The Mighty Ducks (animation)
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"See if you can keep up with this string of complete illogical nonsense: In 1992, Disney released a slobs vs. snobs comedy about a pee wee hockey league called The Mighty Ducks, in which a group of rag-tag kids came together under the guidance of Emilio Estevez. —Comics Alliance, in a review of a totally different series about hockey-playing superheroes
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The Mighty Ducks animated series was, to put it gently, rather a surprise for viewers expecting a comedy series about misfit kids playing hockey. This animated series lasted from September, 1996 to January, 1997.
It was instead about (sit down for this) a team of super-powered anthropomorphic ducks who fight aliens with hockey-themed gadgets. Yes, somewhere in space there were two dinosaur-derived races. Interestingly, the race descended from Ceratopsians, led by Lord Dragaunus, were evil and the Therapod (well, more specifically, duck) descended race was good. By an incredible coincidence, the Ducks' entire culture was based upon hockey.
When the Ducks pursue Lord Dragaunus to Earth, the Ducks form an NHL team where they can hide in plain sight. Their arena, known only as "The Pond", has a hockey rink that doubles as a landing pad for the Aerowing above and has an HQ below. The Ducks and Dragaunus continue their fight, although there are other villains that sometimes challenge the Ducks.
Compare Dinosaucers.
Despite being ducks created by Disney, they are not part of the Disney Duck Canon. One would be intrigued to see Scrooge's reaction to these guys...
Tropes used in The Mighty Ducks (animation) include:
- Abnormal Ammo: Explosive hockey pucks.
- The Ace: The Ducks' original leader, Canard, to some extent- though even he can't get a puck past Wildwing the goalie.
- Aliens Speaking English
- All Planets Are Earthlike: Puckworld is much like Earth, only much colder.
- All There in the Manual: Save for Mallory and Duke, none of the Ducks' last names are ever mentioned in the show itself. So how are they all around and 100% canon? They were provided by the writer, David Wise, specifically for the fanbase to use.
- Animal Superheroes
- Animated Adaptation: Though it seems to be more an adaptation of the name, with the only other tie to the original movies being the hockey theme.
- Another Dimension: The Heroic Fantasy-ish version of Anaheim seen in "Dungeons and Ducks" and "The Return of Astroth".
- Technically, the ducks and the bad guys and such also came from another dimension. Another another dimension.
- Atlantis: Plays a part in the episode "The Final Face Off".
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Dragaunus loves using his DNA Accelerator to create giant-sized monsters.
- Badass Bookworm: Tanya. How many tech experts do you know that can also hold their own in a hockey ring and on the battlefield?
- Bad Future: In "Beak to the Future".
- Big Brother Worship: Nosedive displays this on occasion towards his older brother, Wildwing.
- Bilingual Bonus: "Klang" being German for "sound".
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Draganuns has proven himself more than a match for most of the ducks in hand-to-hand combat, yet on many occasions he puts them in over the top Death Traps that they'll be able to escape fairly easily. And he's not the only villian guilty of this either.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Buzz Blitzman, in all fairness he's a Child Prodigy without a family who's pretty much forced to invent stuff for people who wont even let him see hocky games when he wants.
- By-The-Book Cop: Captain Klegghorn, a police officer for Anaheim who initially doesn't trust the ducks.
- City of Adventure: The city of Anaheim.
- City of Weirdos: Almost everything that happens to the ducks, happens in Anaheim. Justified in the fact that Lord Dragaunus landed there first, and is hiding out.
- Clear My Name: This happened to the ducks in "Puck Fiction". It was up to Nosedive and Grin to save the others in jail.
- Cool Old Guy: Hockey Master, Tai Quack Do.
- Comm Links: The ducks use wrist communicators.
- Conspicuous CG
- Travel Cool: As the demands:
- Cool Car: The Migrator, borderline Base on Wheels.
- Cool Plane: The last of the military's Aerowings.
- Cool Bike: Enough for each Duck.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Writ large (look at the Big Bad's name), at least for all the dinosaurs who aren't hockey playing ducks.
- The Dog Bites Back: Happens to Dragaunus in "Brining Down Baby" and "Jurassic Puck".
- Elaborate Underground Base: The Ducks' contract allowed them to build a headquarters under the hockey rink. You shoulda seen the fine print on that one.
- Fake Defector: Duke in "To Catch A Duck"
- Family-Friendly Firearms: For some reason, the local donut-loving Cowboy Cop Klegghorn also has a blaster pistol.
- Femme Fatale: Lucretia DeCoy in "A Traitor Among Us".
- The Final Temptation: Dragaunus eventually gets tired of the Ducks constantly thwarting his schemes and offers them the means to go back to Puckworld, leaving Earth to him. Subverted slightly since his henchmen were ready with a bazooka in case they refused the offer. The Bad Future seen in that episode is the result of the Ducks accepting the offer.
- Four Bad Band: The villains.
- Five-Man Band: In this case, a Six Anthropomorphic Duck Band.
- The Hero: Wildwing
- The Lancer: Duke
- The Smart Guy: Tanya
- The Big Guy: Grin
- The Chick/Action Girl: Mallory
- Kid Appeal Character: Nosedive
- The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson: One of Dragaunus's minions frequently makes references to Earth pop culture.
- Gretzky Has the Ball: Although hockey is accurately portrayed, the Ducks don't respect a few prerequisites for a team...
- Almost Lampshaded in an episode when Wildwing temporarily leaves the team, and their manager hires a professional hockey player in a mascot costume.
