Flubber (1997)
DIRECTOR: Les Mayfield CAST: Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher McDonald
With Jon Favreau's new CGI reimagining of THE LION KING roaring into theaters, Awfully Good Movies is celebrating the return of the king by spotlighting another remake that Disney made for one of its classic movies back in 1997 by the name of FLUBBER! Before the Disney company was remaking their animated classics into live action in the 2010s, the House of Mouse was more focused on remaking some of their live-action classics back in the 90s, and after screenwriting legend John Hughes cranked out a successful live-action remake of 101 DALMATIANS back in 1996, Disney rehired Hughes a year later to add a splash of color to their 1961 black-and-white comedy classic THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR, with the one and only Robin Williams now lending his comedic genius to the role of the amnesiac professor who creates the revolutionary "flying rubber" of the title. But while it sounds good to combine the talents of John Hughes and Robin Williams in remaking a Disney classic, let's not forget that neither of those two guys was above making crap every now and then. And even though Robin Williams provides a great and surprisingly subdued performance here–with LITTLE MERMAID voice actress Jodi Benson providing some game support as his wisecracking AI robot assistant–the script is filled with all the lazy comedic pratfalls that came to embody John Hughes' work in the wake of HOME ALONE's runaway success, with the innocent charm of the original Fred MacMurray movie now replaced with Flubber shaking his green CGI ass in front of the camera and shooting out of Shooter McGavin's asshole. It just goes to show all you folks who got mad over Will Smith playing the Genie that not even the late great Robin Williams was above starring in a lame Disney remake himself. Perhaps Big Willie wants to eye starring in the inevitable FLUBBER reboot? #GettinJigglyWitIt
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