Based on the short story “A Situation of Gravity” by Samuel W. Taylor and in part on Hubert Alyea, a professor emeritus of chemistry at Princeton University known as “Dr. Boom*” for, well, blowing things up, The Absent Minded Professor is the start of the Medfield College shared universe that has been obsessing me over our two weeks of Disney live action movies.

It was also the first Disney film to get a sequel, as well as the first to be colorized. There was also a spiritual sequel made in 1988 for the Disney Channel and a Robin Williams-led remake.

Professor Brainard (Fred MacMurray) teaches chemistry at the aforementioned Medfield College. He’s invented a substance called Flubber that gains energy whenever it hits a hard surface and can even fly. He gets so excited over inventing this crazy rubbery stuff that he misses his wedding to Besty Carlisle (Nancy Olson, Airport 1975) for the third time, which leads to another professor making a move on her.

Medfield is also in debt to the villainous Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn), who will one day also be the nemesis of Herbie the Love Bug. As for now, his son Biff (Tommy Kirk) has become ineligibile for basketball by failing Brainard’s class, but all his father cares about is getting Flubber for himself. For some reason, Flubber can make cars fly, transform Brainard into a better dancer and truly make white people jump (and play better basketball).

Was Flubber ever real? Well yeah. Kinda.

In the fall of 1962, Flubber was brought to toy shelves from Disney licensee Hassenfeld Bros., Inc. of Rhode Island. You may know them better today as Hasbro. They made Flubber out of butadiene, a synthetic rubber, and mineral oil. Think Silly Putty.

It turns out that the product was leading to rashes and contact dermatitis, which Hasbro claimed couldn’t be the fault of their toy, which had been tested — on convicts, no less. Even though they were cleared of any wrongdoing, the same rash kept showing up across the country until the brand pulled the product in May of 1963.

But the story doesn’t end there.

Hasbro tried to incinerate the leftover product, but it left a black cloud floating around the city of Providence. They also tried to sink it with the help of the Coast Guard — did G.I. Joe team member Cutter pitch in? — but it kept floating back to the top of Narragansett Bay. Finally, they used it as landfill in the parking lot of their new headquarters, but Hasbro employees claim that every summer, you can see Flubber come pouring out of the cracks in the pavement.

*Russian observers of his demonstrations at the International Science Pavilion of the Brussels World’s Fair gave him this name. Walt Disney was in attendance and because Alyea had given him the idea for the movie, he invited the teacher to meet with MacMurray. The actor said that he’d never understood chemistry until he met the professor.

This horror anthology follows Lilith as she the demon herself as she punishes men for their indiscretions against women. It’s directed by Alexander T. Hwang, who made Paranormal Attraction and Shelter In Place, it has plenty of horror favorites, including Felissa Rose as one of the many versions of Lilith, who is being pursued by a detective who wants to stop her. Through this story, we are introduced to other moments where Lilith has punished, as well as other tales that include another pretty well-known genre star, Vernon Wells, who plays a man at the end of his life trying to come to terms with what he has done to hurt women.

It’s a good idea that works at some points and doesn’t at other times. At least you have to give it to the filmmakers for putting together a story that attempts to bring together several stories. Over the last few years of streaming films, so many movies try to be anthologies and forget that the actual thread needs to be there.

You can learn more on the film’s official Facebook page.

I lost my teeth playing hockey and I’m still dealing with it thirty years later, with painful implants being removed and redone, and I never made it to any high level. So that made me think about the kids in this movie — which shows how little kids who love hockey go from playing a clean game to suddenly learning about checking when they are twelve — who must learn violence quickly. The issue is that learning violence changed my life. I would not be the man I am today without hockey — and MMA and pro wrestling and fighting — and so while I worry for the young kids in this movie, I also realize that a fundamental part of growing up as a man in our society is learning how to fight. I have been this coach — in wrestling — that worries about my kids while also forearming them in the face until they bleed, pushing them harder than they thought they would be pushed and being proud when I heard both how respectful and how absolutely violent my kids are.

