D2: The Mighty Ducks | |
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Directed by | Sam Weisman |
Written by | Steven Brill |
Based on | Characters by Steven Brill |
Produced by | Jon Avnet Jordan Kerner |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Mark Irwin |
Edited by | John F. Link Eric Sears |
Music by | J. A. C. Redford |
Production companies | Walt Disney Pictures Avnet–Kerner Productions |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release date |
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Running time | 106 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $45.6 million [1] |
D2: The Mighty Ducks (also known as The Mighty Ducks 2) is a 1994 American family sports comedy-drama film directed by Sam Weisman. It is the second installment in The Mighty Ducks trilogy, and a sequel to the 1992 film The Mighty Ducks produced by Walt Disney Pictures, The Kerner Entertainment Company and Avnet–Kerner Productions. Emilio Estevez, Joshua Jackson, Elden Henson, Shaun Weiss, Brandon Adams, Matt Doherty, Garette Ratliff Henson, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Larusso, Brock Pierce, Robert Hall, and Bob Miller reprise their roles in the film with Michael Tucker, Jan Rubeš, and Kathryn Erbe joining the cast. It was followed by the final film of the series, D3: The Mighty Ducks , in 1996.
Former Pee-Wee hockey coach Gordon Bombay is a star in the minor leagues, expected to reach the National Hockey League. However, a career-ending knee injury brings him back to the Blukeville [lower-alpha 1] district of Minneapolis. Bombay is offered a chance to coach a team representing the United States in the Junior Goodwill Games in Los Angeles. He manages to reunite most of his former Ducks players, while the Hawks try to enact revenge for their humiliating loss two years earlier. Their plans are foiled by Fulton, who leaves them tied up in their underpants. Team USA consists of many of the old Ducks, in addition to five new players with special talents.
In Los Angeles, the lure of celebrity distracts Bombay, who begins to neglect the team for a luxurious lifestyle. The team wins easy victories over Trinidad and Tobago and Italy in the double-elimination tournament. Fulton Reed and Dean Portman gain recognition for their enforcer skills, and are dubbed the "Bash Brothers". Backup goaltender Julie Gaffney asks Bombay for a chance to play, but is told to wait as goalie Greg Goldberg is on a hot streak.
The team suffers an embarrassing 12–1 defeat against Iceland, coached by ex-NHL player Wolf "The Dentist" Stansson. USA plays badly, and star center Adam Banks is slashed in the wrist. Frustrated, Bombay drives his players even harder, but they begin to suffer from complete exhaustion. Realizing the children are too tired to complete their school work or even stay awake in class, the team's tutor Michelle McKay intervenes, cancelling practice and confronting Bombay over his thoughtlessness. Once better rested, the players encounter a street hockey team who teaches them to play like "the real Team USA".
Bombay continues to suffer from the pressure until Jan, brother of Bombay's mentor Hans, visits and reminds him of his love for the game. In their match against Germany, Bombay fails to arrive on time, forcing Charlie to tell the referee Michelle is the team's assistant coach. The team struggles, entering the third period tied, until Bombay arrives and apologizes to the team for his behavior. Inspired by the true return of their coach, the players win the game with their signature "Flying V", and advance to the next round.
The renewed Bombay finally realizes Adam's wrist injury and benches him despite his complaints. To fill the open roster spot, Charlie recruits street hockey player Russ Tyler, whose unique "knucklepuck" – which rotates end over end rather than spinning around its centerline – secures USA's victory over Russia, advancing them to the championship game for a rematch against Iceland. Adam's injury is healed only to find Team USA with a full roster. Knowing the team needs Russ's knucklepuck and Adam's skill against Iceland, Charlie gives up his own spot, cementing his leadership as true team captain.
In the final game, the physically imposing Iceland initially dominates as the Ducks incur penalties: Ken picks a fight with an opposing player, the Bash Brothers fight the entire Iceland bench and Dwayne lassos an opposing player before he can check Connie. An annoyed Bombay observes, "this isn't a hockey game, it's a circus."
