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| 19 | [[quoteright:332:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Mighty_Ducks_film_4422.jpg]] |
| 20 | |
| 21 | A trilogy of Creator/{{Disney}} films where a bunch of misfit kids play hockey. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | In the first movie (released 1992; called ''Champions'' in some countries), JerkAss hot-shot attorney Gordon Bombay (Creator/EmilioEstevez) is sentenced to community service after driving while intoxicated. His duty is to coach a rowdy Pee-Wee hockey team simply called "District 5", a team so down on their luck they don't even have a nickname. As the cold Bombay [[CharacterDevelopment softens up]], his bond with the kids grows, and the team is renamed "The Ducks" after Bombay's employer, the team's new sponsor, Mr. Ducksworth. The Ducks eventually make it to the finals, where they face the Hawks, the team Bombay once played for as a kid; in fact, the coach of the Hawks is still the same man, Jack Reilly. Bombay became disillusioned with the sport when he cost the Hawks the championship with a missed penalty shot. The Ducks win the championship, and Gordon's renewed passion for hockey leads him to try out for the minors. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | In the second movie, ''D2: The Mighty Ducks'' (released 1994), a year after the championship game, Gordon is playing in the minor leagues, but his dream is shot down by a [[GameBreakingInjury knee injury]] (from a cheap shot by a frustrated opponent no less). He is then approached to coach Team USA in the Junior Goodwill Games. Unsurprisingly, Gordon recruits some of his Ducks, along with five other players to represent Team USA. Team USA proves to be a force to be reckoned with, but fame and fortune get to the team, especially Bombay, as they are pummeled in a game against Team Iceland. Soon after Bombay learns that the game is not about celebrity but about having fun, he is able to put the team back on track, and they compete as the Ducks in a re-match against Team Iceland that will decide the championship. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | In the third movie, ''D3: The Mighty Ducks'' (released 1996), the Ducks are awarded scholarships to the famed Eden Hall Academy, the high school Bombay attended. They also get a new coach in the form of Ted Orion. Orion irritates Captain Charlie Conway (Creator/JoshuaJackson) with his stricter coaching methods ([[SoLastSeason "Your little duck tricks won't work anymore!"]] Orion remarks), switching of the teammates' positions, and by renaming them the Warriors. The team also faces adversity from the varsity team, as the former Ducks were accepted into the Academy instead of their younger siblings. After Conway becomes more accepting of his new coach following some self-reflection and a pep talk by Bombay, Orion also softens up a little, and re-renames the team the Ducks, and the stage is set for a game against the varsity team. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Despite also being by Disney, [[WesternAnimation/MightyDucksTheAnimatedSeries the eponymous animated series]] has nothing to do with the films. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | The entire trilogy is available on Creator/DisneyPlus. There is also SequelSeries to the original trilogy called ''Series/TheMightyDucksGameChangers'' beginning in 2021. Taking place in the modern day, Estevez reprises his role as Gordon Bombay as he steps in to help a mother (Lauren Graham) start a youth hockey team after her son is cut by the Ducks, now an ultra-competitive, powerhouse focused entirely on winning. |
| 32 | ---- |
| 33 | !!The Mighty Tropes: |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 36 | |
| 37 | [[folder:Tropes A to C]] |
| 38 | * AcademicAthlete: Required by Coach Orion. |
| 39 | --> "Eden Hall Academy requires you to maintain a "C" average to compete. I believe that's a bad rule. (The players smile and nod approvingly at each other) I don't want any "C" players on my team. It's B's or better, or you're riding the pine pony." (*groans*) |
| 40 | ** During the last game, Dean Buckley tells Tom Riley that Julie is an "A" student. |
| 41 | * AccidentalAthlete: Fulton, by way of BrokenGlassPenalty. The guy can't even skate when he first becomes a Duck. |
| 42 | * AchillesHeel: The Ducks in every movie often play porous defense, to the degree that this is actually a plot point in the third movie while the more athletic Julie eventually supplants long-standing Goldberg as the team's netminder. |
| 43 | * ActuallyPrettyFunny: A few moments in ''D2'': |
| 44 | ** Russ invites Team USA for a friendly game of Rollerblade hockey with his brother's team. When Russ's big brother says he heard stuff about them, Jesse retorts that Russ has a big mouth. Team USA goes MassOhCrap, but after a long beat, his older brother says, "He does, doesn't he?" |
| 45 | ** Dwayne saves Connie by jumping onto the ice with a rope and lassoing the Iceland player about the check her. The commentator is very befuddled by this play. Bombay, while outwardly disappointed that Dwayne stooped to Iceland's level, later admits a part of him was laughing inside, and Ms. [=McKay=] looks like she's trying not to laugh. |
| 46 | * AdvertisedExtra: Emilio Estevez gets top billing in the third movie, but Bombay barely appears at all. |
| 47 | ** A player from Trinidad and Tobago is on the ''D2'' poster. |
| 48 | * AintNoRule: In ''D2'', the commentator lampshades that there's no rule against a team changing into different uniforms during a game. |
| 49 | * AllOfThem: In the first movie, when Bombay goes to the school to talk to the team, he presents a list of the students he wants to see to the principal. What Bombay doesn't know yet is that the entire team is in detention because they had been in science class together and [[ItMakesSenseInContext got into an atom fight with each other, then collectively quacked at the principal.]] |
| 50 | -->'''Bombay:''' ''[presents list of the students on the team]'' Can you tell me where I can find each of them, please?\ |
| 51 | '''Principal:''' They are in Room 223.\ |
| 52 | '''Bombay:''' ''[incredulously]'' ALL of them???\ |
| 53 | '''Principal:''' ''[flares eyebrows angrily]'' ALL of them. |
| 54 | * AlmostKiss: During the round-up in the second movie, Connie and Guy are inches away from a kiss when the other Ducks distract them. Guy acts disappointed even though they kissed in the first movie and presumably have been kissing since then unless he was hoping for second base. |
| 55 | -->'''Guy''': I was ''this'' close! |
| 56 | * AmbiguousSyntax: When Gordon first asks Fulton to join the team, Fulton tells he can't. Gordon thinks he's afraid of playing until Fulton clarifies that he ''physically can't''; he doesn't know how to skate. That's an easier problem to solve; Gordon and the Ducks start Fulton on skating lessons. |
| 57 | * AmoralAttorney: Bombay becomes one, but in a subversion of the trope, his boss doesn't like it. It makes sense; Bombay goes out of his way to antagonize judges and prosecutors, who he has to be able to work with. |
| 58 | * AnalogyBackfire: When Dean Buckley compares Eden Hall Academy to an ant colony. |
| 59 | --> '''Buckley:''' There's one queen in there, and the rest are dedicated worker ants. Everyone pulls their weight; nobody complains. There's harmony and growth, same here at Eden Hall. Only ''you'' are the workers, the backbone.\ |
| 60 | '''Russ:''' And you're the queen?\ |
| 61 | ''(snickering)'' |
| 62 | * AnimalMotifs: Invoked by Gordon when he unveils the team name in the first film. He specifically cites ducks' agility, intelligence, the fact they fly in "perfect formation", and fight together as a flock. This foreshadows/references the fact that despite going against conventionally superior hockey teams (read: bigger and stronger), they manage to win through ingenuity and teamwork. The duck motif is best epitomized by their "Flying V" formation. This is also in effect with the Hawks. Hawks are known for being aggressive and violent predators; the team is very aggressive and violent on the ice and bully the Ducks like predators off the ice (most noticeable when [=McGill=], Lawson, and Banks corner some of the Ducks in an alley; the three circle the Ducks like birds of prey). |
| 63 | * AppealToFlattery: Gordon gets his law firm to sponsor the team this way. While Ducksworth seems somewhat moved by the PR victory of being a firm that gives back to the community, he fully relents when Gordon throws in a personalized jersey. |
| 64 | * ArtisticLicenseGeography: |
| 65 | ** In the first movie, we learn that the Banks family's address is "450 North Hennepin Avenue." The real-life 450 Hennepin Avenue doesn't exist. The closest address to it is in downtown Minneapolis, not the suburb of Edina where the family is shown to live in ''D2''. |
| 66 | ** In the second film, Bombay says he doesn’t want “to spend the rest of [his] life sharpening skates in this rinky-dink town.” He lives in Minneapolis, the largest city in Minnesota, with a population of over 350,000 people. |
| 67 | * ArtisticLicensePhysics: |
| 68 | ** The knucklepuck simply wouldn't work. The sheer lack of any aerodynamics would result in the puck harmlessly fluttering at the goal rather than improbably flying through the air, as many hockey-playing viewers likely discovered in the early 1990s. |
