D3: The Mighty Ducks

"You guys are not skating like Warriors. You look like something else. You look like Ducks."

The Ducks have all received scholarships to attend Eden Hall Academy, the prestigious prep school their coach Gordon Bombay (Estevez) attended.  They are named the junior varsity hockey team, and are given a new coach, former Minnesota North Stars player Ted Orion (Nordling).  Bombay accepts a position with the Junior Goodwill Games.

The varsity hockey team, led by Rick (Orr) and Cole (Cudlitz) are not impressed with the Ducks.  They are especially annoyed because they don't feel the Ducks earned their spaces on the team.  The classes are difficult and Coach Orion makes drastic changes to the style and positions of the Ducks.  He also outlaws their Ducks jerseys and removes Charlie as captain.  Can the Ducks learn to fly in their setting?


This is my least favorite film The Mighty Ducks film series.  The film is fine, but is missing something.  The majority of the cast return for the film.  The only Duck missing is Jesse Hall, played by Brandon Adams.  Jesse was a pivotal character in the previous 2 films, and yet he is not in the film and his absence is never mentioned.  Many of Jesse's characteristics are given to Charlie, who is the focus of the film.  Hans appeared in the first film, but was replaced in the 2nd film with his brother Jan, is back here, but is underused.  And Jan is not mentioned in the film.  Interestingly, the varsity team is played by many of the actors who were rival hockey players in the previous films.  Jeffrey Nordling is fine, but Emilio Estevez is better in the part.

It was a good idea overall, but they definitely dropped the ball here.


D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996) 104 minutes
Director: Robert Lieberman
Starring: Emilio Estevez as Gordon Bombay
Jeffrey Nordling as Coach Ted Orion
Joshua Jackson as Charlie Conway
David Selby as Dean Buckley
Joss Ackland as Hans
Elden Ryan Ratliff as Fulton Reed
Shaun Weiss as Greg Goldberg
Vincent A. Larusso as Adam Banks
Matt Doherty as Lester Averman
Garette Ratliff Henson as Guy Germaine
Marguerite Moreau as Connie Moreau
Michael Cudlitz as Cole
Christopher Orr as Rick
Aaron Lohr as Dean Portman
Ty O'Neal as Dwayne Robertson
Kenan Thompson as Russ Tyler
Mike Vitar as Luis Mendoza
Colombe Jacobsen as Julie "The Cat" Gafney
Justin Wong as Ken Wu
Margot Finley as Linda