D2: The Mighty Ducks

"Haven't you guys been training in the off-season?"
"You know, I knew we forgot something."

After coaching the Ducks to the victory, Gordon Bombay (Estevez) started playing hockey in the minor league.  He is injured during a game, which ends his hockey career before he can climb any further.  He returns to Minnesota to stay with Jan (Rubes), Hans brother, and work in the hockey supply store till he figures out what to do next.  He is approached by Mr. Tibbles (Tucker) from Hendrix Hockey and invited to coach Team USA in the Junior Goodwill Games.  He agrees and takes the Ducks to begin training.  The team gets 5 new players: figure skating champion Ken Wu (Wong), speedy skater Luis Mendoza (Vitar), expert puck handler Dwayne Robertson (O'Neal), goalie Julie Gaffney (Jacobsen), and goon Dean Portman (Lohr).  The team also gets a tutor, Michelle McKay (Erbe).

The new team needs to figure out how to play together.  And Hendrix continually throws Gordon into the spotlight.  Can the team overcome their differences and celebrity to defeat the intense Iceland team, coached by Wolf "The Dentist" Stansson (Norgaard)?


After the success of The Mighty Ducks in 1992, Disney decided to make a sequel.  All but 5 of the original Ducks returned for the film; Dave Karp (Aaron Schwartz), Peter Mark (J.D. Daniels), Terry Hall (Jussie Smollett), Tammy Duncan (Jane Plank), and Tommy Duncan (Danny Tamberelli) did not return.  The film never addresses why those characters did not return, and they are not mentioned at any point.  Adding new team members was a good idea to still allow the writers to keep the basic format of the original film, without making a complete copy (with a different setting).  The new members work well with the original cast.

This film is ridiculous, but fun.  It was panned by critics, but still has a following today.

D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994) 106 minutes
Director: Sam Weisman
Starring: Emilio Estevez as Gordon Bombay
Kathryn Erbe as Michelle McKay
Michael Tucker as Mr. Tibbles
Jan Rubes as Jan
Carsten Norgaard as Coach Wolf "The Dentist" Stansson
Maria ellingsen as Maria
Joshua Jackson as Charlie Conway
Elden Ryan Ratliff as Fulton Reed
Shaun Weiss as Greg Goldberg
Matt Doherty as Les Averman
Brandon Adams as Jesse Hall
Garette Ratliff Henson as Guy Germaine
Marguerite Moreau as Connie Moreau
Vincent Larusso as Adam Banks
Colombe Jacobsen as Julie Gaffney
Aaron Lohr as Dean Portman
Ty O'Neal as Dwayne Robertson
Kenan Thompson as Russ Tyler
Mike Vitar as Luis Mendoza
Justin Wong as Ken Wu