- Hard Head: Nosedive in "Phil in the Blank". Guy gets a concussion but wakes up and proceeds to drive to the rocket and then later jumps out of it to land in Wildwing's borrowed jet, all with no side effects.
- Though he is an alien from another planet, that may be a factor.
- Heel Face Turn: Duke L'Orange started out as a Gentleman Thief before using his skills for good.
- Hello, Nurse!: This was pretty much the reaction Lucretia DeCoy got when she showed up. Even Phil seemed to think she was hot (of course, he also planned on making money off said hotness).
- Mallory also got this same reaction at the end of the same episode.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the pilot, the Ducks' original leader throws himself into an interdimensional vortex to save the rest of the team.
- The fact that it was a Disney Death is relevant in at least one episode, where the idea of said leader returning was toyed with.
- Heroes With Bad Publicity: Klegghorn would always tell the ducks they were a menace, regardless of the evidence to the contrary.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: "The Most Dangerous Duck Hunt"
- In Name Only: This series might be called The Mighty Ducks, but don't expect any connection at all to the live action films.
- I Know Madden Kombat: The ducks and their hockey based combat.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Dragaunus's troops almost never hit what they aim at.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: "Microducks"
- Jerkass: Phil Palmfeather, the Ducks' money-grubbing manager.
- Not the worst guy in the world, mind. He also has terrible fashion sense.
- Captain Klegghorn is a much straighter example.
- Magic Versus Science: Wraith the warlock doesn't think too highly of the technology that Dragaunus has embraced, even if it did free them from the dimensional limbo and allow them to conquer Puckworld.
- Mask of Power: The mask of Drake DuCaine, with the power to see through invisibility cloaks and possed X-Ray Vision, which can see through any kind of disguise.
- Mecha-Mooks: Dragaunus's basic foot soldiers.
- Mind Control: "Phil in the Blank"
- No Fourth Wall
- Non-Mammal Mammaries: One of the most ridiculous examples yet.
- Off-Model: This is a mid-Nineties Disney Cartoon after all. And five of the [1] used worked on Gargoyles too. This was also Plus One Animation's first Disney series as well.
- Petting Zoo People: The Ducks are basically bulky humans - complete with hair and breasts - with variants of Donald Duck's face slapped on.
- Punny Name: "Duke L'Orange".
- La Résistance: The Mighty Ducks, after Dragaunus took over Puckworld and before everyone came to Earth.
- Sacrificial Lion: Canard Thunderbeak
- Serious Business: Puckworld's entire culture is based around hockey, if it wasn't obvious from the name. Though the Ducks don't have much trouble fitting in on Earth after a while.
- Just in case any of the viewers missed it from the premise and name, there is a field of puck-shaped asteroids near it, along with a nebula shaped like a hockey mask.
- Apparently it is in our universe too; one episode has the Ducks captured to participate in an intergalactic bloodsport version of hockey.
- Shout-Out: "Puck Fiction" is an Affectionate Parody of Pulp Fiction.
- Puckworld... Duckworld..?
- When a disillusioned Wildwing temporarily leaves the team, Nosedive gets to wear the leader's mask and tells his worried comrades "Hakuna Matata" (which, as you know, means no worries for the rest of your days).
- Speech Impediment: Tanya stutters pretty badly, and tries to switch from Techno Babble to Layman's Terms mid-sentence. It's said she does so because her brain moves faster than she speaks.
- Squishy Wizard: One of Dragaunus' two Squishy minions is a conventional version of this. The other is a tiny Shapeshifting creature who, of course, turns into a big scary guy during combat. Rounding out the Four Bad Band is... another Big Scary Guy.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Dragaunus says so in no uncertain terms very often.
- Take Up My Sword: Right before he lets himself fall into dimensional Limbo, Canard tells Wildwing to take the mask of Drake Dukane and with it the position of resistance leader. Wildwing only does so at the end of the pilot after overcoming his feelings of guilt and inadequacy.
- Taken for Granite: Once happend to Phil in "Return of Asteroth". Mallory thought he'd make a good lawn ornament.
- Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats
- Theme Naming: The ducks are, of course, named after birds and duck related foods. The most obvious being Duke's name. Which is, of course a pun on the dish "Duck à L'orange".
- They Fight Crime
- Toothy Bird: Comes with the Petting Zoo People territory. It's not that noticeable, but it briefly shows up on a few episodes. Dungeons and Ducks, however, goes totally nuts with it; throughout the episode, many characters' facial expressions pretty much explode, giving us more than a couple clear views at the Ducks' teeth.
- Town with a Dark Secret ("The Human Factor")
- Toyless Toyline Character: Here's another cartoon that was affected by The Smurfette Principle. There were 5 lines of action figures. How many lines did Mallory make it into? Just two. Also, her action figures are extremely rare. Why? There was only one of her per case. And Tanya? She never had an action figure at all.
- In a case that doesn't involve the principle, Canard and Wraith were never made into action figures either.
- Villain Exit Stage Left: See Villain Teleportation.
- Villain Teleportation: Done to ridiculous extremes, the villains tend to teleport away when things go bad.
- Weapon of Choice: Each Duck (and each of the villains) has their own personal weapon. Wildwing has his explosive puck launcher (essentially a grenade launcher), Duke L'Orange uses a laser sword, Tanya has various gadgets on her wrist device including a small chainsaw, and the rest of the ducks mostly use pistols.
- As for the villains, Dragaunus prefers his fireballs, Wraith has a Flaming Sword in the pilot and uses various Functional Magic, shapeshifter Chameleon likes to go One-Winged Angel and Siege likes the heavy weapons.