Kurt Russell stars in the first of Walt Disney Productions' Dexter Riley trilogy.
Ordinary Medfield College student Dexter Riley (Russell) acquires extraordinary knowledge after an electric shock from the science lab computer. Now able to learn facts and figures at lightning speeds, he finds himself mingling with the world's top intellectuals and winning TV game shows. However, he also finds himself dealing with bent bookie A J Arno; details of his illegal gambling ring having also been stored on the machine.
From the groovy opening titles, with its colourful graphics and song lyrics describing the "uptight, but outta sight" Dexter as "turnin’ on every chick in town at a cosmothropic pace", it is painfully obvious we are in the late 1960s. 1969 to be exact. However, as this is 1969 as depicted by the Walt Disney Studios there is no mention of the Vietnam War, no student protests, no Woodstock and certainly no drug taking. The Medfield bunch are clean-cut college kids, the like you only find in the movies. The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes is pure fantasy, but none the worse for that. After all, where would we be without escapism.
A decade after their first foray into live action fantasy comedy with The Shaggy Dog (Charles Barton, 1959) one might expect the formula to be wearing a little thin. But actually The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes finds it in pretty robust form. As the 1970s drew to a close the Disney brand of slapstick had become somewhat tired, but this and the same year's mega-hit The Love Bug (Robert Stevenson, 1969) proved that audiences still had an appetite for such wholesome high jinks. It's all innocent, inoffensive fun, with the attractive youths, inept crooks and car chases that fans of 60s/70s era Disney comedies had come to expect. Granted, to modern audiences this will seem hopelessly dated and even a little quaint, but vintage tech fans should get a kick out of the computer; a behemoth of a machine that takes up an entire wall!
Much of the movies appeal comes from the game playing of its appealing cast. 18 year old Kurt Russell was always one of Disney's most likeable leading men and here proves himself adept at light comedy. He is supported by an accomplished cast, notably Joe Flynn as the long-suffering Dean Higgins and TV Batman's The Joker Cesar Romero as shady businessman A J Arno. Disney regular Richard Bakalyan played one of his many small-time hood characters; a role in which he seemed eternally typecast.
The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes was a significant hit for Disney and spawned a valuable franchise. Two sequels followed Now You See Him, Now You Don't (Robert Butler, 1972) and The Strongest Man in the World (Vincent McEveety, 1975), while a remake would appear on US TV in 1995. Factor in that the earlier The Absent-Minded Professor (Robert Stevenson, 1961) and sequel Son of Flubber (Robert Stevenson, 1963) were also set at Medfield College and those movies' villain Alonzo Hawk would appear in Herbie Rides Again (Robert Stevenson, 1974), it would appear that Disney were establishing cinematic universes long before Marvel!
Nobody would argue that The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes is a masterpiece. Yet, at the same time it would be churlish to be over critical of it. It is lightweight fun that sets out to entertain and in this it succeeds. Perhaps best enjoyed for nostalgia value today; a whimsical period piece but with enough easygoing charm to coast through its 90 odd minutes.
A decade after their first foray into live action fantasy comedy with The Shaggy Dog (Charles Barton, 1959) one might expect the formula to be wearing a little thin. But actually The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes finds it in pretty robust form. As the 1970s drew to a close the Disney brand of slapstick had become somewhat tired, but this and the same year's mega-hit The Love Bug (Robert Stevenson, 1969) proved that audiences still had an appetite for such wholesome high jinks. It's all innocent, inoffensive fun, with the attractive youths, inept crooks and car chases that fans of 60s/70s era Disney comedies had come to expect. Granted, to modern audiences this will seem hopelessly dated and even a little quaint, but vintage tech fans should get a kick out of the computer; a behemoth of a machine that takes up an entire wall!
Much of the movies appeal comes from the game playing of its appealing cast. 18 year old Kurt Russell was always one of Disney's most likeable leading men and here proves himself adept at light comedy. He is supported by an accomplished cast, notably Joe Flynn as the long-suffering Dean Higgins and TV Batman's The Joker Cesar Romero as shady businessman A J Arno. Disney regular Richard Bakalyan played one of his many small-time hood characters; a role in which he seemed eternally typecast.
The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes was a significant hit for Disney and spawned a valuable franchise. Two sequels followed Now You See Him, Now You Don't (Robert Butler, 1972) and The Strongest Man in the World (Vincent McEveety, 1975), while a remake would appear on US TV in 1995. Factor in that the earlier The Absent-Minded Professor (Robert Stevenson, 1961) and sequel Son of Flubber (Robert Stevenson, 1963) were also set at Medfield College and those movies' villain Alonzo Hawk would appear in Herbie Rides Again (Robert Stevenson, 1974), it would appear that Disney were establishing cinematic universes long before Marvel!
Nobody would argue that The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes is a masterpiece. Yet, at the same time it would be churlish to be over critical of it. It is lightweight fun that sets out to entertain and in this it succeeds. Perhaps best enjoyed for nostalgia value today; a whimsical period piece but with enough easygoing charm to coast through its 90 odd minutes.
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