| 69 | ** There's also Fulton's slapshot. It moves fast enough to ricochet around the arena and still knock out Mr. Tibbles, and yet in the tracking shots from behind it appears to be moving all of three miles an hour. |
| 70 | ** One such slapshot knocks a goalie into the net. [[https://what-if.xkcd.com/39/ This can't actually happen.]] |
| 71 | * ArtisticLicenseSports: A lot of illegal hits by both teams. Also, no youth league anywhere would let kids play without face cages. If the Ducks really snuck into the playoffs as the final seed, they should play the league-leading Hawks first, not last. |
| 72 | ** The referees make no effort to control the shenanigans players get up to. Prime example: between plays, an opposing player reaches out and knocks Jesse's helmet off. A referee restrains Jesse before he can retaliate, meaning ''the ref saw what happened''. |
| 73 | ** One egregious illegal hit in the first movie is the checking from behind that Banks suffered in the championship. [=McGill=] does get penalized for cross-checking, but only for two minutes. Even in the NHL, checking from behind is given a match penalty, not a two-minute minor. This hit would earn at least a long suspension at Pee-Wee level, if not a season-long disqualification, and as the coach who allowed it, Reilly would almost certainly be banned from coaching ever again and would be very lucky to avoid legal charges, especially considering the opposing coach is expert ''lawyer'' Gordon Bombay. |
| 74 | ** This hit serves as a {{Bookends}} for Banks, who delivers a similar hit to Charlie in the opening game. Had Bombay not still been in full {{Jerkass}} mode at that point, he could have gotten Banks and Reilly tossed out of the league right there, as Banks' hit was ''much'' worse than the one [=McGill=] put on him. [=McGill=]'s hit was dirty, but at least he could claim he was attempting to make a play on the puck. Banks has no such defense; the Hawks have corralled the puck and Charlie is just trying to get on his feet, nowhere near the play. In real life, Banks would have been suspended for the season at minimum and most likely would never have played in the league again, Reilly likely would have been banned for life (especially considering that unlike his quiet approval of [=McGill=]'s hit, he's openly cheering Banks' even more egregious hit) and Charlie's mother could have sued the Banks family if Charlie had been seriously injured on the play. |
| 75 | ** The worst example, though, may be in the third film. One of the players levels another (it may have been a Duck on a varsity player) well after the puck has been passed (a hit that would definitely draw a major penalty and likely a suspension), but on seeing it the dean turns to the man next to him and says "A legal check..." It most certainly was not. |
| 76 | ** Fulton comes to a complete stop during his turn in the climactic ''D2'' shootout; in real life, a player must stay in motion once he controls the puck. |
| 77 | ** The Iceland player who slashed Banks' arm after Banks scored the Ducks' lone goal in the teams' first meeting in ''D2'' would probably have been sent home for the remainder of the Junior Goodwill Games in real life, with more discipline likely forthcoming. |
| 78 | ** Speaking of the Junior Goodwill Games, there never was such a thing. The real Goodwill Games faded into oblivion in the early 2000s. |
| 79 | ** Of course, all of the antics the US team gets up to in the 2nd period of the rematch. To put it mildly, "roping" would probably garner more than two minutes... |
| 80 | ** In ''D3'', Portman shows up during the second intermission of the JV-Varsity Showdown, signed scholarship in hand, and takes the ice with the Ducks for the third period. This would not be allowed normally, as coaches must provide the referee with a roster of dressed players prior to the game, and any player not mentioned on the roster has to sit out. |
| 81 | ** Iceland isn't a known hockey power in the slightest. A more suitable final opponent for Team USA in ''D2'' would've been either Russia or Canada, America's two biggest rivals in hockey. To be fair, Team USA did play and defeat both of them. [[note]][[WordOfGod Steven Brill]] (who wrote the scripts for all three films) revealed in an [[http://time.com/mighty-ducks/ interview]] that he didn't use Russia because he considered them "too obvious" for the bad guy role, didn't want the film to get political, and because the fall of the Soviet Union (which had happened only a few years prior) had diminished Russia's standing as America's chief antagonist. Iceland was chosen because it was a "stock country" with a "Nordic mystique" and not many people knew about it, allowing it to be fashioned into a convincing villain team. Though that [[VoodooShark only begs the question]] of why not use Sweden, an ''actual'' powerhouse in hockey.[[/note]] |
| 82 | * AsYouKnow: When Gordon accepts Stansson's one-on-one challenge in ''[=D2=]'' and lays out the rules so the audience can follow the game. |
| 83 | -->'''Gordon''': Three-bar. First one to hit both posts and the crossbar. Have to take it out past the blue line. |
| 84 | -->'''Stansson''': I know the game. |
| 85 | * AttackPatternAlpha: The Flying V. [[RunningGag Used so much]] that [[SoLastSeason opponents catch on]]. |
| 86 | * AuthorAppeal: The films are about hockey because scriptwriter Steven Brill is a hockey fan. |
| 87 | * BaitAndSwitch: When Gordon sees Hans for the first time in years and start talking about his Pee Wee career: |
| 88 | -->'''Hans:''' You scored 198 goals that year Gordon. It was a shame you quit. You-\ |
| 89 | '''Gordon:''' (annoyed) could have gone all the way, yeah.\ |
| 90 | '''Hans:''' No. You really loved to play. |
| 91 | ** There's another one later after Fulton joins the Ducks. During warmups, they make a point of showing off his powerful but inaccurate slap shot to intimidate the other team. By the time Fulton gets the puck in actual gameplay, the opposing team leaps out of the way in fear of getting hit. And then he passes the puck to Guy, who skates right up to the goal and gets the easy shot in. |
| 92 | * BashBrothers: Dean and Fulton are explicitly called "The Bash Brothers" in ''D2''. Kenny Wu becomes an official "Bash Brother" after standing up to the Iceland player who broke his stick over Banks' wrist. This carries on into ''D3'', where Dean consoles Kenny, calling him "little bash brother" after both were given very questionable penalties. |
| 93 | * BeautyBrainsAndBrawn: The three Eden Hall Warriors who get the most screentime in ''D3'' are Riley (the AffablyEvil {{Hunk}}), Scooter (the pedantic DeadpanSnarker), and Cole (the DumbMuscle). |
| 94 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Dwayne is easily the nicest of the new recruits in ''D2'', being overly polite and a Southern gentleman. Bombay has him lasso his classmates as part of a training game, and Dwayne takes to it readily. In the climax, when Connie is about to be bodyslammed, Dwayne incurs a penalty by lassoing the Iceland player and delivers a BondOneLiner about treating ladies with respect. |
| 95 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Russ's brother boos Team Iceland when they keep Russ from using the knucklepuck and dogpiling him. |
| 96 | * BigDamnHeroes: |
| 97 | ** Connie is about to be bodyslammed in ''D2'' by an Iceland player, as she's struggling to control the puck. Dwayne sees the danger, grabs his lasso, and leaps onto the ice against Bombay's protests. He saves her with his rope, humiliates the guy, and earns applause from the crowd and his teammates. |
| 98 | ** ''D3'' has Gordon Bombay, who saves the Ducks' scholarships with his oratory skills, and Dean Portman, whose sudden return to the Ducks after a long absence brings Fulton Reed back to full power. |
| 99 | * BigFancyHouse: While his players are housed in dorms during the Junior Goodwill Games, Bombay gets a ''sweet'' Malibu beach house all to himself. |
| 100 | * BigGame: The Minnesota state pee-wee championship against the Hawks in ''D1'', the Junior Goodwill Games ice hockey final against Iceland in ''D2'', and the JV-Varsity match against the Eden Hall varsity team in ''D3''. |
| 101 | * BigGuyLittleGuy: A two-to-one example with the "Bash Brothers", big guys Dean and Fulton, and little guy Kenny Wu, who we find out is no less scrappy than his big "brothers" after learning an important lesson from Russ's friend in ''D2''. |
| 102 | * BigNo: Wolf has one in ''D2'' when, thanks to a little covert op trickery by Bombay, Russ is able to pull off his [[TheDreaded dreaded]] "knucklepuck" to tie the championship game at the end of regulation and send it into a 5-shot shootout for the title. |
| 103 | * BitingTheHandHumor: A mild example when District 5 first learns what their team's going to be named just prior to the Cardinals game. |
| 104 | -->'''Terry''': The ''Ducks''? [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe We're the Ducks?!]] |
| 105 | -->'''Peter''': Man, what brain-dead jerk came up with that name? |
| 106 | -->'''Coach Bombay''': As a matter of fact, I did, but I didn't have a choice. We're being sponsored. |
| 107 | -->'''Averman''': By who, [[WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck Donald]] and [[WesternAnimation/DaisyDuck Daisy]]? |
| 108 | * BlockingStopsAllDamage: |
| 109 | ** Totally averted in the first film, where a goalie who tries to stop the puck gets ''[[BlownAcrossTheRoom knocked backward into the net]]'' by it. |
