My 90s Experience: The Mighty Ducks Trilogy (1992-1996)

 Hi everyone, how's it going? So, imagine it's 1998 and you just did a marathon of all three Mighty Ducks movies, starring Emilio Estevez, as the third movie, D3: The Mighty Ducks is out on home video and you decided to rent all three. That's what I'm going to be talking about today. Let's get into it.

For the longest time I swore that I'd seen The Mighty Ducks on VHS when I was in the hospital one time. However, when I sat down to watch it on Monday night I didn't remember any of the scenes from the movie or even why Gordon Bombay, played by Emilio Estevez, was coaching the team to begin with. Which actually worked in my favour because I was surprised with every scene and I had no expectations of the movie other than it be good. It was. In fact it was REALLY good. Better than I thought it was going to be.

One of the things that made me enjoy the movie so much is the cast, both the kids and the adults. The kids don't have much character development, but in this case I don't mind so much. Mostly because right from the opening credits, I knew that this was Gordon's movie. And being that I loved Emilio Estevez in The Breakfast Club, I knew that I was going to be in for a good time even though I'm not big on sports movies, nor am I into Hockey movies. You may commence with the Canadian jokes.

In a way, this was also Charlie's movie as he was the most focused on of all of the kids in the movie. Not just because his mom was Emilio's love interest in the movie, but because he was the captain of the Ducks. Charlie was played by Joshua Jackson, who plays Pacey on Dawson's Creek. There are too many cast members to list here but some notable ones are Elden Ratliff as Fulton Reed, Matt Doherty as Averman, who I thought was Mark Castile, who played Mark on Step by Step, Marguerite Moreau as Connie Moreau, who also played Julie in Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Danny Tamberelli, who played Little Pete on The Adventures of Pete & Pete on Nickelodeon, and Brandon Adams, who was also in The Sandlot as Kenny DeNunez, which came out back in 1993. Oh and Lane Smith, who played Perry White on Lois & Clark plays Bombay's former coach. 

I also like there were two girls on the team and it wasn't a big deal. Bombay didn't make a stink about it and none of the boys said they couldn't play or anything like that. They were just on the team.

If you haven't checked out The Mighty Ducks you absolutely should. It's funny, fun, and heartwarming probably isn't the right word, but definitely entertaining.

  Now, the second movie is my favourite of the three Ducks movies. I dunno, there was just something about it that made it more endearing than the first one. I think it's because the stakes are higher in this one. Afterall, the Ducks go off to the Goodwill Games, as the American team. Notable additions to the cast is Kenan Thompson, who plays heckler Russ Tyler, Aaron Lohr as Dean Portman, who provided the singing voice for Max in A Goofy Movie, Mike Vitar as Luis Mendoza, who was also in The Sandlot, and Colombe Jacobsen, who had also been in the Baseball movie, Rookie of the Year back in 1993. 

There was a commercial for this movie on TV during episodes of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on Global in 1994 and that commercial appeared twice during an episode that I have taped off of Global during that time. So I was really excited to finally see it.

 

I kinda feel like the third movie is the weakest of the trilogy. Mainly because Emilio Estevez is hardly in it, due to him being in Mission: Impossible (uncredited) and The Jerky Boys: The Movie, both of which came out the same year as this movie. This is squarely Joshua Jackson's movie as a result, as his character, Charlie, is the main character. This time the team is off to high school at a prestigious academic institution called Eden Hall Academy, where they meet the typical teen drama characters of jocks and cheerleaders, mixed with snobby rich kids. One of the bullies is played by Michael Cudlitz, who I know, stepping back into 2025 for a moment, as Lex Luthor in the final two seasons of Superman & Lois. 

Because of this change up, not only do the kids get to shine, but we got a new coach, Ted Orion, played by Jeffrey Nordling, who guest starred on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Tahna Los, a friend of Major Kira's, in an episode early in the first season. Just like the last two movies, the Ducks win with only a couple of seconds to spare in the game at the end of the movie.

Oh, and they worked into the plot of this movie that the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (called the Anaheim Ducks in 2025) were named after the team in the movies (the NHL team uniforms were showcased in both this movie and the second one).

I had so much fun watching these three movies. Like I said, the second one is my favourite and the third one is the weakest of the three, but they're all really good movies. Check them out if you can.

I think that's going to be it for me for this week. I'm going back to 2025 now, but I'll see you back in the 90s next week for more nostalgic fun. Until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.