As the film opens, he once again misses his own wedding...for the third time!!! (How this guy ever even got engaged to begin with is a mystery to me.) Anyway, while he was suppose to be at his wedding, he was actually at home brewing up something so incorrectly that it blew up his shed and knocked him out. When he awoke he found that he had invented a form of rubber that somehow creates it's own energy. He names it "Flubber". Naturally, the first thing he does with this new invention is make his car fly and then attach some Flubber to the bottoms of the college basketball teams shoes! This causes the players to start flying all over the place and able to jump 20 feet in the air. Soon after, all kinds of predators (including the government and a local hoodlum) want this amazing new invention for themselves. Why they don't just take it from the basketball players, I don't know. Instead, they chase MacMurray all over the place.
For a light-hearted, early 1960's Disney flick, I enjoyed THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR. Silly as fook story, good special effects, cute dog, sinister undertones, a political jab about killing "every senator and congressman", maybe(?) a reference to TWENTIETH CENTURY that was probably just wishful thinking on my part, medium pace that could have been sped up a bit, great backlot locations, solid acting (especially by MacMurray) plus lots of great classic movie actors like Keenan Wynn (and his real life father Ed Wynn and his real life son Ned Wynn), Edward Andrews, Nancy Olson, James Westerfield and many others...even Leon Tyler from GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW!
Good lazy afternoon time-waster.
Interesting bit of trivia: THE ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR was actually nominated for three Academy Awards (including Best Cinematography!), but lost all three.
Part 2 - Son of Flubber (1963)
Remake - Flubber (1997)