| 110 | ** Subverted in the second film, where the opposing team's goalie manages to stop a slap shot from the power hitter. The film takes a few seconds to show the goalie taking off his glove and a massive puck-shaped bruise. The second time, Fulton accidentally aims for the head and knocks him out. |
| 111 | * ABloodyMess: In the third movie, Hans uses ketchup to act like he's just cut himself on his skate sharpener. Charlie isn't fooled for a moment, possibly because Hans has tried this stunt before. |
| 112 | -->'''Hans:''' ''(after squirting ketchup from within his machine)'' Oh! Oh, I've really done it this time, Charlie! Get me a tourniquet.\ |
| 113 | '''Charlie:''' ''(throws him a towel)'' Knock it off, Hans. Wipe off the ketchup and stop trying to cheer me up. |
| 114 | * BlownAcrossTheRoom: In the first film, when Fulton uses his slapshot against the Hawks' goalie (who, unlike [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere a goalie from earlier in the movie]], actually stays in to block it), it knocks the goalie backward into the net. |
| 115 | * BondingOverMissingParents: Bombay and Charlie talk about growing up without their fathers. (Charlie's mom divorced, while Bombay's father died.) |
| 116 | * BookDumb: Dwayne Robertson, who needs the others to explain what several of the terms the Eden Hall dean uses means. |
| 117 | * {{Bookends}}: the hockey-related plots of ''D1'' begin and end with the Minnesota State Pee-Wee Championship tied at the end of regulation with a kid with a DisappearedDad being awarded a penalty shot after being taken down illegally from behind on a breakaway. The kid gets one last pep talk from the coach who had become his surrogate father, before going out and taking the penalty shot using the triple deke, sending the puck straight for the nearside post. The first difference is that Reilly tells Gordon that if he misses, he'll be letting his coach and his whole team down, while Gordon tells Charlie that win or lose, it's great that they got this far in the first place. The second difference is that [[spoiler:Bombay's shot in 1973 bounces out and he falls to his knees in devastation, while Charlie's shot in 1993 glides in for the winning goal to jubilation as Charlie slides on his knees across the ice.]] The only thing that remains the same afterwards is that [[spoiler: the Hawks lose.]] |
| 118 | * BrickJoke: Linda, to whom Charlie is attracted ''D3'', circulating a petition to get the controversial mascot of the Eden Hall Warriors changed. It becomes a wager for the matchup between the Freshman and Varsity hockey teams, and the change is made official after the Freshman team wins the match. |
| 119 | * BrokenGlassPenalty: |
| 120 | ** {{Inverted}} in the first movie -- Fulton hits a slapshot that breaks a window on Gordon's van, and Gordon decides to recruit him to the team. |
| 121 | ** {{Subverted}} in the sequel when Fulton ([[RunningGag again]]) hits a slapshot that breaks a guy's window. The guy nonchalantly throws the puck back. |
| 122 | * ButtMonkey: Adam Banks. Injured in the first two movies, and pulled away from his friends and assigned to a new team in the first ''and'' third (and taking all the derision that implies). Sorry, cake eater! |
| 123 | * CallingTheOldManOut: |
| 124 | ** After Banks is carted off the ice on a stretcher having been cross-checked by [=McGill=] on orders from Reilly, Bombay realizes just how little Reilly thought of him while he [[WellDoneSonGuy beat himself up over his missed penalty shot for the past 20 years]]. It leads to this exchange: |
| 125 | ---> '''Reilly:''' (''talking to his team'') They score against us[[note]]Banks managed to score despite being cross-checked[[/note]], they're gonna pay the price. Now don't worry, we're gonna get that one back. (''Bombay approaches the Hawks bench'') You got something to say to me, Bombay?\ |
| 126 | '''Bombay:''' To think I wasted all those years worrying about what you thought. (''pause'') You're going down, Reilly. |
| 127 | ** When Bombay chews the team out for their epic loss against Iceland, they turn it back on him for neglecting his responsibilites. |
| 128 | --->'''Bombay:''' 12 to 1, huh? 12 to 1. You know what word comes to mind when you think of that, huh? ''Pathetic!'' You guys were brought here to play hockey.\ |
| 129 | '''Jesse:''' What about ''you''?\ |
| 130 | '''Bombay:''' What about me, Jesse?\ |
| 131 | '''Julie:''' Coach Stansson knew everything about us. ''They'' were ready for us.\ |
| 132 | '''Luis:''' Yeah, and you spend all your time driving around in convertibles talking to all those sponsor fools.\ |
| 133 | '''Fulton:''' Or hanging with the Iceland lady. We saw you two Saturday night.\ |
| 134 | '''Portman:''' Eating ice cream with the enemy, huh, coach? |
| 135 | * TheCameo: The trilogy centers around hockey, so obviously, some big-name hockey players - as well as athletes from other sports - appear in them. |
| 136 | ** In the first film, the Ducks take a trip to the Met Center, then the home of the Minnesota North Stars, where they share a brief chat with then-North Stars Basil [=McRae=] and Mike Modano. By the time the second film was released, the North Stars had dropped the "North" from their name and moved to Dallas. |
| 137 | ** In the second film, basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Olympic champion diver Greg Louganis, and Olympic champion figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi appear, along with the usual big-name hockey players, those in this film being Chris Chelios, Luc Robitaille, and Cam Neely. Also, some guy named Gretzky. |
| 138 | ** In the third film, then-real life Mighty Ducks star Paul Kariya is radio announcer Josh's special guest during the second intermission of the JV/Varsity Showdown. |
| 139 | * CareerEndingInjury: Gordon suffers one near the beginning of ''D2'' during a minor-league game, ending his NHL career before it begins. |
| 140 | * TheCasanova: Luis Mendoza. Connie certainly thinks so. [[EvenTheGuysWantHim So does Averman.]] [[GreenEyedMonster Guy]] is not so impressed. |
| 141 | * CentralTheme: Loyalty and teamwork are important themes and all three films. |
| 142 | ** In the first film, Charlie helps Gordon to realize that he's responsible for the only sense of cohesion the Ducks ever had, that he has a responsibility to remain committed to them. Once Gordon gets a grip and starts actually trying to work with the team, he builds and transforms it into a success. |
| 143 | ** The prospect of fame and fortune goes to Gordon and the players' heads in ''D2'', and his relationships and the players' safety suffer. With help, Gordon comes to appreciate the importance of focusing on the team again, and the players become refocused working hard and playing for pride. |
| 144 | ** Relationships are tested in ''D3'', where big events take place. The former Ducks receive scholarships to a prestigious high school, and Dean doesn't come along for the ride. The team is left under the jurisdiction of a new coach who makes personnel changes. Charlie is upset greatly by all of this, and his reaction causes a rift between him and his teammates. [[spoiler:Hans dies]] and the team's scholarships come under threat. Success becomes contingent upon everyone coming together to pull everything together. |
| 145 | * CharacterDevelopment: |
| 146 | ** Adam has this over the film trilogy. He starts as a Hawk who goes along with bullying D5, only to change his tune when Bombay finds out he should be playing for the Ducks. We find out that he likes playing hockey because he thinks it pleases his dad; in contrast, his dad turns out to be supportive of him whether he's on or off the ice. In the second movie, he wants to play despite a serious wrist injury because his dad and scouts will be watching; Bombay has to sit him down and tell him he's a damn good player, whether or not scouts see him, and he needs to take care of his health. In the third movie, Orion moves him to Varisty because he is better than them and actually practices in the off-season. Adam becomes an UnwittingPawn as his friends and teammates get into an EscalatingPrankWar, culminating in him returning to Junior Varisty after his scholarship is threatened and he wants to be with his friends again. The kid GrewASpine against varisty and refuses to take their nonsense anymore. |
| 147 | ** Russ gets this between the second and third movies. In ''D2'', he starts as a loudmouth that likes heckling the Ducks, only to invite them to a friendly rollerblade hockey match with his brothers and friends to cheer them up. Russ then proves he can be a team player when Charlie recruits him and mellows. In ''D3'', he's the OnlySaneMan along with Julie; he said his parents told him to work his butt off because scholarships don't come like this every day. As Charlie and Fulton angst about Orion being a jerk, Russ says they don't have to like the guy; they just have to listen to him. |
| 148 | ** Fulton starts a Boo Radley-type character; a big, mysterious guy who seems to only communicate in grunts, silently helps the Ducks in various ways, and whom the other kids only know rumors about, such as not being allowed to play hockey in order to protect an alleged football scholarship. Once Bombay corners and convinces him to play for the Ducks, he starts to come out of his shell and is shown to be a pretty gentle soul. Early on, he latches onto Charlie as a peer mentor. He opens up further in ''D2'' as he almost instantly strikes up friendship with Portman, leading to the "Bash Brothers" schtick. Despite this, Fulton is shown to exclusively be a follower until midway through ''D3'', when he makes the decision to move out of Charlie's shadow and [[spoiler:return to school]] for his own good. |
