The Mighty Ducks (film)

{{Infobox film

| name = The Mighty Ducks

| image = Mightyducksposter.jpg

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| director = Stephen Herek

| producer = {{plainlist|

Jon Avnet
Jordan Kerner}}

| writer = Steven Brill

| starring = {{Plainlist|

| music = David Newman

| cinematography = Thomas Del Ruth

| editing = {{Plainlist|

Larry Bock
John F. Link}}

| production_companies = {{Plainlist|

Walt Disney Pictures
Avnet–Kerner Productions}}

| distributor = Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

| released = {{Film date|1992|10|02}}

| runtime = 104 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget = $14 million{{AFI film|59325}}

| gross = $50.8 million{{mojo title|mightyducks}}

}}

The Mighty Ducks (also known as D1: The Mighty Ducks, and Champions in the United Kingdom and Australia) is a 1992 American sports comedy drama film directed by Stephen Herek and written by Steven Brill. It is the first film in The Mighty Ducks franchise. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Joss Ackland, and Lane Smith. It follows a youth league hockey team. In some countries, the home release copies were printed with the title as The Mighty Ducks Are the Champions to avoid confusion with the title of the sequel.

The Mighty Ducks was released in the United States on October 2, 1992, by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. The film received generally negative reviews from critics.

The year after the film's release, The Walt Disney Company founded an NHL hockey team, named the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Plot

Gordon Bombay is a successful but arrogant Minneapolis defense attorney. After his 30th successful case, he celebrates by going out drinking. However, he is arrested for drunk driving and sentenced to 500 hours of community service by coaching the local "District 5" Pee-Wee hockey team. Bombay has a checkered past with hockey: as a youth in 1973, he was the Hawks' star player but, struggling with the loss of his father, he missed a tie-breaking penalty shot in the final seconds of the championship game, sending the game to overtime in which the Hawks lost, disappointing his hyper-competitive coach, Jack Reilly.

Bombay meets the team and realizes the children have no practice facility, equipment, or ability. Their first game with Bombay at the helm is against the Hawks, with Reilly still being the Hawks' head coach. District 5 is defeated, 17-0, as Reilly demands the Hawks run up the score. Bombay berates the team for not listening to him, but the players challenge his authority. For the next match, Bombay tries to teach his team how to dive and draw penalties, which results in another loss, angering the team further. Specifically, one player, Charlie Conway, refused to fake an injury.

Bombay visits his mentor, Hans, who owns a nearby sporting goods store and attended the game against the Hawks. Bombay recalls that he quit playing hockey after losing his father 4 months before the championship game, and because Reilly blamed him for the loss due to the missed penalty shot. Hans encourages him to rekindle his childhood passion for the sport by skating on a frozen pond like he did as a kid. Realizing the error of his ways, he apologizes to Charlie and his mother at their home.

Bombay convinces his boss, Gerald Ducksworth, to sponsor the team, allowing them to purchase proper equipment and giving Bombay time to teach the players fundamentals. He changes the team's name to "The Ducks", named after Ducksworth, and the team manages a tie in their next game. They recruit three new players: Figure skating siblings Tommy and Tammy Duncan, and slap shot specialist and enforcer Fulton Reed. Seeing Charlie's potential, Bombay takes him under his wing and teaches him some tactics he used when playing with the Hawks.

Bombay learns that, due to redistricting, the Hawks' star player, Adam Banks, lives in District Five and should be playing for the Ducks, and threatens Reilly into transferring Banks to the Ducks. After overhearing an out-of-context quote about the team, most players walk out (except Charlie and Fulton), resulting in a forfeit to the Flames. The Ducks, except Charlie and Fulton, lose faith in Bombay and revert to their old habits. Ducksworth makes a deal with Reilly for the Hawks to keep Banks, which Bombay refuses on the principles of fair play, which Ducksworth berated him about when he started his community service. Left with the choice of letting his team down or being fired from his job, he takes the latter.

Bombay manages to regain his players' trust after winning a crucial match against the Huskies to qualify for the playoffs. Banks decides to play with the Ducks rather than not play hockey. The Ducks march through the playoffs and face the Hawks in the championship game. Reilly orders his team to injure Banks to force him out of the game. Despite this, the Ducks tie the game late in the final period, and a Hawks player trips Charlie as time expires. In the same situation Bombay faced in his youth, Charlie prepares for a game-deciding penalty shot. In stark contrast to Reilly, Bombay tells Charlie to take his best shot and that he will believe in him no matter what. Inspired, Charlie fakes out the goalie with the "triple-deke" Bombay taught him and scores, winning the championship.

Several days later, Bombay boards a bus to a minor-league tryout, secured for him by the NHL's Basil McRae of the Minnesota North Stars, who played Pee-Wee hockey with him as a youth. Although daunted at the prospect of going up against younger players, he receives the same words of encouragement and advice from the Ducks he had given them, promising to return next season to defend their title.

