The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes 1995 Disney Plus

On Nov. 12, Disney Studios officially enters the streaming game with Disney+.

Disney+ is priced at a competitive $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year. Comparatively, Netflix starts at $8.99 a month, Hulu starts at $5.99 a month, and Amazon Prime is $119 a year, but also includes free two-day shipping and free streaming music in addition to film and TV content.

Disney is selling the service on the fact that it will feature all of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (as well as several new TV series); all canon "Star Wars" films and series (sorry fans of the "Ewok" TV movies and "The Star Wars Holiday Special"); every Pixar film (feature length as well as shorts); all episodes of "The Simpsons"; National Geographic content (including a new Jeff Goldblum-hosted travel show); and Disney's back catalogue of classic animated and live-action films.

Disney has by no means included everything they've ever made, but a complete list of what will be available on Disney+ reveals that, in addition to well-known classics, there will also be unexpected deep-cut content.

So, let's take a look at some of the material on Disney+ that isn't drawing the big headlines.

Touchstone Pictures

Disney+ includes several titles from the company's Touchstone Pictures label, which was started in the mid-1980s as a way to release films that could be perceived as off-brand for Disney. The label allowed Disney to make films with an appeal to older kids, teens and adults.

Ron Howard's "Splash" starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah is one of the unexpected titles to be included on the Disney+ streaming service. (COURTESY OF DISNEY)

Touchstone Pictures came about after Disney's ventures into darker content in the early 1980s underperformed. Of this Disney era, "The Black Hole," "Black Caldron," "TRON" and "Return to Oz" are included on Disney+, but "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and "The Watchers in the Woods" are not.

Some of the Touchstone titles included are "10 Things I Hate About You," "Adventures in Babysitting," "Dick Tracy," "The Help," "Mr. Holland's Opus," both "Sister Act" films, "Spacecamp," "Splash," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Turner and Hooch" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."

"The Disney Sunday Movie"

Starting in 1954, Disney began a weekly anthology TV series that was used to showcase its films and parks. In later years, original TV films were also included as part of the series which went through various names, including "Walt Disney Presents" and "The Wonderful World of Disney."

In many respects, this series was the precursor to the Disney Channel Original Movie brand, which spawned "The Descendants," "High School Musical" and "Halloweentown" franchises and dozens of other titles (all of which are included on Disney+).

Sadly, those holding their breath for 1990s "Wonderful World of Disney" favorites like "My Date With the President's Daughter" or "Toothless" will be disappointed. Instead, there are three 45-minute films from "The Disney Sunday Movie" era of the series in 1986.

The kid-friendly TV movie "Casebusters" was directed by horror master Wes Craven. (COURTESY OF DISNEY)

The most curious of these titles is "Casebusters," which features a brother (Noah Hathaway, who played Atreyu in "The Neverending Story") and sister (Virginya Keehne) who are amateur sleuths who help their grandfather (Pat Hingle) run a security business. That's pretty typical Disney-fare, but the film was directed by horror maestro Wes Craven, who wanted to stretch his legs outside of the horror genre.

The other two titles — "Fuzzbucket" and "Mr. Boogedy" — don't have nearly as noteworthy a pedigree, although "Mr. Boogedy" was in heavy rotation on the Disney Channel around Halloween in the 1990s and may be the source of some nostalgia.

Jodie Foster and Kurt Russell: The early years

Jodie Foster did three films for Disney, starting with a supporting role in the James Garner feature "One Little Indian" in 1973 and followed by starring roles in "Freaky Friday" and "Candleshoes" in 1976 and 1977.

The body-swapping comedy "Freak Friday" with Barbara Harris is the most well-remembered of these films. Disney remade it three times. First, in 1995 as part of the "Wonderful World of Disney" with Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffmann, theatrically in 2003 with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, and in 2018 as a musical for the Disney Channel. All but the 1995 version are on Disney+.

Kurt Russell starred in 1969's "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes," the first of three movies featuring the character Dexter Riley. (COURTESY OF DISNEY)

Kurt Russell starred in a series of films at Disney centered around the character of Dexter Riley, a college student who had a knack for getting involved in outlandish adventures.

In "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" from 1969, Dexter absorbs all the data of a computer, in 1972's "Now You See Him, Now You Don't" he utilizes an invisibility formula, and in 1975's "The Strongest Man in the World," he uses a formula that gives him super strength.

Russell also appeared in two non-Dexter Riley films — "The Barefoot Executive" and "Superdad" — and voiced Cooper in "The Fox and the Hound." Years later, Russell would return to the Disney fold in 2005's "Sky High." Alas, for Russell completist, "Now You See Him, Now You Don't" isn't on Disney+.

Disney Afternoon

From 1990 to 1997, Disney Afternoon was a block of cartoons that ran after-school. Over the years, the line-up changed as new shows were added and older ones dropped. These shows, including "DuckTales," "Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers," "Darkwing Duck," "Tail Spin," "Gargoyles" and "Goof Troop," went onto have life after Disney Afternoon thanks to the Disney Channel and Toon Disney, and have become beloved favorites.

"Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series" was part of the Disney Afternoon after-school cartoon block in the 1990s. (COURTESY OF DISNEY)

It isn't surprising that these shows made it onto Disney+, but it is somewhat surprising that the oddest of these shows, "Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series," did. An animated spin-off of a popular film franchise is hardly strange, but the approach to the material is.

Instead of focusing on a rag-tag youth hockey team, the show is about alien ducks from a hockey-playing planet who come to Earth to play hockey and battle an evil alien overlord voiced by Tim Curry, naturally. The '90s were a strange time.

Old school Marvel cartoons

In addition to all the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, there are several animated series on Disney+, including adventures of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Avengers and, most notably, the X-Men in the popular '90s Fox series.

The most random inclusion is 1979's "Spider-Woman" and 1981's "Spider-Man," not to be confused with "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" which started the same year. I can't speak to the quality of these shows, but as a time-capsule, they are probably worth a look.

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes 1995 Disney Plus

Source: https://www.conwaydailysun.com/things_to_do/movies/the-unexpected-odds-and-ends-on-disney/article_1c6b0c4c-dfdc-11e9-8dcb-07887a0559a9.html

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