After a rousing locker room speech from Bombay and new Duck jerseys from Jan, the team emerges rejuvenated. The Ducks tie the game with goals from Connie, Banks, Luis, and finally Russ, who was targeted by Iceland but disguised himself as Goldberg to pull off a successful "knucklepuck". The game is forced to go to a five-shot shootout. With a 4–3 score in favor of the Ducks, Gunnar Stahl, the tournament's leading scorer, is Team Iceland's final shooter. Bombay replaces Goldberg with Julie, who has a faster glove. Gunnar fires a hard slapshot, and Julie falls to the ice. The entire stadium waits in breathless anticipation as she opens her glove and drops the puck, revealing the game-winning save and the Ducks’ triumph over Iceland to win the tournament.
The team returns to Minnesota, and sing Queen's "We Are the Champions" around a campfire.
There are several cameo appearances in D2: The Mighty Ducks. Kristi Yamaguchi, Greg Louganis, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Cam Neely, Chris Chelios, Luc Robitaille and Steven Brill were spectators at the party. Wayne Gretzky, Darren Pang and Mike Emrick also made cameo appearances in the film.
Mighty Duck players that were in the first film but not this one:
The Mighty Ducks spawned a sequel and Iceland was chosen instead of Russia as enemies. [2] [3] [4]
The filming of the final game was the very first event to take place at the then brand new Arrowhead Pond, which attracted approximately 15,000 people. As the filming would span over several days, the production team was aware that the crowd would not be as consistent. To accommodate the dwindling crowd, cardboard stand-ups were brought in and moved around to fill-in shots. [3]
Like its predecessor, the film received negative reviews. [5] [6] [7] It has a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 15 critics with an average rating of 4.2/10. [8] Desson Howe of The Washington Post wrote: "D2: The Mighty Ducks reaches an extraordinary low – even for a Disney sequel. This unctuous barrage of flag-waving, message-mongering, counterfeit morality, which contains the stalest kiddie-team heroics in recent memory, makes the original, innocuous 'Ducks' look like one of the Great Works." [9]
Audiences polled by CinemaScore an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. [10]
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $10,356,748 domestically. [12] [13] It earned a final domestic box office total gross of $45.6 million. [1]
The film was released on VHS on August 17, 1994, on DVD on September 3, 2002 and was also released on Blu-ray Disc on May 23, 2017 as Disney Movie Club exclusive.
The Anaheim Ducks are a professional ice hockey team based in Anaheim, California. The Ducks compete in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division, and play their home games at Honda Center.
Paul Tetsuhiko Kariya is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger who played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). Known as a skilled and fast-skating offensive player, he played in the NHL for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Colorado Avalanche, Nashville Predators, and St. Louis Blues between 1995 and 2010.
Adam Robert Oates is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, former co-head coach for the New Jersey Devils and former head coach for the Washington Capitals. He played 19 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues, Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Edmonton Oilers. Known as an elite playmaker, Oates' career total of 1,079 assists was the fifth-highest total in NHL history at the time of his 2004 retirement. He has the highest amount of games played and points scored among undrafted NHL players, with 1,337 and 1,420, respectively.
The Mighty Ducks is a 1992 American sports comedy-drama film about a youth league hockey team, directed by Stephen Herek and starring Emilio Estevez. It was produced by The Kerner Entertainment Company and Avnet–Kerner Productions and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the first film in The Mighty Ducks film series. In some countries, the home release copies were printed with the title as The Mighty Ducks Are the Champions to avoid confusion with the title of the sequel.
Cameron Michael Neely is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. Neely played right wing for the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1983 to 1996. Neely was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005. He is the president of the Bruins.
