Flubberiffic!: Attack of the Green Goo

Robin Williams can dominate scenes and hold close-ups like no other actor in history: through intelligent comedic insanity. He commands complete attention during his manic riffs--whether he's mocking Jack Nicholson, performing his Mother Teresa impression, or simply improvising as only Robin Williams can.

There was his overwhelming performance in Aladdin that simply blew every other character off the screen. Such scene-stealing was no less extraordinary in Mrs. Doubtfire and the under-rated Toys. Williams' comedic range has no inherent limits. Over the years, he's shown the remarkable ability to simply transcend his past efforts.

Then how on earth can the master of comedy be upstaged by slimy green goo? Yes, yes, it sounds ridiculous, but that's exactly the case in Disney's Flubber, an update of The Absent-Minded Professor (1961). It is Williams this time who stands agape as the Jello-like "flubber" flies, morphs, and dances its way all over the screen. The underwritten characters cannot survive the assault of the translucent slime. Indeed, special effects save the movie--the glorious jello is the only thing in Flubber that makes any type of impression.

Williams plays Professor Phillip Brainard, a brilliant but easily distracted college professor. In fact, Brainard is so forgetful that he seems almost impaired: he has twice left his fiancee (Marcia Gay Harden) stranded at the altar because he neglected the wedding. The scenario is a difficult one to swallow, but Flubber tries its hardest to create an alternative reality. Brainard doesn't mean any harm in his absent-mindedness--he's simply too darn busy working on his green blob.

On the day of the third wedding, Phillip discovers "flubber" (flying rubber) and leaves his fiance at the altar once again. The film has the formula villain in Wilson Croft (Christopher McDonald) who not only wants to steal Brainard's goo, but also to capture the heart of his fiance. The predictable storyline is set up--Phillip must get back his girl, keep his hands on the gooey slime, and take on the villainous Croft.

It's all very unimportant, but the goo soon takes over--with a vengeance. The magical morphing jello (created by the wizardry of Industrial Light & Magic) is not given any inherent limits. That's the fun of Flubber --the green blob can do anything. Watch it bounce from wall to wall in a hyperkenetic frenzy. Watch it divide into thousands of little splotches and dash around the room. Watch it make cars fly, watch it help people leap the length of basketball courts, watch it unmercifully assault the villains, watch it morph into all kinds of shapes--and best of all, watch it dance.

Oh yes, the green glob dances. In one of the more fantastic scenes in recent Disney films, the filmmakers decide to let loose. The story screeches to a halt, the characters are silenced, and flubber performs the mambo. Pulsating to Danny Elfman's spectacular score, the dozens of energetic lumps of goo twist and turn around the room. They organize themselves in pairs, in kick lines, in symmetric circles. It's hilarious and wondrous to behold. The dazzling scene is a classic one--it almost makes the whole movie worthwhile.

The green slime is imbued with so much creative energy that one wonders why the characters are so universally dull. One possible explanation may place blame on Disney, which continues to recycle its old hits as guaranteed blockbusters. (Next year, expect retreads of My Favorite Martian and The Parent Trap.) Moreover, Disney's live-action films all seem to be reduced to slapstick violence between a paper-cut villain and a cheesy hero. And yet, even in last year's dreadful remake of 101 Dalmations, Glenn Close found room to make Cruella De Vil somewhat entertaining.

So the question remains unanswered--why does Williams give such an understated and subdued performance in Flubber? Williams has said in interviews that he wants to make movies he can watch with his kids--but there's no need for him to sink to the level of this harrowing script. There is no improvisation, no delicious pop culture references, no Williams silliness. Instead, he stays true to an underwritten character that needs a serious injection of humor. As a result of his repressed portrayal, the rest of the performances lag.

Some scenes are appallingly bad. When Williams' robotic housekeeper Weebo is crushed by one of the villains, the ensuing pathos is ridiculously laughable. The lamenting over a machine that looks like a compressed CD player is corny and manipulative. Similarly, the confrontations between Williams and the villains are only tolerable because of the presence of whizzing green blobs.

To make up for the thinly drawn characters and lagging plot, director Les Mayfield keeps the flubber and the film moving at a thunderous pace. It almost seems like a filmed amusement park ride at times, a roller coaster of frenetic special effects that must hurdle the obstacles of a lifeless plot. Yet the pace is brisk enough to make up for any of the slow stretches--there's always the glimpse of another gooey dance scene in the near future.

But analyzing Flubber in itself is a futile venture. This is Disney product at its manipulative best. Characters and plausible storylines are stampeded in the onslaught of special effects.

It's all part of an engineered package: expect little containers of green slime and robotic Weebo's under every Christmas tree this year. "The movie's forgettable," even Disney seems to admit, "so why not buy a toy to help you remember it?"

To make up for the thinly drawn characters and lagging plot, director Les Mayfield keeps the flubber and the film moving at a thunderous pace. It almost seems like a filmed amusement park ride at times, a roller coaster of frenetic special effects that must hurdle the obstacles of a lifeless plot. Yet the pace is brisk enough to make up for any of the slow stretches--there's always the glimpse of another gooey dance scene in the near future.

But analyzing Flubber in itself is a futile venture. This is Disney product at its manipulative best. Characters and plausible storylines are stampeded in the onslaught of special effects.

It's all part of an engineered package: expect little containers of green slime and robotic Weebo's under every Christmas tree this year. "The movie's forgettable," even Disney seems to admit, "so why not buy a toy to help you remember it?"