Son Of Flubber (DVD)

Well, Medfield College isn't safe quite yet. Professor Ned Brainard may have managed to sell Flubber as an antigravity substance and get his girl, but Alonzo Hawk isn't quite finished with his scheming. Determined to get Medfield in order to further one of his money making schemes in property, he sets his sights on destroying the college's reputation so that will face ruin. Brainard sets out to further his research into Flubber by discovering more ...
...for its academic reputation as well as financially, but once again, his personal life intervenes. His absent mindedness may not have gotten in the way of his finally remembering to attend his own wedding, but with his distractibility still as big as ever, it does create friction with his wife and in laws. Seeing he can't do it alone, his students once again step into the breach. We get plenty of laughs with his ideas for dry rain of all things, and ... more

Well, Medfield College isn't safe quite yet. Professor Ned Brainard may have managed to sell Flubber as an antigravity substance and get his girl, but Alonzo Hawk isn't quite finished with his scheming. Determined to get Medfield in order to further one of his money making schemes in property, he sets his sights on destroying the college's reputation so that will face ruin. Brainard sets out to further his research into Flubber by discovering more practical applications he can sell to benefit the college both for its academic reputation as well as financially, but once again, his personal life intervenes. His absent mindedness may not have gotten in the way of his finally remembering to attend his own wedding, but with his distractibility still as big as ever, it does create friction with his wife and in laws. Seeing he can't do it alone, his students once again step into the breach. We get plenty of laughs with his ideas for dry rain of all things, and Flubber gas, replete with funny sight gags sure to delight children and adults. There is something quite funny about watching it thunderstorm indoors and seeing large American football players fly. Will this be enough to save Medfield though?

Reuniting the original cast, this 1963 sequel brings in additional talent in the form of Paul Lynde. Veteran comedian Fred MacMurray (The Shaggy Dog, My Three sons), is as warm and bumbling as ever, while Keenan Wynn proves his ability as a sharp foil. Indeed, his Alonzo Hawk character proved so memorable, that he popped up as the schemer in various other Disney films, including The Love Bug. Paul Lynde's turn as the sportscaster works well in the ensemble effort, providing just the right touch in the silly goings on that it remained funny rather than merely ridiculous. This is great comedy, relying on skill, inflection, and timing merely supplemented by the special effects rather than frenetic over the top face pulling that serves as a sidebar to over engineered CGI eye poppers. Admittedly, as is often the case with sequels, it's not as strong as the original, but it stands up quite well and is an affable way to spend some time. It's well written family comedy with an extremely talented cast, and high production values and it shows. Despite the quite simple special effects, they are well done and stand up pretty well today.

The current region 2 edition, is like the original, currently only available in the small screen aspect (i.e. not wide screen), and uses the colourised prints from its 1980's VHS release. These prints were colourised from the TV version release first shown in the 70's on Disney's weekly prime time show, the Wonderful World of Disney, for which they would crop the films down to fit the then squarish television screens. It's all very well done though, and the colours surprisingly ungarish though I do find it a bit sad that they release it thusly here but in the US and Canada they get fully remastered wide screen versions in the original black and white. This might seem a bit odd, but as a child used to colour TV, I still failed to find the lack of colour troublesome, as very often the filming techniques used were made for black and white. Today's children may hesitate however, though my own children don't. This may perhaps be because as a family we have watched many family TV series on DVD in black and white as I know many families who do not say their children will only watch things that have been coloured in. Regardless, it IS colourised and this no doubt will add to the audience wiling to sit and watch it, and finding that they quite enjoy it.

It is also one of those budget type Disney releases, so what you get is the film and nothing else besides the usual copyright notices and menu screen and what not. At just over £5, I certainly will not complain about he lack of extras, nor the cropping and colourisation, as it brought many happy memories back as we watched it, and my children got a lovely film that had them and their young friends giggling away. While it is rated U, it's plotlines are more suited to the 5 and up crowd as under 5's will have little personal reference to the school settings and other plot devices though they till will find the sight gags pretty funny. It's classic comedy at its best from the Golden era of Disney live action films, and well worth a look in. 

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