| 149 | * ChekhovsGun: Early in ''D3'', Charlie and his teammates marvel at a display of Brazilian fire ants. They later use the ants against the Varsity. |
| 150 | * ChekhovsSkill: |
| 151 | ** Bombay's legal training and debating skills come into play even after he starts getting back into hockey. |
| 152 | *** In ''D1'', it helps him sell the idea of sponsoring District 5 to Ducksworth as well as recruit both Duncans and Fulton with pitches tailored to each of them (to the more skeptical Tammy he puts the idea of hockey as "figure skating with a stick" while letting the more excited Tommy help pitch it further to his sister; for Fulton he quickly feels out why someone with such a powerful shot isn't already playing hockey and offers to help him get over his barriers). |
| 153 | *** In ''D3'', his acting as the Ducks' lawyer gets Eden Hall to reverse their initial decision to revoke their scholarships by implicitly threatening to sue them on the Ducks' behalf for breach of contract. |
| 154 | ** In ''D2'', Russ' brother teaches Ken Wu the "stick, gloves, shirt" fighting technique. He then puts it to use against Iceland. |
| 155 | * ChildHater: Bombay at first, which is one reason why he's not thrilled about coaching a pee-wee hockey team. (The other reason is that he's come to hate hockey after what Coach Reilly did to him.) [[CharacterDevelopment He gets better, though]], after working with the Ducks (especially Charlie). |
| 156 | * ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Some of the players from the first movie[[note]]Terry Hall, Dave Karp, Peter Mark, and the Duncan siblings[[/note]] are suddenly gone with no explanation in the sequels. It's particularly noteworthy in the case of one of the players -- Jesse's brother, Terry Hall, who's not mentioned at all despite being a very eager member of the team in the first film. The news implies, however, that Team USA recruited new people who have different skills specialties -- Dwayne for his signature cowboy moves, Ken Wu for being an Olympic figure skater, Julie for being an expert goalie, and Dean for being an enforcer. |
| 157 | ** Jesse Hall falls victim to this in ''D3'' after being the most outspoken Duck in each of the first two films. |
| 158 | * CommanderContrarian: Peter Mark, a Duck in the first film. He leads a mutiny against Bombay, and objects to Charlie taking the championship-winning penalty shot. |
| 159 | * CompositeCharacter: Due to Jesse Hall being absent in ''D3'', some of his characteristics are given to Russ Tyler, who was introduced in ''D2''. |
| 160 | * ConfusionFu: What the Ducks rely on. Nobody notices the figure skater has a shot at an empty net, because no one can figure out what she's doing. FridgeLogic dictates that this is the only way the Flying-V can work, either, because by all rights it should succumb to a trap at the blue line: the way to counter it is to have everybody cover the lead man, because the V will go offside if they don't pass to him before reaching the blue line. |
| 161 | ** Or do what Iceland did and body-check ''the entire formation'' for a turnover and five-man breakaway. (This is a case of ArtisticLicenseSports; hitting anybody but the puck carrier is supposed to be an interference penalty; hitting the entire formation should net several of you at least two minutes in the box). |
| 162 | * ContinuityNod: |
| 163 | ** The second movie: |
| 164 | *** In the Goldbergs' family deli in ''D2'', There's a picture of Greg with the caption "OUR SON, THE GOALIE". They're also running a special on chopped duck liver on rye. |
| 165 | *** [[RememberTheNewGuy Jan]] has a picture with the Ducks winning the state Championship hung in his store. Gordon mentions how he and Charlie's mother drifted off between movies while observing it. |
| 166 | ** The third movie: |
| 167 | *** Gordon plans on staying on as Team USA Coach in the Goodwill Games after his showing in the previous movie. |
| 168 | *** Charlie asks Dwayne to start a game of round-up before their first practice at the Eden Hall rink. |
| 169 | *** One of the Eden Hall seniors tries to get Charlie to show him how to triple-deke like he did against the Hawks. |
| 170 | *** Gordon's talk with Charlie during the latter half of ''D3'' is similar to Jan's discussion with Gordon in ''D2''. |
| 171 | *** The same could be said for the training montages in the last two films. |
| 172 | *** Fulton and Dean are immediately re-referred to as the BashBrothers once they take to the ice. |
| 173 | * TheCorrupter: Reilly is this for the Hawks. He instills the idea that SecondPlaceIsForLosers, and he orders [=McGill=] to injure Banks in the championship game (which [=McGill=] is only too happy to do). |
| 174 | * CreatorCameo: Scriptwriter Steven Brill plays prosecutor Frank Huddy in ''D1''. See WhatCouldHaveBeen in Trivia for details. He has cameos in ''D2'' and ''D3'' as well. [[note]]In ''D2'' he's the nameless guy seen speaking to Gordon twice during the "Mr. Big Shot" montage. In ''D3'' he's the arcade attendant that notices Charlie and Fulton playing hooky.[[/note]] |
| 175 | * CripplingTheCompetition: |
| 176 | ** In ''D2'', Wolf "The Dentist" Stanson whacks Gordon Bombay his bad leg, keeping Bombay from winning a game of three bar against him. |
| 177 | ** It's also how Gordon's comeback is derailed in the first place. |
| 178 | ** Done to Banks in the first two movies: in the first, he is hit with a cheap shot that sends him sliding into a goalpost, knocking him out. In the second, his arm is seriously injured after an opposing player hits him with his stick as though it were an axe. |
| 179 | * CrackOhMyBack: Goldberg displays some inflexibility by the second film. This convinces Bombay to embrace Julie as a backup goalie. |
| 180 | * CrossingTheBurntBridge: Russ has been heckling Team USA and even mocking Bombay to his face. Then Charlie finds out that he is a really good hockey player and wants to recruit him to the team. Russ gives a winning but obvious OhCrapSmile when Bombay recognizes him. Fortunately, Bombay is willing to see his knucklepuck. |
| 181 | * CrowdChant: |
| 182 | ** The Ducks' "Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack!" |
| 183 | ** In ''D1'' the Ducks' fans go [[Music/{{Queen}} "We will, we will quack you!"]] in unison during their semifinal win over the Cardinals to showcase just how far the Ducks have come as a team compared to the start of the movie when nobody except a few parents and Fulton show up to watch then-Distrct 5. |
| 184 | ** In the first movie, the rival Hawks had "Win! Win! Win! Win! Win!" which while mainly used by Coach Riley and the team was also used by the Hawks' supporters in the championship game. |
| 185 | * CruelCheerleader: |
| 186 | ** One of the Eden Hall cheerleaders snidely orders Linda to vacate the "cheerleader-only" table in the cafeteria. |
| 187 | ** Riley's unnamed girlfriend is revealed at the end to have been making time with [[spoiler:Luis]] behind his back. |
| 188 | * CurbStompBattle: |
| 189 | ** ''D1'' and ''D2'', District 5/Team USA's first game against the [[OpposingSportsTeam the Hawks and Team Iceland, respectively]], are utter blowouts (17-0 and 12-1, respectively). The 17-0 blowout is further implied to have had the potential to be even more lopsided had the Hawks not decided to lolly-gag in the third period which Coach Riley admonishes them for. The instance in the first film is justified, as they were just beginners with no real training. In the second film, they lose due to overconfidence. The Varsity Warriors score three goals against the Freshman Warriors in their grudge match before it's broken up by Orion. |
| 190 | ** Off the ice in ''D2'', three Hawks set up a rope in the park to clothesline the Ducks as revenge for beating them in the first movie. Then Fulton shows up and tosses them around like ragdolls before tying them to a tree in their underwear. |
| 191 | [[/folder]] |
| 192 | |
| 193 | [[folder:Tropes D to L]] |
| 194 | * DangerThinIce: {{Discussed}} in 'the first movie when Bombay drives his limo onto the frozen pond to meet his new team and then takes them for a spin on the pond. Charlie's mom is absolutely livid at Bombay and doesn't accept his assurances that the ice wasn't going to crack. |
| 195 | -->'''Casey Conway:''' They send you over here to coach the team and you endanger their lives!\ |
| 196 | '''Gordon Bombay:''' What danger? Look, I grew up on the ice! I know when it's safe to drive on!\ |
| 197 | '''Casey:''' How do you know?\ |
| 198 | '''Bombay:''' I just know, okay?\ |
| 199 | '''Casey:''' Well listen, Mr. Zen Master. ''You'' may be in tune with the ice universe, but when it comes to my kid, "I just know" doesn't cut it! |
| 200 | * DarkIsEvil: The OpposingSportsTeam in each movie wears black. |
| 201 | * DavidVersusGoliath: |
| 202 | ** The Ducks are the perennial losers up against the perennial winners in the first film. |
| 203 | ** In the sequel, Bob Miller makes this analogy re the Ducks (David) and Iceland (Goliath). As if to underscore this, we then see Ken Wu (the smallest Duck) dwarfed by a much larger Icelander. |
| 204 | * DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: The films leave little doubt that Gordon had a close relationship with his father, who passed away not long before his fateful championship game. This added to the reasons why Gordon quit hockey after said game, though Gordon acknowledges that the two incidents were not really related. |
