Disney Month IV: D2: The Mighty Ducks

D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994)
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Joshua Jackson, Elden Henson
Directed by: Sam Weisman


After I gave The Mighty Ducks a bit of a reaming last week, I wondered if I would have to eat my words when I reviewed the two sequels. At the end of the day, I think I partially will have to. I said in my previous review that the second and third movies are superior installments that bring more to the table than the first one. I still don't think I'm wrong on that claim, but I fear I might have boosted the hype a little much when talking about them. I mean, they're still Mighty Ducks movies. They're formulaic, and honestly the formula is very repetitive. The way they change it up is to trim some of the fat from the previous movies. Unmemorable characters from the previous films are replaced with new characters. It's like throwing mud at a wall and seeing what sticks. Is that a bad thing when it comes to D2: The Mighty Ducks? No. In fact, so much works in this movie's formula that I think it's the best film in the trilogy. Let's take a look.

Let's start by looking at the returning characters. Emilio Estevez is back as Coach Gordon Bombay. This time, he's coaching an Olympic-like hockey team called Team USA. Estevez does a fine job of playing Bombay again, but Bombay lets fame go to his head a little quickly for my taste. And he's not just flirting with the fame, he's in a committed relationship with it. The more interesting story with Bombay was his lost chance at playing professionally in the NHL. That's barely touched in the film. But I digress. He starts Team USA by assembling the Ducks that agreed to return for the sequel. We have the usual favorites. Charlie Conway, played by Joshua Jackson, Fulton Reed, played by Elden Henson, and Greg Goldberg, played by Shaun Weiss. They all get good bits, nothing wrong there. But my favorite character that grows in the film is Adam Banks, played by Vincent Larusso. He's the all-star player that has pressure on him in making his family proud and impressing talent scouts watching their games. He suffers a wrist injury and hides it for a while. The resolution to that is when he heals. I won't give the rest away, but it's a pretty gripping story because you want this kid to succeed.

We have some new characters joining Team USA. Of course, all of them have a flaw that they must overcome by the end of the film. For that, they get a lot of the conflict resolution moments in the film. There's only two that I wasn't really invested in. Ken Wu, played by Justin Wong, and Luis Mendoza, played by Mike Vitar. Ken is a former figure skater that needs a lesson in being tough and Luis is a fast skater who doesn't know how to stop skating. Those aren't very interesting stories. We could be spending that time with other characters, or giving these two something else to do. Dwayne Robertson, played by Ty O'Neal, is a lot of fun for his cowboy antics, and Dean Portman, played by Aaron Lohr, is a great addition for his attitude and bromance with Fulton that leads to the creation of the Bash Brothers. But the best overall character in this new bunch is Julie "The Cat" Gaffney, an alternate goalie played by Colombe Jacobsen. Bottom line, she's a better goalie than Goldberg. But she's not really given a shot and that eats her up inside. We actually find out about her backstory. She left a good team in Maine to join Team USA and wants to be able to show that she didn't make a mistake and has the skills to succeed on a team like this. That's some pretty good stuff to do with any character in a sports film, let alone a female character in a male-dominated sports film in the '90s. This doesn't scream "girl power" attitude, it just screams a gender neutral proclamation of "I'm good at what I do. Don't underestimate me."

Maybe it's the sense of American pride that this film brings out. Maybe it's the the fact that surrounding this film in as much '90s culture as possible helps give the film a nostalgic charm. Maybe it's that throwing mud at the wall strategy I was talking about earlier. But for my money, D2: The Mighty Ducks is the best made film in the Mighty Ducks trilogy. It picked up on the success of the first movie and expanded it to newer heights. They aren't fighting for a silly Pee Wee hockey league anymore. They're getting older and representing the country and each other. There's a real sense of proving your worth in a story like this. And for kids that are supposed to be 13-years-old, that can be some pretty heavy stuff. But they know how to have fun with it. That's what this movie is. Appropriately serious at times, but doesn't forget to have fun. Which is a strategy that Bombay gives the team at the beginning of the film to help them win. If that's not a solid metaphor for this film, I don't know what is.


Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

D2: The Mighty Ducks is an underdog film packed with new characters, family-friendly entertainment, and a sense of patriotism. There's an improvement on plot and tone that fits better in this installment than any of the others in the trilogy. Give it a watch if you want a fun '90s sports movie.

D2: The Mighty Ducks and movie images are copyrighted by Walt Disney Pictures