D3: The Mighty Ducks is a 1996 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Robert Lieberman and sequel to the 1994 film D2: The Mighty Ducks. It is the third and final installment in The Mighty Ducks trilogy and was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Jeffrey Nordling, Heidi Kling, and Joss Ackland. Estevez, Kling, Ackland, Joshua Jackson, Elden Henson, Shaun Weiss, Matt Doherty, Garette Ratliff Henson, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Larusso, Aaron Lohr, Ty O'Neal, Kenan Thompson, Mike Vitar, Colombe Jacobsen, and Justin Wong reprise their roles from the previous films in the series with Scott Whyte, who played Gunnar in the second film, returning in a different role.
Elden Henson is an American actor. He is best known for playing Fulton Reed in The Mighty Ducks trilogy (1992–1996), Foggy Nelson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) streaming television series Daredevil (2015–2018), The Defenders (2017), Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, and Pollux in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) and Part 2 (2015).
Carsten Nørgaard is a Danish actor. Norgaard was born in Frederiksberg, Denmark. He began his career playing the enigmatic Dolphin Man in the 1988 film The Fruit Machine. Norgaard also appeared in the Disney film D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994). Notable recent appearances include The Man in the High Castle, a 2015 American alternate history TV series, and American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally , an account of the life of World War II propagandist Mildred Gillars.
Vincent Angelo LaRusso is an American actor. He is best known for playing Adam Banks in The Mighty Ducks trilogy.
The Mighty Ducks is an American media franchise. It features a trilogy of live-action films released in the 1990s by Walt Disney Pictures and a live-action sequel television series, and a real-world hockey team in the National Hockey League and a animated television series by Walt Disney Television Animation, The movies revolve around a Twin Cities ice hockey team, composed of young players that stick together throughout various challenges. Despite negative reviews from film critics, the trilogy's commercial success paved the way for the franchise's expansion.
The Mighty Ducks is a media franchise spawned from the 1992 sports film of the same name.
Scott Whyte is an American actor, best known for his role as Chris Anderson on City Guys. He has also appeared in television series such as That '70s Show and Just Shoot Me! and the films D2: The Mighty Ducks and its sequel, D3, as different characters.
Garette Ratliff Henson is an American actor, best known for his role as Guy Germaine in The Mighty Ducks trilogy.
The 2003 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2002–03 season, and the culmination of the 2003 Stanley Cup playoffs. The second-seeded Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Devils defeated the seventh-seeded Western Conference champion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in seven games and were awarded the Stanley Cup for the third time in franchise history. It was New Jersey's first appearance since 2001 and third in four years. It was Anaheim's first-ever appearance. The Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks in seven games to win their third Stanley Cup in less than a decade. For the first time since 1965, all seven games were won by the home team. To date this is the last Stanley Cup Finals in which this happened.
Ice hockey, partially because of its popularity as a major professional sport, has been a source of inspiration for numerous films, television episodes and songs in North American popular culture.
The 2002–03 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim season was the Ducks' tenth season in franchise history. The club qualified for the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history, falling to the New Jersey Devils.
The history of the Anaheim Ducks begins when the team joined the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1993 as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Founded as an expansion team in 1993 along with the Florida Panthers, the Ducks were originally owned by The Walt Disney Company, which named the franchise after its film The Mighty Ducks. Since their inception, the team has played at the Honda Center, located in Anaheim, California, close to both Disneyland and Angel Stadium.
Colombe Jacobsen-Derstine is an American chef and actress. She attended the Natural Gourmet School in New York City, and competed in the 2007 season of The Next Food Network Star. She currently hosts Colombe du jour, her own food-related website and blog.
The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers is an American sports comedy-drama television series based on the 1992 film written by Steve Brill. Developed by Brill, Josh Goldsmith, and Cathy Yuspa for Disney+, the series serves as a follow-up to the film, and is produced by Disney Branded Television, ABC Signature and Brillstein Entertainment, with Brill serving as head writer, and Goldsmith and Yuspa serving as showrunners.