The Mighty Ducks (1992)Starring: Emilio Estevez, Joss Ackland, Joshua Jackson
Directed by: Stephen Herek
But then there's the Disney sports movie that is probably the most famous, The Mighty Ducks. At a time in the late '80s and early '90s where sports movies were being marketed towards kids, The Mighty Ducks is regarded as one of the biggest successes. It kicked off a trilogy of movies in the '90s, is probably the most famous hockey movie ever made, and led to the creation of a professional hockey team that exists to this day. With that in mind, the first Mighty Ducks movie kinda...sucks. I really enjoy the other two movies (as you'll find out soon), but this one was really hard for me to get into. I know, I know, there's probably a good chunk of readers that are ready to kill me for that kind of opinion. Everyone knows this movie, and it should be regarded as a classic right? Well, THAT'S the problem. Going into a movie like this, you already know what's going to happen. If the film wants to stand out, it needs to add something extra, and I don't think it holds up with other sports underdog movies. But let's get into the details that made The Mighty Ducks so popular that we got two more (and better made) movies as a result.
Emilio Estevez stars as Gordon Bombay, a hot shot lawyer turned Pee Wee hockey coach. I really like Emilio, so I think he's the selling point for a lot of the film's success. He has to be the actor to help carry the story and lead the child actors to bring their A game in their performances. He does a great job, able to grow as a character over the course of the film. You can see his relationship with the team grow over the course of the film, and his compassion feels natural. But, his early scenes of him being a jerk work really well too. You're being brought from his world and being dropped into a team of misfits and screw ups. Yeah, you'd feel like a fish out of water too.If you're familiar with the team in the sequels, the original team of Ducks might actually surprise you. A lot of the fan favorites are there, and I'll talk a bit more on them next time, but there's actually a lot of Ducks that are just left forgotten about by the time we get to D2 and D3. The two I really didn't think added anything to the mix were Karp and Peter. They're both generic punks, but they don't grow as characters, and they don't get any big payoff scenes on the ice. Jesse has a brother named Terry that plays on the team, but isn't even a part of the team with Jesse in the sequel. How do you explain keeping one of two siblings in the script for the next movie with no explanation? Tammy and Tommy Duncan are a pair of siblings that are just thrown in with the rest of the team midway through the film. They blend into the background, with the only development between the two of them being Tammy's passion for figure skating. These Ducks don't show up again after this film, but they weren't really up there with key players like Charlie, Goldberg, Banks, Averman, and Fulton. If you've seen these movies once, you know exactly who those guys are without me even explaining. But can you say you remember Terry or Peter? I rest my case.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
The Mighty Ducks features a movie formula that has been done to death by now, but if you really like hockey, this is one you'll most likely enjoy watching. Nothing truly awful, but nothing overly groundbreaking either. If you're interested in checking out the sequels, it would probably benefit you to see how the Ducks got their humble beginnings.
The Mighty Ducks and movie images are copyrighted by Walt Disney Pictures
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