D2: The Mighty Ducks - Review

Let me get this right out of the way, the entire reason why this film receives a 3/5 rating (a positive review) is based solely on the fact that I watched this film a ton growing up and I was, and still am, a huge fan of the game of hockey. I was born in Vancouver, Canada and hockey is our national sport so every boy I knew growing up liked hockey. The team I cheered for, and still cheer for unfortunately is the Vancouver Canucks. A team that has been in the NHL since 1970 and has never won a championship. Being a fan of a team that has gotten so close and is constantly the underdog, I was drawn to the Mighty Ducks films. Not only because they were funny to me and entertaining, it's because it starred a group of kids I liked, playing on a team that I liked that rallied together against all odds to win the championship. Something I am waiting for the Canucks to do. As a kid, I loved it and even watching the first film again all these years later, I still love the first film. As for the second film, being an adult and watching this film through new eyes, I could definitely see more of the flaws in it. In the first film, Emilio Estevez actually looked like he cared about his role and took pride in being Coach Bombay. Here, you could just tell that he was done with the franchise. I mean, this is a phoned-in performance. Along with the... "love interest?" Does a kiss on the cheek count? Whatever. Ms. MacKay played by Kathryn Erbe is not good whatsoever. Also, this isn't the biggest issue in the world, but for a hockey fan like me, why in the world is Iceland the team that the USA needs to beat? Because it has the word "ice" in the country name? I mean, why not make them the Russians? I know Canada is the United States biggest rival when it comes to international hockey, but with the Cold War being an actual thing, making the rival team the Russians would automatically make most Americans get behind team USA much easier. The coach of the Iceland team, Wolf Stansson played by Carsten Norgaard is brutal. He has the look down of an evil coach, but you can't hear a word he says. At least in the first film, Coach Reilly had a personal connection with Gordan Bombay and you wanted the Ducks to cream him and his team. Here, there really isn't a reason to hate the Iceland team. Sure, they have a player named Sanderson who is a bit of a dirty player, but that's the only reason to not like the villains. The only reason why this film is watchable is the Mighty Ducks themselves. Disney really went out of their way to cast all great child actors, especially Kenan Thompson as Russ Tyler. He genuinely made me laugh, even as an adult. So if you have kids who are into hockey, then the second Mighty Ducks film isn't too bad of a film for them to watch. The first one I definitely recommend, but the second one just couldn't capture the same magic. This film just seemed like an advertisement for the new Mighty Ducks of Anaheim NHL team the Disney corporation owned at the time. Not a terrible movie by any means, but not really a good one either. It just holds a special place in my heart as part of a trilogy of films I grew up with.