The Mighty Ducks (film)

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A trilogy of Disney films where a bunch of misfit kids play hockey.

In the first movie (released 1992; called Champions in some countries), Jerkass hot-shot attorney Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez) is sentenced to community service after driving while intoxicated. His duty is to coach a rowdy pee-wee hockey team simply called "District 5." As the cold Bombay softens up, his bond with the kids grows and the team is renamed "The Ducks" after Bombay's employer Mr. Ducksworth. The Ducks eventually make it to the finals, where they face the Hawks, the team Bombay once played for as a kid; in fact, the coach of the Hawks is still the same man, Jack Reilly. Bombay was disillusioned by the sport when he cost the Hawks the championship with a missed penalty shot.

In the second movie (released 1994), a year after the Ducks defeat the Hawks to win the championship, Gordon, with a renewed passion for hockey, tries out for the minor leagues but his dream is shot down by a knee injury (from a cheap shot by a frustrated opponent no less). He is then approached to coach Team USA in the Junior Goodwill Games. Unsurprisingly, Gordon recruits his Ducks, along with a couple of other players to represent Team USA. Team USA proves to be a force to be reckoned with, but fame and fortune get to the team, especially Bombay, as they are pummeled in a game against Team Iceland. Soon after Bombay learns that the game is not about celebrity but about having fun, he is able to put the team back on track, and they compete as the Ducks in a re-match against Team Iceland that will decide the championship.

In the third movie (released 1996), the Ducks are accepted scholarships to the famed Eden Hall Academy, the high school Bombay attended. They also get a new coach in the form of Ted Orion. Orion irritates Captain Charlie Conway with his less-lenient teaching methods ("Your little duck tricks won't work anymore!" Orion remarks), switching of the teammates' positions, and by renaming them the Warriors. The team also faces adversity from the varsity team, as the former Ducks were accepted into the Academy instead of their younger siblings. After Conway becomes more accepting of his new coach following some self-reflection and a pep talk by Bombay, Orion also softens up a little, and re-renames the team the Ducks, and the stage is set for a game against the varsity team.

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Tropes used in The Mighty Ducks (film) include:

• And This Is For: A heartwarming example in D3. When the Ducks finally take back their Jerseys and prepare to fight the Varsity Warriors in the finals, they touch the ice as a tribute to their late friend Hans who was Norwegian.

Charlie Conway: This is for Hans.