| 205 | * DeusExitMachina: |
| 206 | ** In the championship game of the first film, Adam is injured and has to get medical treatment and Fulton gets ejected for starting a fight against the Hawks, leaving the less talented Ducks to have to win the game themselves. |
| 207 | ** Happens in the second and third films with Portman, who gets ejected from the first game against Iceland and in ''D3'' doesn't rejoin the team until almost the end of the film. As he's the biggest baddest guy in the team (Fulton is too but can't quite be as aggressive without him) the Ducks pounded by the bigger and stronger Iceland and Varsity teams until he returns and is able to smack them around just as much. |
| 208 | * DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: In ''D3'', Varsity could report the Ducks for turning their uniforms into ice. That would be grounds for them losing their scholarships, which the board wants. Instead, they invite the group to a fancy dinner and leave them to pay the bill for steak and seafood. The Ducks retaliate by filling their dorm rooms with Brazilian fire ants. |
| 209 | * DidntThinkThisThrough: After the fire ants prank the Varsity challenge the Ducks to a secret game. The Ducks are only too happy to oblige thinking they can show them up on the ice, but the pissed off Varsity with no ref and no reason to play fair (after all THEY certainly don't need to impress the school to stay) and wanting to take their aggression out proceed to just cheat and do nothing but cheap shots and blatantly illegal moves (cracking Charlie with his stick during the face off, checking the goalie etc) which as Connie points out makes it impossible to win and not even worth bothering to play if they're just gonna cheat. Eventually the Ducks just give up and start a brawl on the ice, which is when Orion comes in and breaks it up. |
| 210 | * DisappearedDad: Charlie (divorce) and Gordon (death) bond over theirs. |
| 211 | * DisqualificationInducedVictory: A related phenomenon occurs in the first movie. They lose most of the games in the season, but due to a series of extreme coincidences (including another team canceling their entire season due to measles) they make it to the playoffs. |
| 212 | * DownerBeginning: Happened to Gordon Bombay in the first two movies: |
| 213 | ** In ''The Mighty Ducks'', a young Gordon, playing for the Hawks, missed a penalty shot that would have won the championship for the Hawks; instead, the Hawks lost in overtime. |
| 214 | ** In ''D2'', Gordon suffered a [[CareerEndingInjury career-ending knee injury]] while playing in minor league hockey. |
| 215 | * DownToTheLastPlay: The first film ends with a penalty shot just after the end of regulation. The second one ends on the final shot of the shootout. |
| 216 | * DoWrongRight: Russ tells Charlie in ''D3'' that they can't lose their scholarship. So if they're going to prank Varsity, they need to make sure they're not caught. |
| 217 | * TheDreaded: |
| 218 | ** Showcasing the power of Fulton's slap shot in pregame warm-ups put the fear of God into the Cardinals, which made it easy to pull the Statue of Liberty play by making all of them curl up on the ice in terror and give another Duck the space and time to put in the easy goal. |
| 219 | ** In ''D2'', Russ' "Knucklepuck." Stansson's best strategy was essentially either mobbing Russ or catching him before he could get a shot off. As soon as Bombay found a way around this (disguising Russ as the goalie) and Russ had a clear shot, Stansson could only let out a BigNo as the "knucklepuck" soared past the baffled Iceland goalie to tie the game and send it to a shootout. |
| 220 | * DrenchCelebration: The Ducks in ''D1'' celebrate their semifinal victory over the Cardinals by spraying shaken-up soft drink cans all over the locker room, with Fulton heaving a cooler full of ice and dumping it on Bombay's head. |
| 221 | * DrillSergeantNasty: Coach Orion comes across as this at first, until he turns out to be a ReasonableAuthorityFigure as well as a PapaWolf. |
| 222 | * DudeWheresMyRespect: Goldberg's reaction when Orion promotes Julie to starting goalie. |
| 223 | --> '''Averman:''' ''(looking at the roster)'' You're riding the pine pony, pal.\ |
| 224 | '''Goldberg:''' Heh heh, very funny.\ |
| 225 | '''Averman:''' Julie's one. You're two.\ |
| 226 | '''Goldberg:''' I'm ''backup''? ''(rushes up to look at the roster himself)'' How could he ''do'' this to me? What am I, chopped liver? |
| 227 | * DueToTheDead: |
| 228 | ** At [[spoiler:Hans']] funeral, Bombay pauses the ceremony to place an original Ducks jersey with his given name on the back on top of the casket. |
| 229 | ** The Ducks later pay tribute to him by skating in a circle while touching their bare hands to the ice, described as "a Norwegian gesture of respect." |
| 230 | * DumbMuscle: |
| 231 | ** Neither Fulton nor Portman is exceptionally bright. Both are prone to ConfusingMultipleNegatives, and neither sees the problem with asking if America always dominated in the Olympics (which date back to 776 BCE). |
| 232 | ** Eden Hall enforcer Cole is similarly dim. Team captain Riley has to remind goalie Scooter that he "know[s] better than to confuse Cole." |
| 233 | * EasilyDistractedReferee: In the first game against Iceland, Dean Portman is given a game misconduct penalty and ejected for rushing at an opponent unprovoked and knocking him down, then striking a referee. Later, Julie "The Cat" Gaffney is ejected for "intent to injure" after shoving a pair of Icelandic hecklers. Shortly after, An Iceland player intentionally shatters his stick off Adam Banks' outstretched arm after Banks has scored a goal. He is given a two minute penalty. |
| 234 | * EccentricMentor: Hans in the first and third movies, his brother Jan in the second. |
| 235 | * EnemyEatsYourLunch: In the third movie, the Varsity players steal Ken's lunch. Charlie, Russ, and Fulton get them back by letting them steal a lunch bag that's filled with horse crap. |
| 236 | * EscalatingWar: A subplot in ''3''. At one point, Varsity gets their clothes soaked in liquid nitrogen and their rooms filled with fire ants. Orion puts an end to it when he catches them doing a grudge match early in the morning. |
| 237 | --> '''Orion''': Now, for the last time: stay away from the Varsity! |
| 238 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Larson after [=McGill=] knocks Banks out of the championship game. |
| 239 | --> *Larson and [=McGill=] find Banks unconscious on the ice* \ |
| 240 | '''Larson:''' Adam! Adam, are you okay? (to [=McGill=]) What'd you ''do?'' \ |
| 241 | '''[=McGill=]''' My job. |
| 242 | * EvenTheGuysWantHim: Luis Mendoza, as seen when he's introduced. |
| 243 | --> '''Connie:''' (about Luis) He's a good-looking skater! |
| 244 | --> '''Averman:''' Very good-looking! What do you think, Guy? |
| 245 | --> '''Guy:''' Shut up, Averman! (knocks Averman down) |
| 246 | ** Though, to be fair, he's likely just trolling Guy, who is Connie's boyfriend. |
| 247 | * ExactEavesdropping: Some of the kids overhear Bombay and Reilly having an argument in a hallway but mistake Gordon's "[The Ducks] didn't even deserve to live" as sincerity instead of sarcasm. |
| 248 | * ExactWords: When Fulton tells Bombay that he can't play for the Ducks, he has to explain that he means it literally. |
| 249 | -->'''Bombay:''' Why don't you play for us?\ |
| 250 | '''Fulton:''' I can't.\ |
| 251 | '''Bombay:''' What do you mean, you can't?\ |
| 252 | '''Fulton:''' I mean I ''can't''!\ |
| 253 | '''Bombay:''' What, are you afraid?\ |
| 254 | '''Fulton:''' No, I ''can't'', you moron! I don't know how to skate! |
| 255 | * {{Expy}}: Stansson seems to come across as another version of Reilly. {{Subverted}} at the end, though, when he congratulates Gordon for winning. |
| 256 | * FairWeatherFriend: Adam's former Hawk teammates, especially [=McGill=], and even his former coach views him as an enemy to be taken down after he gets transferred to the Ducks, even though it was against his will. |
| 257 | * {{Fanservice}}: In ''3'', [[MrFanservice Dean]] is sent to the penalty box and immediately starts stripping off his clothes and equipment (likely a ShoutOut to ''Film/SlapShot''). The announcer immediately lampshades it. |
| 258 | * FatComicRelief: Goldberg is the fat goalie; he has a lot of the franchise's funnier lines. |
| 259 | * FictionalCounterpart: Eden Hall Academy has much in common with Shattuck-Saint Mary's, a Minnesota boarding school with a hockey program attended by the likes of Sidney Crosby and Zach Parise. |
| 260 | * FireForgedFriends: |
| 261 | ** Fulton first thinks that Dean is a SmallNameBigEgo {{Jerkass}} that intimidates the guys and flirts with the girls. Dean in turn underestimates Fulton until seeing the guy's slapshot. They become the Bash Brothers after their first game and team up to protect the team. |
| 262 | ** Russ Tyler's first appearance in ''D2'' has him heckling the team, but when they're at their nadir, Russ and his gang help them get their groove back. Russ then joins the team and helps them defeat Iceland. |
| 263 | * {{Gasshole}}: Apparently, Goldberg has something of a reputation for this. |
| 264 | * ForceAndFinesse: In ''D1'', this is the point of the "soft hands" exercise. Gordon brings egg cartons to the rink and shows the kids they need to "cradle" the puck, using eggs to demonstrate. If they block it too hard the egg will break, but with finesse it will remain intact. The intent is to show that maintaining fine control of the puck as it is passed back and forth is more important than pure power. Eventually, all the kids get it after a few hours of practicing. |
