# Son of Flubber
**Son of Flubber** is a 1963 American live-action comedy from Walt Disney Productions and the sequel to *The Absent-Minded Professor* (1961). Directed by Robert Stevenson, it stars [Fred MacMurray](https://www.edgepedia.org/fred-macmurray) as Professor Ned Brainard of Medfield College, who experiments with by-products of his anti-gravity substance "flubber," including the weather-controlling "dry rain" and the lighter-than-air Flubbergas.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23343-SON-OF-FLUBBER) • [2](https://d23.com/d23s-from-the-archives-fred-macmurray-flies-again-in-walt-disneys-son-of-flubber/) It was the first sequel [Walt Disney](https://www.edgepedia.org/walt-disney) produced for one of his theatrical features.[2](https://d23.com/d23s-from-the-archives-fred-macmurray-flies-again-in-walt-disneys-son-of-flubber/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | January 16, 1963 per Disney's own site[3](https://movies.disney.com/son-of-flubber); January 18, 1963 per D23 and the AFI Catalog, which records the Los Angeles opening at Grauman's Chinese Theatre[4](https://d23.com/this-day/son-of-flubber-is-released/) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23343-SON-OF-FLUBBER) |
| Director / producer | Robert Stevenson; produced by Walt Disney[5](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/son_of_flubber) |
| Writers | Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, from a story by Samuel W. Taylor, loosely based on *Danny Dunn and the Weather Machine* (1959) by Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams[5](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/son_of_flubber) |
| Cast | Fred MacMurray (Ned Brainard), Nancy Olson (Betsy), Keenan Wynn (Alonzo Hawk), Tommy Kirk (Biff Hawk), Elliott Reid, Ed Wynn[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23343-SON-OF-FLUBBER) |
| Format | Black and white, about 100 minutes; rated G[5](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/son_of_flubber) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/son_of_flubber) |
| Reception | IMDb 6.1/10 from about 3,400 users; Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 88% from 8 reviews[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057518) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/son_of_flubber) |
| Box office | Reported revenue of $22.1 million[8](https://cinegraph.org/movies/son-of-flubber-1963) |
## Spoilers
### Story
Professor Ned Brainard travels to Washington, D.C. to sell his anti-gravity invention, flying rubber, or "flubber," to the Defense Department, hoping to pay off Medfield College's mortgage to the loan shark and land developer Alonzo Hawk. Congress refuses the expenditure, and Brainard returns unable to sell flubber privately for national security reasons.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23343-SON-OF-FLUBBER)
Back at Medfield he works on two new inventions. The first is a weather gun that produces "dry rain," a machine meant to promote rainfall. The second grows from a discovery by his student Biff Hawk, Alonzo's son, who finds a byproduct of flubber called Flubbergas, a lighter-than-air substance that makes anything fly.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23343-SON-OF-FLUBBER) • [2](https://d23.com/d23s-from-the-archives-fred-macmurray-flies-again-in-walt-disneys-son-of-flubber/) The weather gun's rainfall proves uncontrollable, falling inside houses and cars, and its side effect shatters all the glass in town, for which Hawk's insurance company must pay the claims.[5](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/son_of_flubber) Domestic strife compounds the trouble: Brainard's wife Betsy, jealous of attentions from his former sweetheart Desiree de la Roche, leaves him.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23343-SON-OF-FLUBBER)
**The football suit and the trial.** Biff uses Flubbergas to inflate football uniforms, and the flying players help Medfield's inept team win a game.[2](https://d23.com/d23s-from-the-archives-fred-macmurray-flies-again-in-walt-disneys-son-of-flubber/) • [9](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/son-of-flubber) Brainard nonetheless faces trial over the broken glass, until county agricultural agent A. J. Allen testifies that the dry rain produced bumper crops, exhibiting mammoth vegetables and an enormous chicken egg. The judge dismisses the case, and Brainard, now a hero, is reunited with Betsy.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23343-SON-OF-FLUBBER)
## Production
Daily Variety noted the tentatively titled sequel on March 9, 1962, with principal photography set for May. Pre-production centered on a football field built on a [Walt Disney Studios](https://www.edgepedia.org/walt-disney-studios-burbank) soundstage in Burbank, where the crew tested a wire-suspension system that let staged players fly over the field; these shots were intercut with footage of a 1961 high-school football game. [Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) began May 7, 1962.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23343-SON-OF-FLUBBER) D23's account adds that exterior shooting was prohibitive because of the special effects, so a section of stadium and much of the field were reproduced on one of Disney's largest sound stages, exact down to the transplanted sod and cheerleaders; the opposing team was composed of professional football players, who were surprised to be asked to play indoors.[10](https://d23.com/a-to-z/son-of-flubber-film/)
