MovieChat Forums > D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996) Discussion > actually ok if you look at it as a comin...

actually ok if you look at it as a coming of age movie...

posted 15 years ago by mirrorperilz
10 replies | jump to latest

Just watched this again for the first time in years. I was indifferent to it before but now I kinda see the good points. The first two were straight up kids flicks which was part of what made them great, but this one's about the Ducks coming of age and all that "it's tough growing up" stuff. I'm sure someone's said this before but when you look at it that way, it's actually not too bad.

Charlie's coming of age is obvious. He's all teen angst for most of the movie and then there's the big emotional climax where Bombay tells him "it's time to be the man". He steps up, leads the team to victory and gets the girl. Done.

The rest of the Ducks also follow the coming of age thing. They're on top of the world at the start but then the new coach comes in and shakes everything up. They can't handle it and crumble. With Charlie's help they learn to embrace change and become a better team as a result. It's like how little kids just wanna stay kids for the rest of their lives and never wanna grow up, but they have to.

It's also a hell of a lot darker than the first two movies (dark for Disney anyway). No more "Whoop there it is", now it's Charlie smashing hockey sticks out of anger, a dying Hans, a crippled daughter, even a fist fight (almost) between Charlie and Banks. The Mighty Ducks go young adult.

This is still my least favorite of the movies but I have to say I think a lot more of it now. People say there's not enough hockey in it but it's not meant to be a sports movie anymore (which is probably why they hate it). You have to admit the dawn game against the varsity team looked pretty cool though with the mist coming off the ice and the gothic choirs in the music.

Those are my thoughts anyway. I'm sure I'm not meant to look into any movie with "Part 3" in its title this deeply. Bah.

[–] dmg783 13 years ago

You hit the nail on the head. This movie was not about hockey or the Ducks. This movie was about Charlie Conway growing up as Coach Bombay moved to bigger things in his life.

In D3, the moral of the story is that Charlie quit holding Bombay's hand all the time, and he became a leader on his own after caving in and accepting that his new coach had good advice.

The entire movie, Coach Orion is testing Charlie, and making him "earn his Captain" spot.

[–] McFly_2015 13 years ago

The first film was your classic kids underdog sports film, basically a hockey version of the Bad News Bears.

The second film basically showed the kids more successful, how they coped with winning and getting serious.

The third film treated them as young adults and was them finding out how the real world works. Bombay did a lot of growing in the first two films and then moved on to bigger and better things, now was Jacksons turn.

I liked the first film the best and the third one the second best; the third was more of a moral film and not nearly as silly and flawed as the second film. The second film made a mockery of hockey more.

The third film does have an important message; it's not just all about hockey for any player of that age, anyone can get injured, education is important.

[–] HeyStupidShutUp 12 years ago

I watched all 3 back to back to back recently and uh, I had the least amount of problems with this one. Well, maybe it's a tie with the first, I don't know. It was shocking, really. I barely gave D3 a second look back in the day. And seriously, it amused me that Charlie was suddenly kind of a dick, had completely forgotten about that. Dude grew some balls. I will also say that this was the first time the ducks actually felt like "real" friends, instead of being fodder to make Bombay a better person. It's a focus shift that I appreciated on my revisiting of the Ducks. I wouldn't call any of these movies "good"(at least for adults) but 1 and 3 are slight in an enjoyable way, and the first film managed to conjure up some nostalgia for the early 90's.

Oh, and Mighty Ducks 2 is the corniest thing I've seen in quite awhile. I'll never say that D3 is the worst ever again.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] Doc110894 11 years ago

I thought this was kind of dull when it first came out. I started to like it much more a few years later. Now, it may actually be the best of the series.

[–] vicky_lc2001 (1907) 7 years ago

I agree. The first is my favorite with D3 being the second or equal to D2.

[–] TheUltimateHippo (2250) 6 years ago

The third film actually has some of my favorite moments of the entire series (the Ducks accepting Coach Orion, the "confidence" speech, Charlie learning how to deal with Hans' death, etc.) and the parts that dealt with growing up and moving on worked very well. I like that Bombay did not become their coach again and they realized that they had to play hockey the way Orion wanted them to (his way was essential for competing on the high school level). I also didn't mind that fact that Bombay is only in the movie for like 10 or 12 minutes, it fit well into the theme that they had to grow up, move on and mature into young adults instead of Pee-Wees.

Having said that the execution wasn't always great and there are way too many silly moments and those cartoon sound effects just killed it for me.

The first is definitely the best and I gotta say 2 and 3 are pretty much a draw for me, 3 has the best moments out of the franchise and the worst moments out of the franchise.

[–] alv790 (87) 4 years ago

I agree, and I think this movie makes a better Mighty Ducks sequel than D2. Like the first movie, this one has a more grounded theme, instead of D2's "because we won our pee-wee league we are now Team USA and we win the junior world championship."

[–] Sidha108 (2688) 7 months ago

This movie actually is a perfect transition for Joshua Jackson’s career too since after D3, he started being in more serious teen/college-oriented roles such as his parts in Dawson’s Creek, The Skulls, Scream 2, and Urban Legends.

[–] punkrockgirl (1270) 6 months ago

I feel like such an idiot for just now realizing Pacey from Dawson's Creek is in the main kid in the Mighty Ducks movies