| 265 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: In ''D2'', Bombay is initially chagrined at the addition of Dean Portman, noting that his team doesn't play "goon" hockey, but Tibbles notes that the team will need an enforcer to keep up with Iceland. Sure enough, Portman is ejected mere seconds into their first meeting, and the Ducks are obliterated by the overly physical play of Iceland. With both Bash Brothers available in the championship game, the Ducks manage to keep their deficit at a more manageable level. |
| 266 | * [[ForgotICouldFly Forgot I Could Stop]]: Either this happened, or Luis apparently didn't refine his stopping skills between ''D2'' and ''D3'', as he goes right back to being a classic FragileSpeedster: Fantastic speed, absolutely ''NO'' brakes. Justified as it's revealed that none of the Ducks practice in the off-season, with Adam being the exception. |
| 267 | * FormalFullArrayOfCutlery: At the upscale restaurant in the third movie. Cowboy Dwayne is confused by all the forks, especially the "itty-bitty one." |
| 268 | -->'''Dwayne:''' Waiter, I got too many forks. I only need one. ''(picks up the smallest fork)'' What's this itty-bitty one? ''(chuckling)'' What's this itty-bitty one? |
| 269 | * [[FunnyBackgroundEvent Funny Foreground Event]]: In the first film, the Ducks and their classmates start to fight in class, except one girl whose just doing her work like nothing's happening. |
| 270 | * TheGenericGuy: Guy Germaine's character can only be described as a) Connie's love interest and b) the best player on the team aside from Banks. |
| 271 | %% * Getting Crap Past The Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition. |
| 272 | * GlassCannon: The team itself, according to Orion. |
| 273 | --> "I've seen your tapes. I know you can score goals; I just don't know if you can stop them." |
| 274 | * GoingHomeAgain: |
| 275 | ** In the first film, Gordon's backstory is that he's a rising, talented hockey player who scored 197 goals in a season just before clanging what could have been the 198th off the goalpost. This turns him off hockey and he goes into law. His return back to Hans' sports equipment shop after the disastrous start to his Pee-wee coaching career ends with a quiet nighttime skate that brought back old memories of him and his dad in a frozen backyard pond, rekindling his love of the game and prompting him to begin the long road to repairing the Ducks. |
| 276 | ** ''D2: The Mighty Ducks'': |
| 277 | *** At the beginning, Bombay returns from his minor league hockey stint after his CareerEndingInjury by bus on a rainy night alone (mirroring his departure at the end of the first film by bus on a clear day with his team and Charlie's mother cheering him off) --he comes home unsure about what to do now that he's injured but doesn't want to go back to being a lawyer (the eggs Jan makes helps a little, but doesn't solve the problem) until he gets the Team USA offer. |
| 278 | *** Bombay goes back to the house he's staying at courtesy of his sponsor Hendrix after getting caught up in the Hollywood spotlight -- with Jan flying in to cook him the same egg dish -- before he goes rollerblading on the beach and reconciling with the team. |
| 279 | * GoodParents: Adam's father is technically a HeroAntagonist, in that in the first movie he asks for Duckworth to move his son back to the Hawks so Adam can be with his friends. He is supportive, however, when Adam decides to play for the Ducks, and goes to his son's side when the latter gets injured. It's referenced in the second movie where Adam tells Bombay he needs to work through his injury because his dad will be watching Team USA; Bombay sits him down and tells him his dad would be proud of him whether or not he plays. He's right, especially when Adam wins the shootout for Team USA. |
| 280 | * GoldenSnitch: A standard playoff structure (albeit with an unusually low bar for qualification) is made to look like this when the Ducks are able to overcome an 0-11 start [[spoiler:and a later forfeit]] because one team forfeited their season due to measles, and another team is only doing a little bit better than the Ducks, and it's ten teams competing for eight berths. They then run through the playoffs and win the state title. |
| 281 | * GossipEvolution: In the first film, Gordon asks Jesse and Guy why Fulton isn't on the team. Jesse explains that Fulton's a football player and apparently a prep school offered him a scholarship on the condition he doesn't play hockey so he doesn't get injured. Guy adds that he heard it was actually a ''college'' who offered it. When Gordon asks Fulton himself later on, he reveals none of that is true and the reason he didn't join the team was because he doesn't know how to skate. |
| 282 | * GracefulLoser: |
| 283 | ** Despite being jerks the entire tourney, Team Iceland accepts defeat and their star player even tells his team to go shake the hands of their opposition. This even extends to Stansson himself who after a moments contemplation shakes Gordon's hand and congratulates him despite being borderline evilly cruel all movie. |
| 284 | ** While most of the Varsity team are NOT this as you'd expect just walking off in disgust Scooter the goalie and the only one of them who thought antagonising the Ducks was beneath them and kept telling his team to chill out seems perfectly fine with their loss. As does their own coach who despite ordering them to up the brutality and was callous to the Ducks getting battered around and injured congratulates Orion on his team's win. |
| 285 | * GreekChorus: The commentators, especially in the last two films. |
| 286 | * GroinAttack: An accidental one PlayedForLaughs in the first scene with then-District 5 kids in ''D1'', as the driver whom the kids pranked with a fake lost purse (it had dog poo in it) chases them through a construction site -- the kids manage to hurry across a single plank crossing over a gap, but the pranked man slips when he tries to cross to follow them and lands on the beam with his crotch, wincing in pain for a couple of seconds before he keels over and falls all the way down to the muddy ground below. |
| 287 | * HandshakeRefusal: A Varsity Warrior puts his chewing gum in Dwayne's hand. |
| 288 | * HappyEndingOverride: The final shot of the first movie is Bombay on his way to professional tryouts to play in the minors. The first scene of the sequel is him tearing up the minors with the announcer saying that it's only a matter of time before he makes the NHL. Cue cheap shot, ending his hockey career forever. |
| 289 | * HellYesMoment: |
| 290 | ** Despite it costing the team a penalty, the Ducks cheer on Dwayne when he saves Connie from being bodyslammed. Bombay is the only one who is disappointed. |
| 291 | ** Luis Mendoza has a hard time stopping. He finally succeeds while on a breakaway with the puck, in the climax. Luis is shocked that he stopped just in front of the Iceland goal. Gordon with a SoProudOfYou look shouts at him to score. Luis does so, closing Iceland's lead, much to the crowd's approval. |
| 292 | ** Russ's brother, the Ducks, and Team USA supporters have this reaction in ''D2'' when Russ disguises himself as the goalie in Goldberg's uniform, gets the puck, and shoots a goal before Iceland can stop him. |
| 293 | ** In the third movie, the Ducks are taking a pounding from the Varsity, can barely maintain a stalemate, and desperately need a miracle. In walks... |
| 294 | --->'''Portman:''' ''(reading from a contract)'' "Dean Portman is awarded a full athletic and academic scholarship to the Eden Hall Academy." I had this lying around the house in Chicago, my attorney thought I should sign it, I agreed. IT'S OFFICIAL, BOYS! I'M BACK!\ |
| 295 | ''(everyone cheers)'' |
| 296 | * HeroAntagonist: Mr. Banks is this briefly in the first movie; he tries to pull some strings to get his son back on the Hawks team because he wants Adam to be with his friends. Obviously, Bombay opposes this but is sympathetic. During the final game, Adam's dad is cheering his son as a Duck and goes to his side when Adam is knocked out and has to leave on a stretcher. This no longer applies in the sequels; Bombay tells an injured Adam that his dad is proud of him whether or not he's on the ice and Mr. Banks wouldn't want his son to have a permanent injury. |
| 297 | * HeroicBSOD: |
| 298 | ** Team USA is in this after they lose to Iceland and Bombay becomes a DrillSergeantNasty. They start bickering with each other from the stress and can't keep up with their studies. Russ notices and invites them to let off steam with a friendly rollerblading match against his brother's street team. Having fun reminds the team why they're playing hockey in the first place. |
| 299 | ** In the third movie, Charlie starts undergoing this when Orion takes away his captain position and administers ToughLove to the team about improving their defense. He drops out of Eden Hall, argues with his family and friends, and plans to finish his education at public school. Bombay snaps him out of it by telling him why Orion dropped out of the NHL and how they're [[NotSoDifferentRemark not that different.]] |
| 300 | * HeroOfAnotherStory: The team that beats Gordon's Hawks at the beginning of the first film. Their underdog story could make a good movie in its own right. |
| 301 | * HiddenDepths: |
