The Mighty Ducks

A classic kids sport movie, with a story we have seen many times, in The Bad News Bears and many other movies. This time the sport is ice hockey. A new coach takes a hopeless team, full of losers and misfits. Initially reluctant, the coach gets into it, and after some difficulties teaches the kids to love the sport and work hard together, turning them into a winning team.

Not original, but it's done well. It's a feel-good underdog story, made better by some drama between the rival coaches, a star player who has to change teams and a romance between the coach and the single mom of one of the kids. The storytelling is very streamlined and not much time is devoted to any element. But it works. It's fun, and it makes you feel good. Great family movie.

I remember my cousins and I used to always watch these movies when I was a kid. I loved how these bad-playing, poor attitude-having kids could always be inspired to become champions, no matter how tough the odds and no matter how many times movies like this were remade with soccer, football, baseball, and dogs. Even though I've seen it a million times, I still get chills when the team works as a team and goes out to try their hardest. It's enough to make me, one of the least sporty people alive, want to join a sporting team. Another highlight, for me at least, were the guys. I always had at least one guy in the movie who I had a crush on and kept my undivided attention on. Who would've known back then that young Charlie (Joshua Jackson) would grow up to use big words and pretentious speeches on Dawson's Creek? Out of all those inspirational sports-are-good-for-kids movies, this was and always will be my favorite because it is the first one I can remember and the first I've ever seen. 1...2...3...Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!

Just recently, I saw D2 and D3, my friend unfortunately did not have the first Mighty Ducks movie, so I had to watch those first then rent this one. The second and the third were pretty good movies, but I felt bad, because it felt like you're getting into a group of friends, and you don't know their history, you weren't there? You know that feeling, and as silly as it sounds, that's how I felt watching the sequels without seeing the first one.

Gordon is a lawyer who has had a little trouble with the lying in his career, therefore, he must do community service. When he sees a group of young pre-teen troubled youths playing a game of hockey, remembering his childhood love of hockey, he volunteers to become their coach in the Pee-Wee games. He starts off on a rocky relationship since he doesn't like kids, but he grows to love them and they do back learning that there is more to a game than just winning, but it'd be nice since they end up in the championships.

I loved The Mighty Ducks, I felt like it was a terrific family film and I'm surprised it wasn't played in my childhood since I was seven years old when it came out, but you know the saying, better late then never, right? I would highly recommend this up lifting story for any family!

7/10

Directed by Stephen Herek and written by Steven Brill, The Mighty Ducks is the film that was the inspiration for Disney's NHL team and remarkably started a full-fledged movie and streaming series.

The story centers around a good but unconventional lawyer named Gordon Bombay. After being arrested for drinking while driving, he is placed on community service and is forced to coach one of the city's (Minneapolis) pee-wee hockey teams, which is also the worst team in the league. Pee-wee hockey hits a nerve with Bombay as he was once a remarkable player himself but both losing his father and upsetting his rather abusive coach over a missed shot in a short time span in his childhood caused emotional damage to where he quit the sport.

After a tough start between him and the team, an emotional and motivational encounter with an old family friend (Hans) reignites his love for the sport and he soon begins treating the kids much better, and teaches them how to play properly. This improves the team's fortunes (now going by the Duck's name), as they make the finals, going up against Bombay's old team and coach.

It's pretty easy to see where this movie got its inspiration. However, it still does try to differentiate itself from Bad News Bears, while also trying to pay homage to it, which does keep it from being just a carbon copy.

The big differences here is this being a Disney film and a 16 year age gap between the films, both of which play into this films key differences. The tone, humor and design are vastly different. This being a 90s movie might help this appeal a little more to kids now than Bad News Bears as some 70s films did have a look and style that make them hard to take seriously, in retrospect.

I do like the way the kids are written in this than Bad News Bears. For whatever reason, kids just weren't written the best in a lot of 70s films. Too much adult humor that let you know what age group wrote the story. Steven Brill actually writes the kids well, and Stephen Herek allows a lot of improvisation with the young cast, which helps make them more relatable and realistic.

Where the realism drops off is ironically the adults, which is the polar opposite of Bad News Bears. The story of Bombay's insecurities over Coach Riley and the missed penalty shot takes some suspension of disbelief and the overall dialogue isn't very adult-like, which is most likely due to the Disney influence than anything else.

The Hockey is a huge highlight, Herek does a great job making these pee-wee hockey games really entertaining and the editing is great. The kids body check more than any game I've seen in the NHL but it works.

The acting is actually pretty good. They do manage cast kids that can act, and Emilio Estevez is obviously a great actor and does very well, despite the material at times. I also really like Joss Ackland as Hans.

So overall, anyone who grew up in the 70s might consider this the light version of Bad News Bears but I would argue that time has treated The Mighty Ducks a lot better. What it lacks in originality, it definitely makes up for in entertainment.

Though perhaps unknown to the warm-weather climates of the nation, youth hockey (and even hockey in general) is a big, big real. "Mighty Ducks" taps into that fan base with a fun little movie set in Minnesota that captures the fun, drama, and emotion of the experience.

For a basic plot summary, this movie tells the story of Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez), a corrupt lawyer who his forced into community in the form of coaching Minneapolis, MN youth hockey (an area in which he had some childhood experience). While at first, Bombay is hesitant to give even a modicum of effort towards the cause, he gains inspiration (whether positive or negative) from old-time mentor Hans (Joss Ackland), former coach Jack Reilly (Lane Smith), and bright-eyed youngster Charlie Conway (Joshua Jackson).

This is a pretty straightforward kids flick. It has the requisite goofy humor, sometimes cringe- worthy dialogue, and a heavy amount of rah-rah drama. Even if your kids aren't necessarily into hockey, they will like this type of movie.

The reason why this movie transcends kiddie fare, though, is because it captures the essence of hockey. It treats the sport with a great deal of respect and reverence, which taps into the nostalgia of adults watching. Just like how "Little Big League" just "gets" baseball humor, "Mighty Ducks" does the exact same thing as hockey.

Basically, you can't go wrong with this on family movie night. It has enough of everything to not bore any member of the family tears. In fact, it may (depending on your interest in sports/hockey) become a sort of cult classic in your own family.