Cast

Emilio Estevez as Gordon Bombay
Brock Pierce as Gordon Bombay – 10 years old
Joss Ackland as Hans
Lane Smith as Coach Jack Reilly
Heidi Kling as Casey Conway
Josef Sommer as Mr. Gerald Ducksworth
Joshua Jackson as Charlie Conway, #96
Elden Ratliff as Fulton Reed, #44
Shaun Weiss as Greg Goldberg, #33
Brandon Adams as Jesse Hall, #9
M. C. Gainey as Lewis
Matt Doherty as Lester Averman, #4
J. D. Daniels as Peter Mark, #24
Aaron Schwartz as Dave Karp, #11
Garette Ratliff Henson as Guy Germaine, #00
Marguerite Moreau as Connie Moreau, #18
Jane Plank as Tammy Duncan, #5
Jussie Smollett as Terry Hall, #1
Vincent A. LaRusso as Adam Banks, #9 (Hawks), #99
Danny Tamberelli as Tommy Duncan, #2
Michael Ooms as McGill, #7
Casey Garven as Larson, #33
George Coe as Judge Weathers
Hal Fort Atkinson III as Phillip Banks
John Beasley as Mr. Hall
Robert Pall as Gordon's Father
John Paul Gamoke as Mr. Tolbert
Steven Brill as Frank Huddy
Bob Miller as Game Announcer

Basil McRae and Mike Modano both made cameo appearances towards the end of the movie.

Production

The film was written by Steve Brill, who later sued for royalties for the film.{{cite web|url=https://time.com/mighty-ducks/ |title=The 'Mighty Ducks' Trilogy: An Oral History |website=Time |date=2014-06-09 |access-date=2016-10-18}} Jake Gyllenhaal turned down the role of Charlie Conway.{{cite web|last=Peters |first=Chris |url=http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/news/jake-gyllenhaal-recalls-how-his-parents-cost-him-mighty-ducks-role/ |title=Jake Gyllenhaal recalls how his parents cost him 'Mighty Ducks' role |website=CBSSports.com |date=2015-07-27 |access-date=2016-10-18}} Emilio Estevez was cast in 1991, after Herek was impressed by his performances in Brat Pack films, The Outsiders (1983), The Breakfast Club (1985) and St. Elmo's Fire (1985).

It was filmed in several locations in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Principal photography took place between January and April 1992.

Reception

= Box office =

The film grossed $50,752,337 in the United States and Canada, becoming a surprising success with audiences. The Mighty Ducks made $54 million in home video rentals according to Video Week magazine in 1993.{{cite web|last=Malinowski|first=Erik|date=November 25, 2015|title=How Mighty Ducks the Movie Became Mighty Ducks the NHL Team|url=http://www.esquire.com/sports/a39992/mighty-ducks-movie-nhl-franchise/|access-date=October 18, 2016|website=Esquire|publisher=Hearst Communications}}

= Critical reception =

The Mighty Ducks received underwhelming critical reviews at the time of its release. It holds a 27% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The site's consensus reads, "The Mighty Ducks has feel-good goals, but only scores a penalty shot for predictability".{{cite web|title=The Mighty Ducks|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mighty_ducks/|publisher=Fandango Media |work=Rotten Tomatoes|access-date=February 27, 2025}} On Metacritic, it has a score of 46 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".{{Cite web |title=The Mighty Ducks |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-mighty-ducks/ |access-date=July 29, 2024 |website=Metacritic}} Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.{{Cite web|title=Home - Cinemascore|url=https://www.cinemascore.com/|access-date=July 13, 2020|website=CinemaScore}}

Roger Ebert said the film was "sweet and innocent, and that at a certain level it might appeal to younger kids. I doubt if its ambitions reach much beyond that", and gave it a 2-star rating.{{cite web|url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-mighty-ducks-1992|title=The Mighty Ducks|author-link=Roger Ebert|date=October 2, 1992|publisher=Ebert Digital LLC |work=RogerEbert.com|last=Ebert|first=Roger|access-date=October 4, 2014}} Rita Kempley of The Washington Post described the film as 'Steven Brill, who has a small role in the film, constructed the screenplay much as one would put together some of those particleboard bookcases from Ikea.'{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/themightyduckspgkempley_a0a2e9.htm|newspaper=The Washington Post|title='The Mighty Ducks' (PG)|date=October 5, 1992|last=Kempley|first=Rita|access-date=April 10, 2018}}

Emilio Estevez was surprised at the popularity of the movie series.{{cite web|url=http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=188856 |title=Emilio Estevez on the Success of Mighty Ducks Video |work=NHL VideoCenter |publisher=National Hockey League |date=October 18, 2016 |access-date=October 18, 2016}}

= Accolades =

American Film Institute recognition

AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers - Nominated
AFI's 10 Top 10 - Nominated

Home media

The film was released on VHS on April 14, 1993, DVD on April 11, 2000, and on Blu-ray Disc on May 23, 2017.

Sequels

The unexpected box-office success of the film inspired two sequels, D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994) and D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996), and an animated TV series (the latter taking on a science fiction angle with actual anthropomorphic ducks). While both sequels failed to match the original film's gross, they were still financially successful.{{cite news|title= Weekend Box Office A Bang-Up Opening for 'Under Siege'|work= The Los Angeles Times|date=October 13, 1992|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-10-13-ca-32-story.html|access-date=December 1, 2010|first=David J.|last=Fox}}