Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

The Mighty Ducks Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 1, 2017

The great sport of hockey has certainly taken a back seat in the United States to the other big three sports and professional leagues. Fans will cite a myriad of reasons for the sport's decline in popularity, some legitimate, some a bit of a stretch, but anyone who has remained a fan through the years, at least of the sport and not of how the NHL runs it, there's no mistaking the majesty. Equal parts grace and violence, speed and skill, and one of the ultimate team sports that demands impeccable cohesion, awareness, and lightning-fast mental and physical reaction, it's arguably the most demanding team sport in the world and its championship certainly the most arduous to earn. At lower levels, all of those elements and attributes may not be fully developed or magnified, but The Mighty Ducks, Disney's 1992 franchise starter that also spawned an NHL team that won the Stanley Cup a decade ago and this year made it to within two wins of the Cup Finals, tells the story of a ragtag group of not necessarily low skill but rather poorly motivated kids who mature into a team that plays the game for the right reasons under the leadership of a coach on the path to personal, and hockey, redemption.

Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez) was once a child prodigy on the ice. Coached by the ruthless and demanding Jack Reilly (Lane Smith), he seemed destined for professional greatness. But at a key moment in a pivotal championship game, he clanked a shot off the goal post which cost his team the game, enraged his coach, and killed his love for the sport. Years later, he's become a ruthless lawyer who will do anything to win the big case. But when he's arrested for DUI, his career appears in jeopardy. Enter his boss Gerald Ducksworth (Josef Sommer), who has Gordon's sentence reduced to 500 hours of (paid) community service as a peewee league hockey coach. It's a bad assignment for the man who hates hockey, and doubly so when he learns he's to head up the District 5 team, a collection of ragtag players who are ill equipped, literally to be sure, to play the game. Poorly coordinated, lacking any polish to their game, and playing in hand-me-down or makeshift jerseys and with battered equipment, the team is a laughing stock around Minneapolis. But they stick together. As Gordon elevates his game as coach, so too does the team elevate is play on the ice. But ever-present is the threat of the Hawks, the area's top peewee team coached by Gordon's nemesis and former coach, Jack Reilly.

The Mighty Ducks makes for a fun watch, and it's a good movie, but there's no denying its predictability. Whether considering the team's eventual rise through the ranks and cohesion into a force to be reckoned with on the ice, Gordon Bombay's redemption on the ice and as a human being, or the burgeoning love interest between him and one of the player's mothers, the movie takes every turn one would expect. But that's never to its detriment. The human interest story -- Gordon's soul-searching recovery to once again love the game -- is well told, the little hockey players are well defined and nicely performed (and reminiscent of the ragtag bunch of kids in The Sandlot), and the hockey action is fine, though it certainly takes a backseat to the life lessons and redemptive story that play above the on-ice sequences. The cast gets into the parts with plenty of enthusiasm from the top down. There's not a bad effort in the movie, in part because of obvious commitment and in part because the simple script doesn't stretch them but instead tasks them of working through a clear comfort zone of basic dramatic ebbs and flows. Even the production design is good, particularly early on as the kids play with battered equipment and poorly coordinated uniforms. It makes for a nice contrast as they come together and eventually earn their own fancy threads before their surge to the top.

The Mighty Ducks Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Mighty Ducks' Blu-ray presentation is hardly one to remember. That doesn't mean it fails the basic eye test. The movie is soft, and not just in some of the dreamy flashback scene to Gordon Bombay's youth. The movie proper plays with a flat, sometimes lightly diffuse, appearance. Details rarely excite, certainly not skin textures but even some of the ragged makeshift uniforms and old, battered equipment don't reveal much tangible or intimate texturing. Basic things like frayed, worn tape on stick blades or the heaviest stitching or writing on clothes and equipment reveal adequate definition, but never does the movie truly explode with any sort of eye-catching level of intense, realistic detail. Clarity is decent, however, and the image enjoys a firmer posture thanks to the 1080p resolution. Colors aren't world-beaters, either. The green Ducks jerseys and the hodgepodge of orange/red "uniforms" the team wears early in the film don't exactly sparkle, favoring more a simple, monochromatic appearance. Black levels aren't exciting, and some of the darkest corners all coverage into one indistinct morass, particularly as Gordon arrives at the ice in his limo in a shot that sees the interior, his dark clothes, and the background shadows merge into a single blob. Flesh tones are a touch pasty and pale. The image retains a light bit of somewhat chunky grain and sees some splash sou noise every now and then. The end result is hardly striking, but with little print or encode deficiencies, there's not much room to be too harsh on a rather bland-looking movie.

The Mighty Ducks Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Mighty Ducks' DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is just as mundane, but baseline effective, as its video counterpart. Music is light and limited to begin, failing to stretch into the rears and offering a simple bit of uninspired push. Clarity hovers somewhere between "competent" and "good." Music does gradually seem to open up throughout the film, culminating in a more well-rounded, more aggressive, more surround-intensive bit of sound during a playoff montage near film's end. The track doesn't express much in terms of surround support beyond the heavy, fast pucks that come off Fulton's slap shots. Practically all of them rifle through the stage and into the back with a satisfying, but fairly forced, zip and swish effect. Ambient effects, whether in the rink or on the street, are kept to a bare minimum. Dialogue propels most of the movie, and it's satisfyingly clear, well prioritized, and center-positioned, though like music and effects it can't match the best of the best for sheer detail and lifelike transparency.

The Mighty Ducks Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Mighty Ducks contains no supplemental content.

The Mighty Ducks Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Mighty Ducks doesn't redefine its genre but it's a sound, enjoyable little movie that holds up very well for its charm and simplicity. Enthusiasm and heart cover up its predictability. Performances and production design are strong. Disney's Blu-ray, exclusive to its online movie club, lacks any kind of special features. Video and audio are adequate, hardly the stuff of format legend. Recommended for fans.