D3: The Mighty Ducks - Review

So after re-watching D2: The Mighty Ducks, I felt like a bit of my childhood was ruined. As a kid, I loved that movie and to see it again as an adult, I noticed how flawed that movie was. Going into D3: The Mighty Ducks, my expectations were pretty low. Out of the three movies, this was the film I definitely saw the least. I remember enjoying it because it was The Mighty Ducks but I always had a stronger personal connection with the first two because I watched those more as a kid. I didn't even know there was a third film until a couple years later. To my surprise, this film still holds up to me as not only a good hockey movie or a kids movie, but I would say a good movie. Now let me get this straight, I'm sure I will enjoy this film more than other based on the facts that I am such a hockey fanatic. If you are more of a baseball or football person or just don't like sports in general, then you probably enjoy this movie (or series for that matter) as much as a hockey fan might. While the first film was about a man who forgot the meaning of teamwork and a team in search of a leader, the second film was... the exact same thing. Yeah, now that I think about it, there really isn't much difference in terms of core story when it comes to the first two films. Add some new players, add a new team to beat where we don't know anything about them except they come from a country with no real attachment to hockey whatsoever and an uninterested Emilio Estevez. With this film, they decided to shift the focus away from Gordon Bombay's storyline and focus on Charlie Conway and the Mighty Ducks themselves. I really have to give the Mighty Ducks films props for casting great child actors who could still act in their teens. When Disney films try to write teenagers, especially athletes, it can get pretty cringe-worthy. I have to say though, that minus the swearing that most hockey players do on the ice, all of these characters feel natural. I also like how since the characters have evolved from Peewee hockey players to high school scholarship athletes, the film evolved from a by-the-numbers sports flick into a teen movie. The Mighty Ducks themselves go through the struggles of going to class, flirting with crushes, taking part in a prank war with the rival Varsity team and a new coach, which is why I like this film so much. It feels different and refreshing enough without losing the hockey team that needs to learn storyline. We now have a rival team who are given time to develop, (at least enough to know that we hate them and want to see them lose) and we have a coach who needs to teach them how to play defense as opposed to showing off and expecting to win without effort. Jeffrey Nordling plays a great coach. He is a strict coach and you understand why the players don't like him, but you also see that he cares for the team and wants them to succeed. That leads to great drama for Charlie Conway to go through. That's all I will say about the plot that doesn't contain spoilers. Now just some minor details I found a bit interesting or odd. One, I think Charlie Conway just imploded his own universe. When flirting with a girl, he tells her that the Anaheim Mighty Ducks (a real NHL franchise) was named after them. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks were named after the movie and were owned by the Disney corporation. So is Charlie Conway suggesting that he is aware that he is in a Disney movie? Well, of course not, but it begs the question. Why would an NHL franchise who plays in California be named after a kids hockey team that played in Minnesota? Some might say that the team was named after them because of their win in the Junior Good Will Games in the second movie, but the announcer clearly states that "they are wearing the uniforms of the Ducks." How would he know that unless he's seen the uniform before? Am I going on too much about this subject? Yes, I am. Second, each one of these films has an NHL guest star which to 9-year-old me was awesome to see. Here, they get Mighty Ducks captain Paul Kariya. He is just an awful actor. I'm sorry, but it was extremely distracting. He is a hockey player with no acting experience so I can't get mad, just something to note. So in the end, this trilogy is something truly special to me. It combined my two favourite things in the world together. Hockey and movies. On top of that, watching it again and seeing the final shot with the epic score I grew up listening to, it almost gave me tears as an adult. Although these films may not be for everybody, I love them and I will be showing these to my kids someday.