"The Absent Minded Professor," is a truly classic Disney film. I'd highly recommend it too anyone that loves disney films or comedy. It's for kids and adults alike. Personally I think it looks great in color and very good in black and white too. The color version is interesting too see what colors things were. Fred McMurry is really funny and a great comedian in it. It's a really interesting film and full of laughs. With him inventing flubber it has a really neat scientific as well as science fiction theme.

When this film was made in 1961, a material almost identical to Flubber was being developed by NASA for the Gemini Space Program. To avoid a threat to our national security, the release of "The Absent-Minded Professor" was delayed for six months until Walt Disney agreed to delete two scenes showing Fred MacMurray discussing its applications and uses. The missing scenes have been restored in magnificent color, and the movie seems to have a better flow than the theatrical version.

This movie lacks the special effects of current movies, and it may be hard for today's youth to relate to it, but it's a lovely bit of nostalgia that has stood the test of time. I was born more than 20 years after this movie was made, but I take delight in Fred MacMurray, who always puts his heart into a performance, but does a particularly nice job here as Professor Ned Brainard. He portrays the role spledidly and brings enthusiasm and inoccence to the character.
You can also find stellar performances from the supporting cast. Disney has always had a nack for establishing minor characters so that you get sucked into their world, and all of these people become real.
When watching this movie you have to take into consideration the era it was made in, and the limits they had to work with, if you go into it looking for special effects you will be sorely dissapointed. Instead watch it with a certain degree of imagination at the ready, and have fun rooting for Professor Brainard as he tries to win back his lady-love and displaying his true American Patriotism, and still finding time to outsmart the villains. The rivalry between Ned and Shelby Ashton is highly entertaining, and you'll laugh out loud when watching Alonzo Hawk get his come-upance.
I never had the opportunity to see the black and white version, but I think it would be the better alternative. The colorization in this VHS version is rather obvious and somewhat distracting, but it doesn't detract from the content of the movie itself, and the film is still highly enjoyable.

If ever there were a film that took a silly idea and milked every possible gag out of it, this is it. Four stars as a film, but five stars for being a classic.

The "science-fiction comedy" is a movie genre with few entries. (I'm thinking of films in which an SF premise and its development is the film's focal point. "Back to the Future," for example, doesn't count.) I can think of only two significant others -- "It Happens Every Spring," in which Ray Milland synthesizes a chemical that repels wood (don't ask), and "The Man in the White Suit," the classic-but-not-really-very-good Alec Guinness vehicle in which his invention of an indestructible, never-needs-cleaning fabric threatens to ruin the clothing industry.

Disney continued the genre with "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" and "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes," but none of them is remotely as good as "The Absent Minded Professor." It's a classic of visual humor. Not only is there the famous flying Model T, but the professor's attempts to woo his ex-fiance by dancing in flubber-heeled shoes, and a flubber-enhanced basketball game that's an encylopaedia of "What can you do with flying basketball players?" gags. Style-wise, this classic sequence looks as if it were lifted directly from MAD.

Bill Walsh's smart script has some good satirical jabs ("I hear Medfield's athletes make as much as their teachers") and they hold up. One of the best anticipates Congress's destruction in "Mars Attacks!" And the professor's attempt to prove he's a loyal, patriotic American cuts even more sharply today than it did 40+ years ago.

One of the few good things about Disney comedies is that almost all the secondary roles are populated with talented character actors -- Keenan Wynn (who'd repeat his Alonzo Hawk villain in other Disney flicks), Ed Wynn (his father), Elliott Reid (at his greasy, pompous best). Special kudos go to Belle Montrose (Steve Allen's mother! -- note the resemblance) as the professor's housekeeper.

Nancy Olson -- an Oscar-winner for "Sunset Blvd." -- delivers a smart, heads-up performance that falls apart only when she stops being mad at Fred MacMurry and becomes a bit of a bubble-head.

Robert Stevenson (grandson of Robert Louis Stevenson) had a directorial career ("Jane Eyre") before he became a Disney house director, but I've never thought much of his talent ("Mary Poppins" is slack and sluggish). "The Absent Minded Professor" shows him at his best -- brisk and light, almost as weightless as flubber renders the Model T.

"The Absent Minded Professor" was shot in B&W, because the special effects were too difficult (and too expensive) to do well in color. Had Disney known what a major hit TAMP would be (it played first-run for months), he might have sprung for color. The previous attempt to colorize it was a disaster.

We finally have this little gem in its original form -- an exquisite B&W enhanced-widescreen transfer. (Amazon editor -- please have the negative reviews for the awful colorized version moved or removed. These are fundamentally different releases.) The rich blacks and sharp detail are outstanding -- far superior to even the old LV release. This is close-to-demo-quality B&W.

Credit where credit is due : IT IS WIDESCREEN !!!!!
Its worth mentioning that disney has honored this film by releasing it in its true format, it is both black and white and widescreen.
Absolute classic disney comedy!! Very nostalgic,the special effects were seamless especially for the time period. Robert Stevenson directed this film, which is worth noting as many of the films he directed for disney were the most outstanding, inc Mary Poppins and The Love Bug. Pure Disney nostalgia.