| 302 | ** Adam seems as much of a JerkJock as the rest of the Hawks, but when his father angrily says, "My son would rather not play than play for your team," he does a DoubleTake, showing he does ''not'' agree with this sentiment; winning is less important to him than playing for the pure love of the game. |
| 303 | ** In the third movie, after Charlie and Fulton temporarily quit, Goldberg is made a defenseman and proves surprisingly effective. |
| 304 | * HistoryRepeats: In the beginning of ''D1'', a young Gordon Bombay takes a penalty shot for the Hawks but misses as the puck hits the goal post and ricochets away, losing the game. At the end of the movie, Charlie takes a penalty shot for the Ducks, except this time the puck goes into the net, winning the game for his team. |
| 305 | * HistoryWithCelebrity: In the first film, Basil [=McRae=] recognizes Gordon because they played each other in Pee Wee hockey[[note]]A goof on the filmmakers' part as [=McRae=] grew up in Canada and not Minnesota[[/note]]. Mike Modano is also familiar with Gordon's prowess, but incorrectly believed Gordon became a farmer instead of a lawyer. |
| 306 | * HockeyFight: Pops up a few times. |
| 307 | ** Ken Wu picks a fight with the Iceland goalie and spends two minutes in the box after the guy intimidates him. |
| 308 | ** In ''D3'', the Freshman and Varsity teams have hostile relations to start with, and by the time Orion comes along to break up their grudge match, they're in the middle of a physical altercation. |
| 309 | * HoistByTheirOwnPetard: Bombay all but tells the alumni board this in ''D3'' when he points out that Eden Hall gave him the education he needed to become the excellent lawyer that he is when he represents Orion and the Ducks in their fight to stay in the school. |
| 310 | -->'''Gordon''': I ''will'' collect damages. I ''will'' win, because I am very, ''very'' good. You know why I'm so good? Because I had a good education. ''You'' gave it to me, and you're going to give it to these kids. |
| 311 | * HollywoodCalifornia: The better part of ''D2'' takes place in Los Angeles; Russ Tyler is recruited from South Central. Ken Wu comes from San Francisco. |
| 312 | * HollywoodHeartAttack: One of the kids relates to Gordon what happened to their previous coach: A long rant, followed by a sudden clutch at his left arm. Gordon concludes, "Heart attack." |
| 313 | ** Worth noting is that the kids claim [[InnocentInaccurate that he hurt his arm.]] |
| 314 | * HometownHero: In-universe, Russ is listed as such after Charlie recruits him to the team. Los Angeles loves how a kid from their city is winning in the Goodwill Games. |
| 315 | * HonestCorporateExecutive: Admittedly, the Hendrix Hockey Apparel sponsorship in ''D2'' doesn't have the best influence on Bombay, [[DistractedByTheLuxury distracting]] him from what's best for the team with pay, perks, and publicity. But Tibbles never lies to Bombay or the kids, genuinely celebrates their athletic prowess and victories, and is a fundamentally NiceGuy. |
| 316 | * HonorBeforeReason: In ''D3'', Adam Banks’ skill winds up getting him moved to the Varsity team instead of staying with the rest of the Ducks on the JV team. Despite this making him a target of his friends’ pranks against the Varsity team, he still stands with the rest of the Ducks when their scholarships are threatened and elects to return to the Ducks by the time of the JV-Varsity showdown. |
| 317 | * HowManyFingers: When Karp takes a slapshot to the face. Good thing he was wearing a helmet. |
| 318 | --> '''Gordon:''' ''(holds up three fingers)'' Karp, how many fingers am I holding up?\ |
| 319 | '''Peter:''' He wouldn't know that anyway.\ |
| 320 | '''Gordon:''' Shut up, Peter. |
| 321 | * {{Hypocrite}}: |
| 322 | ** Ducksworth in ''D1''. He forces Gordon to coach peewee hockey because he thinks Gordon needs to learn fair play, but later we see that Ducksworth himself is totally willing to not play fair when it suits him. Like for instance: pulling strings with the Pee Wee Hockey League to get his friend's son (Banks) to stay on a team he legally shouldn't be on, threatening Gordon with his job if Gordon doesn't cooperate with this, then firing Gordon out of spite when Gordon refuses to cave. |
| 323 | ** The Varsity team in ''D3''. They look down on the Ducks because most of them come from middle/working class families and dismiss their scholarships to the school as a "free ride". Russ immediately points out that the Varsity players are also on a "free ride" as their rich parents are the ones paying for their tuition. |
| 324 | * IAmNotHim: Orion [[EstablishingCharacterMoment immediately establishes that he's doing things differently than Bombay]] by demoting Charlie from his position as captain. |
| 325 | -->'''Goldberg:''' Hey, Bombay gave him that "C".\ |
| 326 | '''Orion:''' And I respect that, but that's the past. This is my team now, and I'll be choosing the captain. |
| 327 | * ICouldaBeenAContender: PlayedWith. In the first film, Gordon was a star Pee Wee hockey player until he quit due to a combination of grief over his father's death and missing a potential game winning shot that cost his team the championship. As an adult, people keep reminding Gordon how great he was and that he could have gone "all the way" to the [=NHL=] if he didn't quit. Hans, on the other hand, considers it sad because of how much Gordon loved to play as a kid. By the end, he regains his love for the game and decides to try out for the minors. He's on the fast track to the NHL by the beginning of the sequel until he suffers a CareerEndingInjury, which makes him play the trope straight. |
| 328 | * IgnoredExpert: Coach Orion is a former NHL player and is completely right about both the Ducks' lackluster defensive skills and the need for them to improve in order to compete in hockey at the high school level. However, because this requires shaking up the Ducks' traditions which the team might have been more receptive to if he wasn’t acting like a self-righteous tyrannical dictator and an a**hole about it which is why the team ignores him until Bombay has a heart to heart with Charlie. Charlie humbly admits he was wrong and starts listening, winning Orion's respect. |
| 329 | * InformedAttribute: While Charlie briefly quits the team in ''D3'', the commentator says that Goldberg's suddenly excelled as a defenseman. He's alluded to in the Freshman-JV as the "new defensive weapon," but we don't get to see much of this until the climax, where he successfully knocks down several Varsity players. |
| 330 | * InsultOfEndearment: Jesse first calls Adam "cake eater" to mock him for being rich and a Hawk after he has to join the Ducks. After Adam gets injured, Jesse gets an EveryoneHasStandards moment and promises to kick Hawk butt on his behalf. Later, it becomes an in-joke between them and Adam smiles whenever Jesse calls him "cake eater". |
| 331 | * ItOnlyWorksOnce: A major plot point in ''D3''. Coach Orion tries to stress that "their little duck tricks" (the knuckle-puck, the flying V, etc.) won't work at this level of hockey and they need to focus on defense. In their first game, the Ducks' tricks do work in the first two periods—giving them an absurd nine-goal lead. However, by the third period the other team catches onto the tactics and stops them, then takes advantage of the Ducks' lackluster defense to score nine goals themselves, ending the game in a tie. |
| 332 | * ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: After the fire ant prank in ''D3'', a Varsity player tells the Ducks that they're all just white trash. Russ leans over and asks, "Who are you calling white?" |
| 333 | * IWillShowYouX: After Charlie gets an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in ''D3'' for smashing his stick against a goalpost, he goes to the box grumbling "I'll show you 'unsportsmanlike'!" |
| 334 | ** The reason Dean strips in the penalty box during the JV-Varsity game is that he's outraged to get a Hooking call, declaring "I'll show you a real penalty!" |
| 335 | * JerkassHasAPoint: |
| 336 | ** In ''D3'', the varsity captain when he says it's not fair that players who would've been on the JV team under normal circumstances, like his younger brother, lost their spots because the school decided to give full scholarships to a team that won the gold medal in an international competition. His argument is well-founded, especially since it's implied that other players weren't even allowed to ''try out'' for the team. On the other hand, the Ducks didn't ''know'' that and didn't ask for the scholarship besides that. |
| 337 | ** Orion is a walking moment of this trope. He's absolutely strict on the team and removes seniority privileges, but he is completely correct. Goldberg is an okay goalie but he doesn't practice and is definitely worse than Julie. Making Julie the starter goalie is completely reasonable. Likewise, he refuses to acknowledge Charlie as captain because he wants a player to earn their way as the team leader. Even Hans tells Charlie that Orion has the right to test him. When Charlie earns Orion's respect, he receives that coveted C on his jersey for captain. |
| 338 | ** Orion may be harsh on the team, but everything he says about defense is proven right in an early game when a 9-0 lead collapses into a 9-9 tie because of shoddy defense. They take it to heart later and follow all of his instructions. |
| 339 | ---> '''Orion:''' How long does it take to score a goal? ''(throws a puck into the message board)'' Less than a second! That means no lead is safe if you can't play defense! Now get this straight: I don't give a damn how many goals you score! I want one number on your mind: zero, as in "shutout"! You got that?! |