• Accidental Athlete: Fulton, the guy can't even skate when he first becomes a duck.
• Advertised Extra: Emilio Estevez gets top billing in the third movie, but Bombay barely appears at all.
• Amoral Attorney: Bombay becomes one, but in a subversion of the trope, his boss doesn't like it.
• Attack Pattern Alpha: The Flying V. Used so much that opponents catch on.
• Bash Brothers: Dean and Fulton are explicitly called "The Bash Brothers."
  • When Ken Wu stands up to an Iceland team member and hockey fights him, thanks to a little teaching from Russ and his friends; Fulton and Dean cheer and dub him a Bash Brother also, which in turn has the announcer call him "The Third Bash Brother". This sticks in the 3rd movie too.
• Big Game
• Broken Aesop: The movie sort of blows its "Have fun and don't take youth sports too seriously" moral when Gordon Rules Lawyers away the Hawks' best player (jerking around an 11-year-old) just to get back at his old coach.
  • The other Aesop, "it doesn't matter whether you win or lose, it only matters if you tried hard and had fun," is kind of broken with the way the Ducks always win in the end.
• Brother Chuck: Some of the players from the first movie are suddenly gone with no explanation in the sequels. It's particularly noteworthy in the case of one of the players - Jesse's brother.
• Bullying a Dragon: In D3 when Dean Portman returns, he tries to be friendly to Cole from one enforcer to another. Cole brushes him off and tries to single him out and check him during the next play. Dean just grins at him and laughs as Cole charges towards him before bending down and tossing Cole into the boards. According to Dean himself he was just getting started.
• Butt Monkey: Adam Banks. Injured in the first two movies and isolated from his friends in the third. Sorry, cake eater!
• The Casanova: Luis Mendoza
• Crowd Chant: "Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack!"
• The Danza: Marguerite Moreau playing Connie Moreau.
• David Versus Goliath
• Deadpan Snarker: Averman probably more than anyone else.
• Defictionalization: The NHL franchise. Though when they ditched the uniforms from D2 and the "Mighty" part, they became a respectable franchise and even won the Stanley Cup.
  • Amusingly, given the theme of the movies, the cup-winning Ducks team was known for being relentlessly physical. They led the league in fighting majors that season.
• Disappeared Dad: Charlie has one.
• Down to the Last Play
• Fan Service: In 3, Dean is sent to the penalty box and immediately starts stripping off his clothes and equipment (likely a Shout-Out to Slap Shot). The announcer immediately lampshades it.
• Follow the Leader: Lots of sports movies spawned shortly after that.
• Gasshole: *sniff, sniff* "Goldberg!"
  • "It wasn't me!"
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: In the first film, some of the characters come across some nudie mags. Some other guys take it from them and say they wouldn't even know what to do with them.
• Going Home Again
• Golden Snitch: The Ducks are able to over come an 0-11 start and a later forfeit because of an illness-forfeited season, a win and a draw. They then run through the playoffs and win the state title.
• Gretzky Has the Ball: A lot of illegal hits by both teams. Also, no youth league anywhere would let kids play without face cages. And if the Ducks really snuck into the playoffs as the final seed, they should play the league-leading Hawks first, not last.
  • The most egregious illegal hit in the first movie is the checking from behind that a Duck suffered in the first game, though a whistle was blown right afterward, indicating it may have been called. Still, checking from behind is something that in addition to being a match penalty, deserves a long suspension at Pee-Wee level, if not a season-long disqualification.
  • The worst example, though, may be in the third film. One of the players levels another (it may have been a Duck on a varsity player) well after the puck has been passed (a hit that would definitely draw a major penalty and likely a suspension), but on seeing it the dean turns to the man next to him and says "A legal check..." It most certainly was not.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Charlie is played by Pacey, and Gordon is Charlie Sheen's brother.
  • More importantly, Charlie is a young Peter Bishop. Walter should show up any time...
  • And who can forget Kenan?
  • Tommy Duncan would also later be in All That.
  • Three of the Ducks would appear in Heavyweights between installments.
  • Michelle McKay is Detective Alex Eames.
  • Luiz Mendoza is Benny Rodriguez, pairing him with Sandlot teammate Kenny DeNunez, who is Jesse Hall in Ducks gear.
  • A far more obscure one, but Carsten Norgaard, the Iceland coach from D2, was a minor celebrity in Ireland for years afterward due to being the star of a long-running ad campaign for Statoil.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: One of the kids relates to Gordon what happened to their previous coach: A long rant, followed by a sudden clutch at his left arm. Gordon concludes, "Heart attack."
• Hollywood Law: Your boss and the judge can't secretly work out a plea deal for you without your consent. It's sort of illegal and unconstitutional.
• How Many Fingers?: We don't get to hear the answer, but one of the other ducks tells Bombay he wouldn't know the answer normally.
• Insufferable Genius: "Shut UP, Averman!"
• Kung Fu-Proof Mook: D3 The Ducks are told "Your little Duck tricks won't work anymore."
• Large Ham: "Hey Goldberg, if that puck was a CHEESEBURGER you'd stop it!"
• Meaningful Funeral: Hans' death is the turning point in D3.
• Meaningful Name: Adam Banks. He's rich.
  • Same could be said about Ted Orion. His last name Orion is the name of a Greek Warrior and huntsman that Zeus placed among the stars as a Constellation. He is fiercely protective of his team and tries to train them like Warriors and he also was formerly of the Hockey Team, Minnesota (Now Dallas) North Stars.
• Miracle Rally
• Money, Dear Boy: Emilio Estevez agreed to reprise his role in the third film in exchange for a directorial job he had been angling for.
• Non Sequitur Thud: Mr. Tibbles is knocked out by Fulton's slapshot in D2 and when he comes to he orders a cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate shake.
• Once an Episode: Each film features a scene in the Mall of America and at least one scene where the Ducks are in roller blades.
• Oh Crap: In the second movie, when the returning characters practice against the new recruits, Fulton readies his slapshot. The returning characters immediately panic and rush out of the way. The new characters wonder why until Fulton takes his shot.
  • Mass "Oh Crap":

