THE MIGHTY DUCKS. Directed by Stephen Herek; written by Steven Brill; produced by Jordan Kerner and Jon Avnet for Walt Disney. Starring Emilio Estevez and Lane Smith. Rated PG.
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These "Ducks" aren't Huey, Dewie and Louie, but pee wee hockey players in Minneapolis. And The Mighty Ducks may make you wish it got colder here. Except for a few instances of on-ice violence, it really makes hockey look like fun.
Gordon (Estevez) was a hockey star at 9, but he had such a terrible coach that he quit playing after a traumatic championship game and now doesn't even like to watch the game when he's given free tickets. We're asked to believe that that childhood experience messed up Gordon's whole life, making him become a win-at-all-costs shark of a lawyer, unknowingly embracing the philosophy of his old coach.
That is a lot to swallow. But it is doubtless true that experiences, bad and good, on pee wee playing fields can be very important in young lives. This movie, in fact, could serve as a primer on how to, and how not to, coach youth sports. It goes overboard making the Bad Coach (Smith) bad, to be sure, but that makes his inevitable comeuppance that much more satisfying.
And every parent who has had to watch a child try to make the big shot/goal/hit/out, etc. to win the big game will feel the suspense again as Gordon relives his moment of truth.
To his great surprise (although not to ours—there is nothing unpredictable about The Mighty Ducks) Gordon really takes to this coaching thing. Forced into the job as "community service" after being caught DWI, he takes on the challenge of molding his dead-end kids into contenders.
He starts off making the same mistakes the Bad Coach does—yelling at the kids, ridiculing their mistakes. But, partly with the help of—I kid you not—Hans (Joss Ackland), a kindly skate sharpener, Gordon grows into the very model of the Good Coach.
He can even tell his team that it doesn't really matter if they win the big game or not—they're still the Ducks. Now, we can see that Gordon doesn't actually believe it, but that's what he tells the kids, and that's what counts.
The movie's oppressive predictability might be too much for some adult viewers to take. But the kids in the audience won't mind. And there is almost enough skating action to make up for some slower off-the-ice scenes that are either too plodding or too contrived.
The acting is engaging as well. Estevez is charming and funny most of the time and the kids look like they're having fun, which means they're entertaining to watch.
October 14, 1992
You can read my review of D2, the sequel to The Mighty Ducks, here.