When I was growing up I used to love going to the theater to see the live action Disney films.  Back then I even preferred them to Disney's animated output.  The live action films were usually more humourous, and just more fun even if they were less artistic.  I was 10 year old when The World's Greatest Athlete was released, and I have vivid memories of seeing the commercials for it on TV.  I really wanted to go to see this movie, but for one reason or another I never did.   I bought the novelization and read it twice, but in the 30 some-odd years since this was released, I never had a chance to sit down and watch it.  Until now.  Disney has finally released this funny family movie on DVD with its original aspect ratio intact!  (Something I wish they did with all of their live action films.)
 
Sam Archer (John Amos) is a coach who just can't seem to win.  At Merrivale college he's in charge of all of the sports; football, baseball, basketball and track.  But none of the teams that he fields can win.  He finally quits and, along with his assistant Milo (Tim Conway), goes to Africa to "get away from it all.  There he discovers Nanu (Jan-Michael Vincent), a young (white) Tarzan-like man who can outrun a cheetah.

Seeing visions of championship teams back home Sam tries to convince Nanu to return to America with him.  The jungle man won't have anything to do with it though, so Sam has to resort to deceit.  Faking an illness, Archer tells Nanu that he's the one responsible for his recovery, and therefore responsible for Archer's life.  Nanu isn't too bright and so he heads to the good ol' USA with his pet tiger in tow.

Back at home, Archer enrolls Nanu in Merrivale and gets his old job back.  He also arranges for Nanu to have a tutor (and love interest), a girl by the name of...you guessed it, Jane (Dayle Haddon.)  Nanu gets used to college life while he practices various sports until it's time for the NCAA track and field tournament, where Coach Archer has declared that Nanu will win every event, something that has never been done before.   Just before the event though, Nanu learns of his coach's trickery in getting him to come to America, and wants to have nothing further to do with him.

I watched this film with my family, and we all enjoyed it.  It wasn't the funniest film we've ever seen, nor the best, but it was good entertainment.  The montage at the beginning showing how horrible every one of Merrivale's teams were got everyone laughing and set the tone of the film.  There wasn't a lot of plot to the film, and even at a running time of 94 minutes, there were some scenes that felt like padding.  The section where Tim Conway gets shrunken to three inches tall while in a hotel bar and has a wacky time trying to get help was one such scene.  It didn't really have anything to do with the rest of the movie, and didn't really work as humor.  The big track meet at the end of the movie made up for the weak scenes though.

The cast was adequate but not outstanding.  Jan-Michael Vincent didn't have to really act that much, just recite his pigeon English dialog and look confused, and John Amos put some fun into his character.  Tim Conway was the funniest actor in the movie, and his scenes, with the exception of the above mentioned one, were always enjoyable.  It was easy to see that he was the only one with any real comic ability.

Audio:

This film comes with a two channel mono English soundtrack.  The audio isn't very dynamic, especially by today's standards, but the disc sounds fine.  The dialog is easy to discern and the sound is clear.  There are no distortion or drop-outs.

Video:

Happily, Disney has released this film in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and the image is anamorphically enhanced.  The picture looks very good.  The colors are warm and full, and the image is sharp.  Some of the superimposed scenes when the cast is supposed to be in Africa are a little grainy.  In any case, these processed shots look very crude when compared to today's films.  The print that they used was pretty good, there were only a few spots marring an otherwise nice looking transfer.  Digital defects were absent.

Extras:

This disc includes the theatrical trailer and an eleven-minute  reel of outtakes.  These are silent, set to the theme music that a (purposefully) bad marching band plays.  The music became really annoying after a while.  The scenes are mainly cut and alternate takes for some of the many athletic sequences in the film.  Towards the end of the reel there are some extra footage of the tiger.  I was really glad that Disney included it, even if I probably won't watch it again.

Final Thoughts:

This is a great film for a family movie night.  There are a lot of laughs and it's something the kids will enjoy and the adults can have fun with too.  I was surprised at how many scenes I ended up laughing at.  Though some of the acting was a little stiff and the plot was clearly not meant to be taken seriously, when all is said and done I had a good time watching this Disney film.  The excellent anamorphic transfer and fine sound, in addition to the fact that Disney actually included some bonus material on a disc that isn't getting the deluxe treatment makes this an easy DVD to Recommend.