The Mighty Ducks (1992)
The Mighty Ducks (1996) – B+
The Mighty Ducks movie was a variation on “Bad News Bears,” where a cynical businessman is tasked with coaching a group of loud and obnoxious hockey players. Over the course of the movie, he turns them in to a winning hockey team, while their sequels chronicle their battle for championships and working as a team to conquer personal villains. So what to do with the spin off?
Focus on a team of alien ducks! Of course! The Mighty Ducks focuses on a group of intergalactic space ducks who crash land on Earth. When they’re discovered by a human, he manages them and agrees to hide their identity as they become a popular hockey team. Meanwhile they’re really superheroes who fight aliens from other worlds. The show is one of the last of Disney series that stopped trying and is a welcome show with a fun concept, and a killer theme song. It’s worth its cult appeal.
What does “Hunchback” teach the audience? Whether you’re gorgeous or ugly, if the hot girl says you’re cool, you’ll become the hero. Also, the nice guy always finishes last. Surely Quasimodo rides off in to the sunset with his crowd of supporters in the end, but who is Esmerelda going home with later that night? “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” is a bastardization from Walt Disney, where they take the tragic and brilliant tale of Quasimodo and water it down so much it’s barely an adaptation when we see it in animated force.
Like the original film it stems from, “Come Out and Play” offers the question “Who Can Kil a Child?” If your seven year old cherubic daughter was trying to murder you with a hammer, could you kill her? Laugh all you want, but if it comes down to me, and an evil eight year old intent on hacking me to death with an axe, I’ll gladly bring the child down and any other evil children trying to murder me with a machine gun.
That’s more like it. After the first “The Guyver” managed to draw up some profit and interest, New Line released a sequel to “The Guyver” directly to VHS. It wasn’t until 1995 where I was finally able to see it on the Science Fiction Channel in American cable television. I wasn’t even aware there was a sequel at the time. For folks who hated the camp and comedy of the first film, prepare for a jolt of pure action packed entertainment.