The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)

You won't be disappointed!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Having had great success with their campus kook comedies "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" and "The Monkey's Uncle" in the mid-1960s, Disney couldn't pass up the opportunity to continue their formula, now with Kurt Russell's Dexter Riley replacing Tommy Kirk's Merlin Jones. Small town college, eager to keep up with the times, accepts the donation of a (very large) computer from the local big shot--who then forfeits his usual $20,000 annual gift to the school, telegraphing us that he's a rat. Goof-off student Dexter is electrocuted after touching the computer wires with his sneakers in a puddle, thus giving him a computerized brain. Since Dexter isn't really a medical marvel--just the victim of an unusual circumstance--his winning at gambling and against other universities in a College of Knowledge face-off doesn't seem fair. Mathematicians test Dexter's brain and are amazed, while the dean of the school smiles like a shark on the sidelines--everyone is either corrupt or being duped. Family film is poorly made and in gloppy color, but kids in 1969 didn't notice or care. Russell returned as Dexter in 1972's "Now You See Him, Now You Don't" and in 1975's "The Strongest Man in the World". *1/2 from ****

College student Dexter Riley (Kurt Russell) is electrocuted while trying to fix a computer donated to his college by gangster A.J. Arno (Cesar Romero). Something happens in the accident that causes Dexter's brain to download all of the data from the computer. He becomes famous as the smartest person in the world and tries to use his newfound super intelligence to help his financially struggling college defeat their rivals in a quiz tournament. When the villainous Arno realizes Dexter has records of his criminal activities locked in his brain, he sends some thugs to make sure Dexter doesn't have a chance to tell anything he knows.The first in Disney's enjoyable Dexter Riley trilogy starring Kurt Russell with a fine cast including Cesar Romero, William Schallert, and Joe Flynn. These were all family-friendly movies that were lots of fun. Yeah they're pretty corny and silly but in a good way. An example of how silly it is would be when they examine Dexter's eyes and see circuit boards. Then they perform an X-ray of his head and see images of what he's thinking about. The first movie in the trilogy is probably the best but all are good fun. Love that groovy theme song. Possibly the first (only?) Disney movie to feature a reference to Playboy magazine

Add this to the list of great non-animated Disney movies and TV shows of the fifties and sixties (some others are "Darbie O'Gill and the Little People," "Follow Me, Boys," "Spin and Marty," and "The Hardy Boys.") This is wholesome, fun, family entertainment. But it's also witty, well-written and not overly sentimental. A nice slice of Americana at its best.Kurt Russell, so appealing as a child actor in "Follow Me, Boys," returns to the screen as a nineteen-year-old (approximately) college student. His acting range is excellent, and he is accompanied by an able crew of supporting actors. Joe Flynn (who many will remember as the perpetually flustered captain in "McHale's Navy") is perfect as the dean of a private college that ranks low academically and in terms of financial resources in comparison to other colleges in the state -- especially the state university. Flynn -- in a sign of his college's limited resources -- drives what appears to be a Volkswagen Karman Ghia convertible. The driver's-side interior door latch is broken, so he simply uses a rope to keep it closed.He complains that the state university is rolling in taxpayer money that his private college can't lay its hands on, and rants and raves in a meeting of the college board of directors about the unfairness of that and about how the president of the state university is "greedy." The students overhear all of this through a bug they've planted in the dean's office. The dean, having declared that the school can't afford a computer that one of the professors wants, goes on to mention the names of some of the students he thinks should be put on academic probation.Hearing all of this, the students decide to try to get the computer themselves. What follows is a comedy of mishaps, misunderstandings and odd coincidences that is very entertaining. The overall theme -- that friendship is more important than money, fame and prestige -- is well supported by the plotting and character development in the movie.This movie, in my opinion, is worth watching more than once. Part of its charm is that the conception of what a computer was and could do was so different in 1969 than it is today.All in all, I highly recommend "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes."

People who are putting down this film as not good enough to 'show it's face in the theater' are showing their extreme ignorance.These movies were made for family audiences and rebroadcast on Walt Disney's television program which highlighted family oriented movies with cast members that even signed morals clauses that they wouldn't act up (see Lindsey Lohan, etc. in these days) and trash the Disney image as being a family movie business.Early on Disney had just made shorts and TV shows. In the late fifties they started making full-length films like 'The Shaggy Dog' with Fred MacMurray. It was so successful, it started something. Fred MacMurray was asked to do more films.The Absent-Minded Professor (remade later with Robin Williams in the lead role in 'Flubber') was one of the successful movies made by Disney that was then edited for their TV audience. It not only spawned a sequel, "Son of Flubber", but many more family films and comedies that were designed to help people forget their problems, while at the same time the commercials advertised Disneyland.Disney was ahead of his time in providing programming in what were essentially well-made advertisements for families to enjoy and be reminded about visiting Disneyland, his 'family fun park'. This light-hearted, fun comedy featured Kurt Russell in the early days of computers (pre-internet)getting the computer's full knowledge into his head.In the remake (with Kirk Cameron) they updated it to the Internet infiltrating the student's mind and a 'super-hacker' from the opposing school (who's dean ironically is past Disney star Dean Jones) who seeks to hack Cameron's brain and stop his 'brilliance'.The first of the three films that revolve around Dexter Riley (Russell), the dean (Joe E. Flynn), and friends is also the best done, though the others are enjoyable too. ('Now You See Him, Now You Don't' and 'Strongest Man In the World' are part of this three movie series)It also teaches the value of humility. Riley did nothing to gain his knowledge, yet he became proud of how smart he was. He had to learn humility and how to treat his friends if he wanted to keep them. Good lessons to learn.The Disney television films were made for families and are much better than the stuff made today for 'families' including politically correct films, sexually explicit, nasty language and all the other things that supposedly makes them more 'modern'. Disney TV temporarily stopped around 1975. They have made some films since then that were still family oriented, though people that followed Walt and then Roy Disney didn't have the same ideas about films and the value of good stories. Enter the Michael Eisner era...remaking classics and making part 2 stories of classics that have no basis in classic books and WERE released direct to video or DVD. Even marginal animated hits got sequels made. Actual hits like Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, got several (part 2 of Aladdin was a real turkey).Several of the older Disney films were remade for a 'revived' TV program. The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes was one of the better attempts. I would say only a handful were watchable in their 'updated' form. They made kids have to act like adults while the adults act like kids (this might be a clever plot line in 'Freaky Friday', but when it enters into other stories, it's hard to make out who is supposed to be adult and who are kids.No wonder kids today are forced to face problems beyond their years. They can't even escape it in the so-called 'escape films' on TV or in the movies these days (with rare exceptions).It takes exceptions like Pirates of the Caribbean or The Chronicles of Narnia to remind Disney that people still like well-made escape films that are wholesome and uplifting for the whole family.