The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)

Director:

Robert Butler

Writer:

Joseph L. McEveety (written by)

Release Date:

31 December 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Comedy

Tagline:

Programmed for laughs!

Plot:

Some college students manage to persuade the town's big businessman, A. J. Arno, to donate a computer to their college...

Plot Keywords:

Computer | Computer Memory | Illegal Business | Electric Shock | Friendship

Cast

Kurt Russell	...	Dexter Reilly
Cesar Romero	...	A. J. Arno
Joe Flynn	...	Dean Higgins
William Schallert	...	Professor Quigley
Alan Hewitt	...	Dean Collingsgood
Richard Bakalyan	...	Chillie Walsh
Debbie Paine	...	Annie
Frank Webb	...	Pete
Michael McGreevey	...	Schuyler
Jon Provost	...	Bradley
Frank Welker	...	Henry
Alexander Clarke	...	Myles
Bing Russell	...	Angelo
Pat Harrington Jr.	...	Moderator (as Pat Harrington)
Fabian Dean	...	Little Mac

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Canada:G | Chile:TE | Finland:S | UK:U | USA:G | West Germany:6

Filming Locations:

Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

The "campus" shown outside the window of the Dean's office is actually a photograph of buildings in the Walt Disney Studios. This very same backdrop was used during the run of the "Disneyland" television show for scenes shot on the set that served as Walt Disney's "office" when he hosted segments of the program. One oddity is that the building seen in the backdrop was actually the one that housed the real location of Walt's office.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Pete and Annie are reviewing the "Applejack" sequence on their reel to reel tape recorder, the reels change speed between the close-ups and medium shots.

Quotes:

Bradley: [siren] I'll get it.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Age of Believing: The Disney Live Action Classics (2008) (TV)

Great fun in an era when Disney actually made family films that families could view

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.