Bombay: Rancher Dwayne! Dwayne: Yes, sir? Bombay: Round me up some stray cattle, there! *Hands over rope* (Beat) Dwayne: My pleasure! Team: Ohhhhhhhh! *All scatter*

• Opposing Sports Team: First the Hawks, then Iceland, then Eden Hall Varsity. Slobs vs Snobs
• Ordered to Cheat: In the first film, becomes a What the Hell, Hero? moment and the beginning of a mild Heel Face Turn (the main character wasn't all that much of a heel to begin with).
• Phrase Catcher: Shut up, Averman!
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:"I am Goldberg, THE GOALIE!!"
• Putting the Band Back Together: Charlie goes around town gathering his teammates at the start of the second film. Along the way, an Almost Kiss between Connie and Guy is broken up, upsetting the latter (even though he already kissed her in the previous movie).
  • Make-Out Kids: "I was this close!"
    • Also serves as a plot point when the team shows up to play for the first time after getting back together. Seriously, for the first time:

Bombay: Haven't you guys been practicing in the off-season? Averman: I knew we forgot something.

• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits
• Rousing Speech
• Serious Business: Apparently children's hockey games are this in the team's hometown: The local paper covers them, complete with large headers and dramatic photographs.
  • No American state is more crazy about hockey than Minnesota, but the films definitely take it Up to Eleven.
• Shopping Montage
• So Last Season
• Someone's Touching My Butt: This happens to Julie in the second film:

Somebody had better watch their hands!

• Sound Off: Used in D2

I don't know but I been told Team USA's gonna win the gold Listen up and listen good We're all headed for Hollywood

• Spinning Newspaper: Used to accelerate the pace of the first two films.
• Spoiler Title: The UK video title for the first film is The Mighty Ducks Are The Champions.
• Stealth Pun: The "Oreo line" from the first film - The Hall brothers, centered by Guy Germaine.
• Team Spirit
• Take Five:In the first film, Timmy and Tammy Duncan are spotted on a hockey rink before a game. Bombay tells his team to get ready for the game, then recruits the Duncans.
• Training Montage
• Two Girls to a Team: Tammy and Connie, then Connie and Julie.
• Underdogs Never Lose
• Unnecessary Roughness
• Very-High-Velocity Rounds: Russ's "knucklepuck." Oxymoronic as a knuckler is effective because it's slow.
• Who Needs Overtime
• Whoa, Bundy!: "Quack! Quack! Quack!"
• The Worf Barrage: Fulton's slapshot subverts this twice in D2. The first time, it's blocked by Team Iceland's goalie...but the goalie's intense pain (as well as a puck shaped bruise) suggests that it was mainly sheer luck that his glove was in the right spot. Subverted completely near the end, when the shot unexpectedly works perfectly during the tie-breaker shootout.
• You Fail Physics Forever: The knucklepuck simply wouldn't work. The sheer lack of any aerodynamics would result in the puck harmlessly fluttering at the goal rather than improbably flying through the air, as many hockey playing viewers likely discovered in the early 1990's. Which makes sense, because the movie describes it as "hard to do". In real life, it's impossible.
  • There's also Fulton's slapshot. It moves fast enough to ricochet around the arena and STILL knock out Mr. Tibbles, and yet in the tracking shots from behind it appears to be moving all of three miles an hour.
    • So it's a Painfully-Slow Projectile?