Fred MacMurray was paid a flat salary, as the Walt Disney Company did not offer profit sharing.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23343-SON-OF-FLUBBER) Walt Disney's grandson, Walter Elias Disney Miller, makes a short appearance as a baby in a television commercial.[10](https://d23.com/a-to-z/son-of-flubber-film/)
## Significance as a sequel
Walt Disney had long resisted sequels, saying he preferred to do something new and different, a position he formed when exhibitors pressed him to follow up the 1933 animated short *Three Little Pigs*. Under his watch the studio produced only three feature film sequels, and *Son of Flubber*, the 63rd Disney film released, was the first, following *The Absent-Minded Professor* by two years.[11](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/19239/1/Mason%20JR%20Media%20%26%20Communication%20PhD%202017.pdf) D23's history records that the original film's 1961 success, which made "flubber" a household word, made the opportunity to revisit Brainard too good to pass up, and that the nonsensical title winked at the endless "Son of..." sequels of the era, from *The Son of Kong* to *Son of Lassie*.[2](https://d23.com/d23s-from-the-archives-fred-macmurray-flies-again-in-walt-disneys-son-of-flubber/)
Most of the original's cast returned: [Nancy Olson](https://www.edgepedia.org/nancy-olson), Keenan Wynn, Tommy Kirk, Leon Ames, Elliott Reid, Alan Carney, Gordon Jones, Forrest Lewis, and James Westerfield reprised their roles, while [Ed Wynn](https://www.edgepedia.org/ed-wynn) appeared in a new role as a nervous agricultural agent.[12](https://dove.org/review/282-son-of-flubber/) The invented setting, Medfield College, reappeared in later Disney fantasy-comedies such as *[The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-computer-wore-tennis-shoes)* (1969) and *The Strongest Man in the World* (1975).[5](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/son_of_flubber)
## Reception and afterlife
The film opened at [Grauman's Chinese Theatre](https://www.edgepedia.org/graumans-chinese-theatre) in Los Angeles on January 18, 1963, and after expanding to twenty-five additional area theaters in February, Daily Variety reported approximate first-week earnings of $300,000. Reviews were generally positive; the Los Angeles Times noted similarities to "the antic frenzy of the early slapstick silents and the marital mixups of the middle talkies."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23343-SON-OF-FLUBBER) Daily Variety deemed it another box-office success and predicted it would surpass *The Absent-Minded Professor* in domestic earnings.[13](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/22966) Modern aggregate scores show a split between critics and audiences: an 88% Tomatometer against a 48% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/son_of_flubber)
The film was released on video in 1984[10](https://d23.com/a-to-z/son-of-flubber-film/) and colorized for its 1997 video release.[5](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/son_of_flubber) The British Board of Film Classification passed the 1963 cinema version at 103 minutes and a 1998 home-entertainment version at 98 minutes, both with the note "contains no material likely to offend or harm."[14](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/son-of-flubber-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yodi5oty) As of recent listings it is available digitally to rent or buy on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango At Home, with no free streaming options.[15](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/son-of-flubber)
## References
1. [Son of Flubber, AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23343-SON-OF-FLUBBER)
2. [Fred MacMurray Flies Again in Walt Disney's Son of Flubber, D23](https://d23.com/d23s-from-the-archives-fred-macmurray-flies-again-in-walt-disneys-son-of-flubber/)
3. [Son of Flubber, Disney Movies](https://movies.disney.com/son-of-flubber)
4. [Son of Flubber is Released, D23](https://d23.com/this-day/son-of-flubber-is-released/)
5. [Son of Flubber, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/son_of_flubber)
6. [Son of Flubber, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/son_of_flubber)
7. [Son of Flubber, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057518)
8. [Son of Flubber, Cinegraph](https://cinegraph.org/movies/son-of-flubber-1963)
9. [Son of Flubber Parents' Guide, Common Sense Media](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/son-of-flubber)
10. [Son of Flubber (film), D23](https://d23.com/a-to-z/son-of-flubber-film/)
11. [Mason, J.R., Media & Communication PhD thesis (2017), White Rose eTheses](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/19239/1/Mason%20JR%20Media%20%26%20Communication%20PhD%202017.pdf)
12. [Son of Flubber review, Dove.org](https://dove.org/review/282-son-of-flubber/)
13. [The Absent-Minded Professor, AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/22966)
14. [Son of Flubber, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/son-of-flubber-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yodi5oty)
15. [Son of Flubber streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/son-of-flubber)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Animated and family franchise film entries › Science fiction and action entries*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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