Those of you who read my Winter Sports Movies blog should know that I believe D2 is the greatest movie ever. Everything about it is pleasing. The characters are lovable, the plot is laughable enough to be enjoyable but smart enough to not be TOO (emphasis on the capital letters) cheesy. It's then all star cast (let this be a warning all you Selena Gomez's and Sprouse twins. Disney stardom does not last forever) with people like "That guy from Newsies" and "those kids from Heavyweights" made it a marquee film for the ages. While it may not be as polished as Citizen Kane, or as technologically advanced as Titanic, I have yet to find a movie as universally loved as D2.
The Mighty Ducks Trilogy in general is like crack to my generation. We just can't get enough. Like every addiction, we took one hit too many by making D3. Even though we made it through that bad trip we're still itching for more. Merely mentioning the Mighty Ducks to anyone aged 20-33ish(? Completely random age chosen for no real reason) will elicit manic discussion on The Flying V, Charlie Conway and Knucklepucks. We're getting close to the age where a member of my generation could become President and all I can say is when that happens Iceland better watch out, as we were all taught that Iceland is a terrible, terrible place with evil people. I'm not joking when I say I had a honest to God realization one day not so long ago that there is absolutely nothing evil about Iceland. I've lived the majority of my life hating Iceland for no reason. Sadly while I have come to this realization, I know there are people my age out there just waiting for their chance to take Iceland down as payback for game one of the two game series in D2.
Disney made a lot of sports movies in the 1990s. The Sandlot, Rookie of the Year, The Big Green, just to name a few (all FANTASTIC movies). While The Sandlot has a pretty big cult following compared to the others, none of their movies compare in fandom to The Mighty Ducks. They named an NHL hockey team AFTER a fictional children's pee-wee team. You can buy shirts from any hipster t-shirt store with the names of the players on the backs of them. I DARE you (I really dare you) to go into any public place and just start chanting "Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!" and I ASSURE you that someone will join in.
These movies are underrated works of art. They are pillars of 1990s cinema. They introduce the children of America to the cold and gritty city of Minneapolis, a city that I had certainly never heard of before I first saw The Mighty Ducks (don't judge, I was 7 and my parents had only focused on the Northeast cities and the cities of Europe when teaching me geography. Remember, I'm an elitist. Ok maybe you should judge). It tackles racial and social issues that wouldn't be touched with a 10 foot pole in today's Disney movies. While poor kids vs. rich kids is a time honored Disney tradition that totally continues to this day, The Mighty Ducks Trilogy brings it to a whole new levels. Inner city kids, some of whom appear to actually live in alley-ways (what the hell is the deal with Fulton Reed, does he have a house? or just a trunk which he shoots pucks into) going against kids from the suburbs who have the resources to pay for rink time and matching clothes (the non-matching clothes might have just been a 90s thing, who knows). In addition, the Ducks had the only two black kids in all of Minneapolis along with one white kid in their starting front line, a line that the Hawks took no shame in calling "the oreo line". WTF this shit would never fly today. Even better the Ducks themselves even stared calling the line "the oreo line" as if nothing was wrong with it. The 90s never seemed so close yet so far away.
Contrary to popular belief I do not support racism, however I feel that you can pinpoint exactly where D3 went wrong by their acknowledgment of their racist/classist past and attempt to teach the youth that this is not ok. This is no more apparent than this conversation between two of the "evil" varsity players.
Player 1: They should stay on their own side of the tracks
Player 2: How many times do I have to tell you. There is no train, therefore there are no tracks. We all live in the same city.
What?!?!?! Classic MD villains would have agreed with player 1 without question. The Ducks live on the, albeit metaphorical, other side of the tracks! While D3 brought the dream of a world without racism a little closer, it closed the book on the defining movie trilogy of a generation.
How the hell did we get here? Probably by writing this blog in two parts having taken a break for dinner in between paragraphs. Somewhere something went wrong and an innocent introduction to a podcast turned into a bad Intro to Sociology paper written by a film studies concentrator. Let's stop this before we can get into the comparisons of Adam "Cakeater" Banks to the French Revolution Era Bourgeoisie (no joke, the comparison has been made....citation needed, but I swear I've seen it before. I can't make this stuff up, I'm not that crazy). On to the podcast!
Paige and I were originally going to do our podcast on documentaries this week. We used to have a weekly documentary society at school and thus have seen a lot of docs and would have a lot to discuss. Paige made the mistake of mentioning The Mighty Ducks to me the other day, sending me into a flurry of excitement thinking up topics to discuss and theories I've always wanted to share with the world. She didn't have a choice in this matter, this weeks theme was going to be Mighty Ducks.
I think this podcast was a lot better than last weeks. It's more upbeat, there's more discussion and less lies. I think we might even have cut down on ums and likes. I still use words incorrectly and rather than say "I mean" I say "can we talk about" when I need to change topics. Also there is a bit of an echo in the middle, it gets annoying. We apologize. Of the two episodes of Wildhaus, however, it is my favorite. If you're still on the fence about whether you want to listen or not let me just add that Paige asked me to note that she apologizes for her remarks about Ted Kennedy. If that doesn't draw you in, then I don't know what will!
Without further ado, Wildhaus episode 2.
Same shindig as before, type in the code to download. We'll find a better way, I promise.
D2 is the best, I'm glad this is now a well-known fact.
ReplyDeleteBut, other than The Sandlot, Little Giants, Rookie of the Year, etc, what are some other amazing 90s (I will even settle for 80s) kids sports movies? I need to collect them all.
Interesting, upon researching The Sandlot was not Disney. Who knew? Excellent call on Little Giants, also not Disney...this is blowing my mind. I'd also throw in Angels in the Outfield, Little Big League and Remember the Titans (released in 2000, but we'll still count it. It's awesome)
ReplyDeleteTurns out a lot of these aren't Disney. Oh well.
Just wanted to let you know that I'm not so convinced that Iceland isn't evil as it is currently ruining my life what with its volcanoes and whatnot. That is all.
ReplyDelete-Catherine