Credits: Director of photography, Edward Colman ; film editor, Cotton Wardburton ; music, George Bruns. Cast: Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Tommy Kirk, Ed Wynn. Target Audience: 2 videodiscs (approximately 199 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in. Details: The Absent-minded professor: DVD, region 1; Dolby Digital surround; NTSC; digitally mastered; widescreen 1.66:1. Son of Flubber: DVD, region 1; Dolby Digital mono sound; NTSC; digitally mastered; full screen 1.33:1. Contents: Son of Flubber (Motion picture) Responsibility: Walt Disney presents ; screenplay by Bill Walsh ; associate producer, Bill Walsh ; directed by Robert Stevenson. Son of flubber / Walt Disney presents ; screenplay by Bill Walsh, Don DaGradi ; directed by Robert Stevenson. Abstract: Absent-minded professor: A college professor develops an anti-gravity substance by accident and equips his Model T and his college's basketball player's shoes with it.

He tries to convince the Pentagon of its value but has problems with a local crook who wants to profit from the idea. Son of flubber: In this sequel to 'The Absent-Minded Professor, ' the scientist has now invented Flubbergas, and anyone who inhales it floats away. Reviews Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers. Be the first. Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers. Be the first. Tags

Question: What bouncy substance was invented by the absent-minded professor?
Answer: Flubber