Son of Flubber (1963)

Son of Flubber (1963)

Directed by: Robert Stevenson

Starring: Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn

Son of Flubber was not as successful a sequel as other “Son of” movies were, like Son of Kong or Son of the Pink Panther (both of which were also terrible, for those of you following along at home). Instead, it felt more like… Beating a franchise for all it’s worth. A feeling modern moviegoers are now all too familiar with.

Fred MacMurray returns as the absent-minded professor… whatever his name was. It turns out that by giving flubber to the government at the end of the last movie, he doomed himself to a life of poverty because they refused to pay him for his amazing invention. He has to come up with some other invention to not only be able to eat and keep his bitchy wife, but also to save the small school he works at, which is still being antagonized by Keenan Wynn. To this end, he develops a machine that can both control the weather and break every piece of glass within 25 miles, simultaneously! Hooray!

This movie was hard to sit through. Especially seeing it right after The Absent-Minded Professor, and seeing all the exact same gags again, only not as well done… I mean, we all know that the sequel is never better than the original, but there’s just something inside us that hopes that it could be at least close to as good. That little something is probably the reason that we get nothing but sequels and remakes all year long anymore. Stupid little somethings…