So it’s strange to listen to director and writer Michael Messner deal with what it’s like to not only coach his son Grayson in youth hockey, but to realize that he is coaching young boys as they grow into men and suddenly add size and, yes, the ability to do long-lasting physical harm to one another.

This is a movie that some will be upset by. Some will be interested in this story. And others will say, “That’s how boys become men.”

Hockey may not be as important in the U.S., but in Canada, it’s the same as football. We’re sending little kids out to be gladiators. And then again, like I said, without discovering my body’s ability to withstand punishment, I wouldn’t have the confidence that I have today. Then again, I may like to be able to turn my neck and not wake up in pain.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sean Collier is a writer and movie critic. Listen to his podcast, The Number One Movie in America, on all major podcast apps. Follow him on Twitter for more reviews: @seancollierpgh

Let’s plan an absurdly specific double feature.

I want a double feature where both films were released in 1980, and take place in a remote, possibly haunted location. Both films must feature a child who receives psychic messages — and that child must write important information backward on or near a reflective surface. When an adult character sees the backwards writing, they must make a shocked face before a crash zoom revealing the true message.

So, yes: The first half of this double feature is The Shining.

The second half, surprisingly, is The Watcher in the Woods a teen-focused but truly unsettling haunting tale distributed by Disney. To be clear, I’m not suggesting any untoward influence between The Shining and The Watcher in the Woods. They’re contemporaries, almost certainly in production at the same time. (A few miles apart, in fact.) It’s a remarkable coincidence, though, and — what with The Shiningstanding as my favorite movie — one that primed me to enjoy the largely forgotten Disney thriller.

Lynn-Holly Johnson, a one-time Bond girl (For Your Eyes Only), stars as Jan, the teen daughter of a family that has moved into a sprawling, creaking British manse. She keeps seeing strange things in the forest that borders the property; meanwhile, her younger sister Ellie — Halloween tyke Kyle Richards — keeps unknowingly delivering psychic messages. (When the family questions why the massive house is so affordable, Ellie opines, “Maybe there’s a ghost,” instantly making her the smartest person in the movie.)

Turns out that the building’s caretaker, Mrs. Aylwood (Bette Davis, who is as fantastic as you’d expect), has a long-lost daughter who disappeared after a lightning strike at a nearby chapel. Jan starts seeing a blindfolded vision of the lost girl in mirrors and ponds; if you can guess where the mystery is headed, congratulations, you’ve heard a British ghost story before.

Fortunately, “The Watcher in the Woods” keeps things lively with a series of unexpected action sequences. I did not expect a kinetically shot dirtbike sequence in this film, but it’s there, complete with a near-fatal accident. Director John Hough had a background in horror (Twins of Evil, The Legend of Hell House) before taking Disney gigs like this and Escape to Witch Mountain, so he knew how to make a memorable set piece. The gem of the bunch is a terrifying house-of-mirrors setup that likely traumatized thousands of late-Boomer teens.

The Watcher in the Woods was pulled from release almost immediately, as critics and audiences rejected a truly wild conclusion. Thanks to a fan edit you can find on YouTube, you can watch a reasonably convincing cut of the original version — that’s the one I saw — and judge for yourself if it was too out there for early-’80s teens. After a more streamlined (and less stunning) ending was re-shot, the new version was released in 1981 to mild success; it last received a DVD release in 2004 and is not yet on the Disney+ lineup.

While it lacks some drive — the middle stretch can get a bit sleepy — it’s a good time, and an interesting companion piece for Shining fans. If you have a friend who likes a mild thrill but doesn’t have the stomach for gore, this is a good choice.

They’ll have nightmares about screaming, blindfolded mirror ghosts, but that’s kind of the point.

Based on Mary Norton’s The Magic Bedknob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons and Bonfires and Broomsticks, this film developed in the 1960s when it looked like Mary Poppins wouldn’t get made. Due to its similarities to that movie—Julie Andrews was considered for the lead in this, but she hesitated, and Angela Lansbury got the role—it was put on hold.

