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.
“Under the Dome” from CBS is interesting but how many seasons are you willing to wait to see what the hell the dome covering this town is? You could easily go to the book or find the cliff notes for Stephen King’s original novel, but who says CBS is following that ending to a tee? Frank Darabont changed the ending to “The Mist,” and Stanley Kubrick completely changed “The Shining” so if you know what the dome is, you’re likely wrong about what the writers have planned for it.
You could reasonably make the assertion that I’ve rooted for “Holliston” to stink. And you wouldn’t be that far off. I didn’t root for it to stink, but I was never an ardent supporter of it from out the gates because I simply had nothing to gain from it. “Holliston” is still a vanity project and is still a bit odd, but thankfully the show has gotten better.
I guess with the not so stellar ratings of the fantastic “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,” Disney figured it’d be a good idea to lay the ground work for another “Avengers” vehicle. This time, “The Avengers” are much closer to their cinematic counterparts, taking off from the first movie, and including superhero The Falcon, who is slated to appear in the upcoming sequel. What’s sad is, when you think about it, “Avengers Assemble” is actually a spin off of “Ultimate Spider-Man.” Marvel has laid the ground work for this new series with guest spots from the movie versions of the Avengers since the show started, with appearances from Iron Man, Thor, and the sun glasses donning Hawkeye.
