The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes

1969 "Programmed for laughs!"
6| 1h31m| G| en| More Info
Released: 30 December 1969 Released
Producted By: Walt Disney Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Some college students manage to persuade the town's big businessman, A. J. Arno, to donate a computer to their college. When the problem- student, Dexter Riley, tries to fix the computer, he gets an electric shock and his brain turns to a computer; now he remembers everything he reads. Unfortunately, he also remembers information which was in the computer's memory, like Arno's illegal businesses..

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Reviews

Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.
Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
Andrew Towne 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."
HobbitHole 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.
Morticon This is just another one of those naive half-baked 60s movies that's not even good enough to show its face in a movie theater. The plot seemed really interesting, you know, a kid getting a computer into his head, if only the movie were as good! Uggh, it's just horrible. Life's time on earth is too precious to waste, and watching this movie would be an excellent way to waste it. It's like repeating the same scenes over and over and over and over again with different lines. I actually fell asleep during it. This was actually on Netflix, and the extremely corny movies are NEVER listed on there. I really can't believe they listed this. Please don't see it, take my word for it.
agentr63 I remember seeing this as a kid in the theatre, and saw it again for the first time in many years on cable recently. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it after all this time. Russell's performance is quite believable, despite the fantastic story line. Really good entertainment, and blows away much of the modern Disney entertainment provided these days, which is pretty nauseating.