As the Sherman brothers’ contract with the Disney studios was about to end, they were brought back to work on this film, bringing back the song “The Beautiful Briny” meant for Mary Poppins.

Taking place during the Blitz or World War II, Bedknobs and Broomsticks is the story of the Rawlins orphans, who are evacuated from London to the countryside and the care of Miss Eglantine Price (Lansbury). They decide to run away, but watch their temporary foster parent fly on a broomstick and decide to stick around.

She tells the chldren that she’s learning witchcraft to protect the UK from the Nazis and is currently a student at the school of Professor Emelius Browne (David Tomlinson). When she discovers that the school is shutting down, she travels to find the professor and discover the final spell she needs to learn to become a witch.

It turns out that Browne is a showman more than a sorcerer and made up all of the spells, but they all still work when Price casts them. She must travel to Portobello Road to locate the rest of the book cut in half to get the final spell. It turns out that the rest of the spell is engraved on the Star of Astaroth, a sorcerer’s medallion given to a pack of wild animals that were given the power to speak. The group enters an animated world where Browne can spirit away the treasure.

Yet things will become dark when they return home and the children consider that the two magic users could be their parents. And darker still when the Nazis finally attack. Will the skills that Price has learned be enough to protect them all?

The film originally ran 141 minutes. That said, the Radio City Music Hall premiere had to work in the theater’s elaborate stage show, so 23 minutes were cut from the film. Those lost scenes include nearly all of Roddy McDowall’s character and three songs, “A Step in the Right Direction,” “With a Flair” and “Nobody’s Problems.” “Portobello Road” had seven minutes cut out before the movie as restored as part of its twenty-fifth anniversary, with Lansbury and McDowall redubbing their voices. Sadly, Tomlinson was too ill to record, so Jeff Bennett recorded his lines.

I totally enjoy that this is a more occult-based Mary Poppins. Crowley, who invented the V for Victory symbol, would be proud.

As he escapes from a time loop, Captain Apollo (Shahin Sean Solimon, who wrote, directed and produced this movie) has discovered that he’s in a pandemic-destroyed wasteland teaming with zombies. And oh yeah — Earth has new overlords. So what’s next?

We watched Shahin Sean Solimon’s Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage last year, a movie that was his attempt at making a Ray Harryhausen film. I think this is his attempt at making a movie that tries to be a stoner metal album cover come to life, which I certainly am all in on. However, the end product leaves a bit to be desired.

Somehow, Solimon got Patrick Stewart back for another movie, which has to mean that either Stewart is an incredibly nice man or there is some level of blackmail. This is less of a movie than a series of effects with incredibly difficult-to-decipher dialogue.

In the middle of watching this, I slipped into a loop of my own, as the feedback static of the voices washed over me and I drifted like an astronaut into a coma-like trance. I did all this with none of the usual hallucinogens that I pair with Sleep albums, so I have to give this movie some level of credits.

I’ve compared Zack Snyder movies to watching someone play a video game while you watch. I would then say that this is very similar, except they are playing something on one of those 100-in-1 Nintendo bootleg game carts.

That said — it takes drive and ambition to make a movie and Solimon has made at least two that I’ve seen now. They’re out there on Amazon Prime, so we should definitely admire his dedication.

Amos Tucker (Tim Conway) and Theodore Ogelvie (Don Knotts) have gone straight and try to start over when they get robbed and then blamed for a series of thefts that were actually committed by the very men who stole their money.

Trying to stay on the right side of the law leads them to the United States Cavalry at Fort Concho and as part of Jack Elam’s plan to rob a train. Luckily, they have army intelligence operative Jeff Reed (Tim Mattheson) to help them. All ends well and they end up right where the last movie finished, as they go to Russell Donovan’s farm to try and get some work.

Your enjoyment of this movie is directly in proportion to how much you enjoy the antics of Conway and Knotts.

How similar were Disney’s 70s films? They had to put a sticker on the posters for this movie ensuring audiences that it was a new movie.