FLUBBER

Walt Disney Pictures’ have updated their 1961 classic The Absent-Minded Professor and released it as Flubber, with Robin Williams playing the absent-minded professor. The film, which is being touted as an outrageously funny film, doesn’t live up to the description though. Funny it is, but the laughter is not evoked spontaneously and the situations are more often contrived. Since most of us have seen the original version, the story is known, but the updating doesn’t really help in making the film more interesting. Rather one would anytime prefer the old version to the new. Yes, when it comes to special effects, the film is definitely a treat to watch, but that’s it.

Move over then to an absent-minded professor, whose name itself is a pointer to the genius that he is - Phillip Brainard (Robin Williams). His house is almost like a space station where robots rule the roost. There is a robot which prepares the morning breakfast by making pancakes and frying eggs, washing clothes, and doing every daily chore. And there is a flying robot, the professor’s confidant, who is female named WEEBO. The professor talks to her, discusses his ideas and even asks for her suggestions. WEEBO, in turn, is possessive about the professor and doesn’t like his romantic alliance with Sara (Marcia Gay Harden), who he is all set to marry, not once, twice, but thrice. Only his forgetfulness comes in the way and the wedding never takes place.

Sara, incidentally, is the president of the Medfield College in which Brainard is the chemistry professor. The college is on the verge of closure due to a financial crisis. On the day when a wedding date for Brainard and Sara is fixed for the third time, the professor chances upon a miraculous gooey stuff, a result of days of hard work in his lab. In the excitement, he forgets his marriage for the third time.

The miraculous stuff, a rubbery mass which can fly, is named ‘Flubber’. When applied to any object - cars, basketballs, shoes, and even people - it enables them to fly through air at a remarkable speed since it defies gravity. With this new source of energy, Brainard intends to save his college from closing down. He reveals the secret to Sara, who, initially, under the influence of villain Wilson Croft (Christopher McDonald), doesn’t believe him. But he manages to convince her and they decide to sell the formula for a high price and save the college.

Some moments in the film, like WEEBO expressing her love for Brainard, are touching. But a basketball match, where ‘Flubber’ helps in the losing team winning the match, which is supposed to be hilarious, falls flat.

In the original version, actor Fred MacMurray played the absent-minded professer convincingly. Robin Williams too plays the nutty professor with elan, and the film is worth a dekko only for him. The visual effects are imaginative - the flying car, the robots, and of course Weebo, and Flubber, which can take any shape. Yet they don’t exactly leave you awestruck. The villains too hardly make any impact. And the comedy is predictable. Director Les Mayfield couldn’t handle the classic, or rather updating of the classic.