Most critics find Flubber pleasant, good-natured family entertainment, and most stop there. The praise clusters on the effects: the computer-generated flubber is singled out as lively and well integrated with the story, and even the harsher reviews credit the effects artists with the film’s best work. Robin Williams gets a steady, modest round of approval, and one review notes a more restrained performance than he usually gives.
The reservations are about everything around the green stuff. Several reviews find the story thin and the set-up familiar, and the comedy itself is judged to fall short more often than it lands. The spread is moderate rather than wide: five of the seven land in the middle, with Variety the only firm recommendation and Eye for Film the only outright dismissal, finding the film story-poor and tired despite its effects. Roger Ebert sits between them, finding little beyond Williams’s energy to enjoy.