Flubber
Short description
Professor Philip Brainard is a scientist at Medfield College, where his fiancée, Sara Jean Reynolds, serves as president. Absorbed in his experiments, he has already missed two wedding dates, and the college is facing financial trouble. With help from his flying robot assistant Weebo, he searches for a new energy source that could rescue the school. On the day of his third attempt at a wedding, an experiment goes wrong and produces a rubbery green substance that makes objects fly.
The film was directed by Les Mayfield, its fourth feature following Encino Man, Miracle on 34th Street and Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toon Town. Robin Williams leads as the distracted professor, with Marcia Gay Harden as Sara, Christopher McDonald as Wilson Croft, and Raymond J. Barry and Clancy Brown among the supporting cast. The screenplay was written by Bill Walsh and John Hughes, who also produced with Ricardo Mestres, and it was made by Walt Disney Pictures.
Flubber was released in November 1997 and runs 93 minutes. Its reported budget was 80 million dollars, and it grossed around 178 million dollars worldwide, a return that made it profitable but not overwhelming given the outlay. Audiences rate it modestly on IMDb, at 5.3 from about 100,000 votes, and on TMDB, at 5.7. That sits slightly above the critics' rating of 4 out of 10 from 38 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- To create Flubber's bubbling voice, sound engineer Andrew M. Somers used a balloon into which he poured water and placed metamucil (a fiber that forms bulk, used to treat constipation). Flubber was voiced by Scott Martin Gershin, specially processed in the studio.
- According to Wil Wheaton, scenes in which he was to act alongside Robin Williams (1951-2014) were initially filmed as written in the script, after which Williams often began to improvise and replay the same scenes in a different way – just for fun. These improvisations were not included in the film, but there was enough material for another picture.
- When Robin Williams had not yet agreed to participate in the filming, the role of Wilson Croft was offered to Christopher McDonald, and he almost turned it down. He felt that this role was too similar to those he played with Ridley Scott in the crime comedy "Thelma & Louise" (1991) and with Dennis Dugan in the sports comedy "Happy Gilmore" (1996). At that time, Williams had a falling out with Walt Disney Company, and other candidates began to be considered for the role in the film "Flubber." However, Williams and Walt Disney Company resolved their differences before the start of filming, and McDonald agreed to the role of Croft because he had always wanted to act with Williams.
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