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25 reviews in total

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19 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
Classic MacMurray, 30 October 2003
Author: Brian Washington (Sargebri@att.net) from Los Angeles, California

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.

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17 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Good Fun for the Whole Family, 4 September 2004
Author: Chuck Bryan

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

C

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17 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
Better than "Flubber," that's for sure..., 12 February 2004
Author: MovieAddict2012 from UK

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!

**** / *****

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13 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
More Bounce To The Ounce, 4 April 2007

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

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.

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12 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
The Original 'Flubber' Is A Bit Dated But Has Its Moments, 17 November 2006

Author: ccthemovieman-1 from United States

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.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Good old movie; now we know what Flubber actually is!!!!!, 31 July 2006

Author: Seth Nelson from (Near) D/FW Airport, Texas, USA

*** 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

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7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
fun for kids, 2 November 2005

Author: rebeljenn from Bath, England

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.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
An old-fashioned, unsophisticated, excellent family comedy., 24 August 2003

Author: jordans51 from Ellicott City, Maryland

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.

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8 out of 11 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, 5 March 2002

Author: Enrique Sanchez from Miami, FL

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.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Golden oldie..., 4 September 2003

Author: Cephyran from Alberta

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.

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