Les petits champions

Directed by Stephen Herek and written by Steven Brill, The Mighty Ducks is the film that was the inspiration for Disney's NHL team and remarkably started a full-fledged movie and streaming series.

The story centers around a good but unconventional lawyer named Gordon Bombay. After being arrested for drinking while driving, he is placed on community service and is forced to coach one of the city's (Minneapolis) pee-wee hockey teams, which is also the worst team in the league. Pee-wee hockey hits a nerve with Bombay as he was once a remarkable player himself but both losing his father and upsetting his rather abusive coach over a missed shot in a short time span in his childhood caused emotional damage to where he quit the sport.

After a tough start between him and the team, an emotional and motivational encounter with an old family friend (Hans) reignites his love for the sport and he soon begins treating the kids much better, and teaches them how to play properly. This improves the team's fortunes (now going by the Duck's name), as they make the finals, going up against Bombay's old team and coach.

It's pretty easy to see where this movie got its inspiration. However, it still does try to differentiate itself from Bad News Bears, while also trying to pay homage to it, which does keep it from being just a carbon copy.

The big differences here is this being a Disney film and a 16 year age gap between the films, both of which play into this films key differences. The tone, humor and design are vastly different. This being a 90s movie might help this appeal a little more to kids now than Bad News Bears as some 70s films did have a look and style that make them hard to take seriously, in retrospect.

I do like the way the kids are written in this than Bad News Bears. For whatever reason, kids just weren't written the best in a lot of 70s films. Too much adult humor that let you know what age group wrote the story. Steven Brill actually writes the kids well, and Stephen Herek allows a lot of improvisation with the young cast, which helps make them more relatable and realistic.

Where the realism drops off is ironically the adults, which is the polar opposite of Bad News Bears. The story of Bombay's insecurities over Coach Riley and the missed penalty shot takes some suspension of disbelief and the overall dialogue isn't very adult-like, which is most likely due to the Disney influence than anything else.

The Hockey is a huge highlight, Herek does a great job making these pee-wee hockey games really entertaining and the editing is great. The kids body check more than any game I've seen in the NHL but it works.

The acting is actually pretty good. They do manage cast kids that can act, and Emilio Estevez is obviously a great actor and does very well, despite the material at times. I also really like Joss Ackland as Hans.

So overall, anyone who grew up in the 70s might consider this the light version of Bad News Bears but I would argue that time has treated The Mighty Ducks a lot better. What it lacks in originality, it definitely makes up for in entertainment.

I don't think The Mighty Ducks is a masterpiece in any shape or form, but it is an enjoyable film. I do agree that it is predictable, the plot is nothing particularly special and the ending especially doesn't really hold any surprises. But it is nicely filmed, with evergreen cinematography and pretty scenery and the music is pleasant. The script is good on the most part, there are some humorous parts but it is also somewhat touching, and the director Stephen Herek pitches the humour and melodrama at the right level. And the acting is spirited, with Emilio Estevez charming, dignified and fun as the disgraced lawyer who has to coach the worst ice hockey team and Joss Ackland solid as Hans. Also the ice-hockey scenes are done with just the right amount of flair. Overall, a sweet and fun movie, even with the predictable plot it is worth seeing. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Just recently, I saw D2 and D3, my friend unfortunately did not have the first Mighty Ducks movie, so I had to watch those first then rent this one. The second and the third were pretty good movies, but I felt bad, because it felt like you're getting into a group of friends, and you don't know their history, you weren't there? You know that feeling, and as silly as it sounds, that's how I felt watching the sequels without seeing the first one.

Gordon is a lawyer who has had a little trouble with the lying in his career, therefore, he must do community service. When he sees a group of young pre-teen troubled youths playing a game of hockey, remembering his childhood love of hockey, he volunteers to become their coach in the Pee-Wee games. He starts off on a rocky relationship since he doesn't like kids, but he grows to love them and they do back learning that there is more to a game than just winning, but it'd be nice since they end up in the championships.

I loved The Mighty Ducks, I felt like it was a terrific family film and I'm surprised it wasn't played in my childhood since I was seven years old when it came out, but you know the saying, better late then never, right? I would highly recommend this up lifting story for any family!

7/10

I remember my cousins and I used to always watch these movies when I was a kid. I loved how these bad-playing, poor attitude-having kids could always be inspired to become champions, no matter how tough the odds and no matter how many times movies like this were remade with soccer, football, baseball, and dogs. Even though I've seen it a million times, I still get chills when the team works as a team and goes out to try their hardest. It's enough to make me, one of the least sporty people alive, want to join a sporting team. Another highlight, for me at least, were the guys. I always had at least one guy in the movie who I had a crush on and kept my undivided attention on. Who would've known back then that young Charlie (Joshua Jackson) would grow up to use big words and pretentious speeches on Dawson's Creek? Out of all those inspirational sports-are-good-for-kids movies, this was and always will be my favorite because it is the first one I can remember and the first I've ever seen. 1...2...3...Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!

The writers must have had a copy of "The Bad News Bears" running constantly, because this movie is a direct ripoff of that classic. Unfortunately what you are left with is uninspiring, one from column A, two from column B nonsense. I realize its for kids and it is not meant to have deeper meanings, but it is still too predictable and cutesy.