A new Disney classic? The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes on Disney Plus

From the safe: As the streaming area continues to grow, more and more extensive studio catalogs are becoming available. This includes lost and forgotten gems, bad-good-good duds and just plain weird pieces of film history. And you probably won’t find them waiting for streamers to put them in front of you. In from the safe Android authority aims to save these titles from the algorithm graveyard and help you get more out of your streaming subscriptions.

When Disney Plus launched in 2019, new Star Wars content like The Mandalorian and Disney classics like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast were the most sought-after items. But browsing the Throwbacks and Nostalgic Movies sections of the Disney streamer is a great way to find buried gold. Gold like the computer wore tennis shoes.

This 1969 film offers a wild, retro look at teenage life at the dawn of the computer age. And it’s an absolute pleasure to watch.

It’s hard not to be immediately bewitched by the opening title animation, a stop-motion kaleidoscope of fake computer graphics set to music to a very contemporary pop song that was written for the film.

The film spawned two sequels – Now You See Him, Now You Don’t, and The Strongest Man in the World – and took place at fictional Medfield College. Medfield had already appeared as the set for the Disney film The Absentminded Professor and its sequel Son of Flubber in the early 1960s.

Director Robert Butler had Batman, The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Hogan’s Heroes, I Spy and Mission: Impossible under his belt. He brings that sense of whimsy, adventure, and energy typical of these shows to The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes for a family film worth revisiting.

In The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Dexter Reilly (Kurt Russell) is a sub-par student at Medfield College. Despite the fear of failing, Dexter and friends have a real affinity for school. And especially her favorite teacher, Professor Quigley.

Knowing that Quigley wants the school to buy a computer, Dexter and friends want to help. They wanted to convince a wealthy local businessman (played by the always fabulous Cesar Romero) to raise the money. But while Dexter is saving a part for the new technology, Dexter accidentally latches onto the computer. He soaks up his wealth of data and programming to become a walking, talking computer.

Dexter is now a young genius and gets caught up in a game plan with criminals. (The generous businessman’s fortune may not have come about through legal means.) Dexter and friends must come out of trouble and restore order to Medfield before the crooks can stop them.

Risks and opportunities of technology

We can’t really talk about The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes without addressing the very outdated elephant in the room. The entire storyline revolves around a school buying a single computer for $ 10,000.

A single room-sized computer.

Even disregarding the fact that the price would be closer to $ 75,000 today, adjusted for inflation, it’s hard not to enjoy such a premise because of its quirkiness.

And the film deals thematically well with technology. Professor Quigley wants to prepare the school’s children for the future. He firmly believes that the school has a responsibility to spend the money.

And when Dexter first uses his new gifts, he has to learn that raw knowledge is not everything. What matters are the people in his life, and he cannot simply give them up for superficial success “online”.

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes actually has a lot to say about our 21st century problems.

At a time when school funding and the role of technology in our lives are in great demand, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes actually feels like it is appealing to a 21st century audience on our own terms. At least a bit.

Kurt Russel has had star power since day one

One of the great joys of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes is watching their star. A fresh Kurt Russel shines long before it became a household name.

Russell has been an actor for decades and was a recurring face in the wondrous world of Disney in the ’60s and’ 70s. But for fans of his bolder action hero personality of the later years, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes can be a fun change of pace.

Russell carries the movie well as the young Dexter. He skillfully balances the rule breakers of the boys who will be boys, the naive do-gooders, and the overconscious wonder elements of the character.

He would have been around 17 when filming took place, and he was already showing the broad artistic breadth that his later roles in such films as Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from New York, The Thing, Breakdown, Grindhouse: Death Proof, and. The Fast & Furious franchise is a joy to see.

A new Disney classic?

Is The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes a forgotten and underrated Disney classic?

It certainly had its fans in 1969, with positive reviews in the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

A 1969 review in Variety praised Butler’s graduation from small screen to motion picture directing and called the film “above average family entertainment.”

The New York Times had less positive words for this, calling The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes “as exciting as porridge and as antiseptic and predictable as any homely, half-hour family TV show”. Ouch!

Aside from mixed reviews, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes has aged well and offers plenty for a family movie night. Its tight pace, the simple but clever premise and the sharp overall picture make it a solid find out of the safe.

It may not dethrone the Lion King or the Ice Queen in the hearts and minds of the nation’s children, but it is definitely worth watching. Especially with your Disney Plus subscription.