| 340 | * JerkassRealization: Charlie comes to one as Gordon tells him the full story about Orion. He learns that Orion has a daughter who was injured in an accident, so he quit playing pro to take care of her. |
| 341 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Coach Orion. First off, although he pretty much destroys the status quo on the Ducks by first putting the players in all the wrong positions on the ice even benching their most experienced goalie and blaming them when they lose, he is violently protective of them. To the point where he even [[PapaWolf threatened a Varsity member for their part of the non sanctioned game.]] As well as defending them when they were about to get kicked out of Eden Hall. He also gave up his NHL career because his daughter was injured in a car accident and she didn't want to disrupt her recovery. |
| 342 | --> '''Ted Orion:''' It's a damn good thing I am not your coach, now get your team out of here now!!! |
| 343 | ** Adam's father comes across as a bit of a snob when he tries to stop Gordon from taking Adam away from the Hawks, but he's doing it because he wants his son to be able to play with his friends and honestly thinks Adam would rather quit hockey than not play with them. During the final game we see him sitting with the Hawks and wearing a Hawks jacket but cheering for Adam rather than the Hawks, indicating that he still supports his son regardless of the team he's playing for. |
| 344 | * KidsPlayMatchmaker: Charlie tries to hook up his (presumably divorced) mom and his hockey coach. They start to date, but come the start of ''D2'', we find out his mother remarried while Gordon was trying out for the minors. |
| 345 | * KnowsTheRopes: Dwayne uses his lasso in ''D2'' to stop an Iceland player from board-checking Connie. He then gets two minutes in the box for "roping". |
| 346 | * KnowWhenToFoldEm: Although they do their best to stop Russ from doing his signature move, the Iceland players sensibly duck out of the way when he actually pulls it off. None of them want a head injury, after all. |
| 347 | * KungFuProofMook: ''D3'', the Ducks are told "Your little Duck tricks won't work anymore." |
| 348 | * LargeHam: "Hey Goldberg, if that puck was a CHEESEBURGER you'd stop it!" |
| 349 | * LaserGuidedKarma: |
| 350 | ** The first film opens with Gordon smugly beating a D.A. in court and also humiliating the judge involved by using one of the latter's old arguments to win. When Gordon is arrested on a DUI, guess which court he ends up in. The D.A. says the State won't be looking for a plea deal and throws Gordon's own words back on "gotta go for the Big W" with a smug smile on his face the whole time. |
| 351 | -->'''Judge Weathers''': To think I almost stayed home this morning... |
| 352 | ** The second film has Sanderson attack Adam by going for his recovering wrist. The rest of the team pegs him and ensures he suffers a HumiliationConga. First, Ken Wu successfully gets past him to score a goal and then do the "stick, glove, shirt" trick to take him down. Second, Sanderson tries to check Connie from behind. Dwayne grabs his rope and lassos him like a cattle, to the audience's amusement. Sanderson finds himself off-balance and knocked down several times. |
| 353 | * LastMinuteHookup: [[spoiler:At least two of these in ''D3'': Charlie with Linda and Luis with Riley's unnamed girlfriend. There's also a hint of romance between Scooter and Julie.]] |
| 354 | * LaymansTerms: Dwayne is a little slow on the uptake in ''D3'' when Dean Buckley tells the team that their scholarships are being revoked and they'll have to enjoy "other educational opportunities", so Russ has to simplify it for him. |
| 355 | -->'''Dwayne:''' "Other educational opportunities"? What's he sayin', Russ?\ |
| 356 | '''Russ:''' I'll put it in terms you can understand: ''Adios, amigo.''\ |
| 357 | '''Dwayne:''' ''(quietly)'' Oh. |
| 358 | * {{Leitmotif}}: "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" is Fulton and Portman's theme. It plays in the background when they're on the ice doing their BashBrothers thing, and they listen to it at night in the dorms. |
| 359 | * LetMeAtHim: {{Invoked}} in the sequel -- Goldberg tells his teammates to hold him back while he makes a show of doing this during the game against Iceland. |
| 360 | * LightningBruiser: Luis Mendoza is brought on in ''D2'' because of his great speed. He just has some issues with stopping. |
| 361 | * LifesavingMisfortune: Gordon admits to Charlie in the third film that being arrested for DUI was the best thing that happened to him, as it got him to start turning his life around. |
| 362 | * LivingCrashpad: Since Goldberg's the goalie, opposing players and his own teammates tend to crash into him when the other team is trying to score. |
| 363 | [[/folder]] |
| 364 | |
| 365 | [[folder:Tropes M to S]] |
| 366 | * ManHug: Bombay and Charlie share a lot of these. |
| 367 | * MassOhCrap: |
| 368 | -->'''Bombay:''' Rancher Dwayne! \ |
| 369 | '''Dwayne:''' Yes, sir? \ |
| 370 | '''Bombay:''' Round me up some stray cattle, there! *Hands over rope* \ |
| 371 | ({{Beat}}) \ |
| 372 | '''Dwayne:''' My pleasure! \ |
| 373 | '''Team:''' Ohhhhhhhh! *All scatter* |
| 374 | * MeaningfulFuneral: [[spoiler: Hans' death is the turning point in ''D3''.]] |
| 375 | * MeaningfulName: Adam '''Banks'''. He's rich. "Adam" means "man" in Hebrew, so he's literally a rich man. |
| 376 | * MeaningfulRename: The pee-wee hockey team at first is only known as "District 5" because they are so rag-tag and broke they have no team identity -- they could only be referred to in the cold bureaucratic manner the league assigned them when they divided up the state of Minnesota into districts for purposes of assigning which kids played on what team. Only after Bombay came around to serious proper coaching and the team got its sponsorship from the law firm he works for did they become known as the Ducks. |
| 377 | * MiracleRally: In the title games of the first two films. ''D1'', the Ducks were down 3-0 after one period and 4-2 after two (a little more imposing since the pee-wee games had 12-minute periods instead of 20). ''D2'', Team USA was down 4-1 to Iceland after two periods and was facing a 5-2 deficit partway through the third. In the third movie, the Ducks manage to jump to a 9-0 lead against an opponent; the game ends up ''being tied'' due to sloppy defense. |
| 378 | * MissingMom: While Gordon's father is mentioned frequently throughout the films, his mother is only mentioned once, when Gordon says that he had to take care of her after his father's death. |
| 379 | * MyGreatestFailure: Bombay is haunted by his missed penalty shot in overtime for ''decades''. He finally gets over it when he realizes what a dick his old coach was. |
| 380 | * NeverMyFault: In ''D3'', Charlie's FaceHeelTurn is primarily driven by this, blaming his negative behavior on anything and anyone other than himself. This includes Gordon leaving the team, Orion's coaching methods and insistence on shaking up the status quo, and the atmosphere of Eden Hall itself, among other things. It takes [[spoiler:Hans' death]] and Gordon's pep talk later in the film for him to finally take responsibility for his actions. |
| 381 | * NewscasterCameo: Real-life sportscaster Bob Miller provides the play-by-play for several of the Ducks' games. |
| 382 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: |
| 383 | ** For most of the first movie, Jesse doesn't trust Banks for being a Hawk and having assisted in bullying them. Then in the final game, Reilly orders [=McGill=] to check Adam and get him off the ice on a stretcher. Jesse gets an EveryoneHasStandards moment and promises to "kick Hawk butt" on Adam's behalf. The team overall is more determined to win and avenge one of their own. |
| 384 | ** In the third movie, Charlie and Fulton dropped out of Eden Hall after arguing with Orion for taking away what they loved about the team. It's the perfect opportunity for the Board to fill those spots with two of the Varsity family students who otherwise would have gotten the spot. Instead, they try to kick ''all'' of the Ducks out and Bombay successfully defends his team by pointing out it would be a breach of contract. |
| 385 | * NoSell: |
| 386 | ** Fulton unleashes his high-powered slapshot on the Icelandic goalie, who manages to stop it...but ends up with [[AmusingInjury the imprint of the puck in his palm]]. The second time around, this doesn't happen. |
| 387 | ** The Ducks' [[SignatureMove Flying V]] worked in ''D1'', but gets stood up in ''D2'' (by Iceland in the final) and ''D3'' (by the varsity team in the [[ItsPersonal challenge game]]) and they get knocked on their asses. |
| 388 | * NotHelpingYourCase: |
| 389 | ** In the first film, Bombay asks Connie what their current record is. She replies they're 0-9, then weakly defends they almost won once; they ''almost'' scored a goal and they only lost by 5 points that time. |
| 390 | ** When Michelle [=McKay=] introduces herself as the team's tutor, Dean Portman protests, saying "I don't need no school!" A thousand grammar teachers would say otherwise, Portman. |
| 391 | * ObliviousToHerOwnDescription: ''D1'', Tammy still isn't sold about joining District 5 even after she and Tommy take Bombay's invite. |
| 392 | -->'''Tammy''' (once Bombay leaves): Mom isn't gonna like this at all. |
| 393 | -->'''Tommy''': So what? If I have to try out for figure skating, then you gotta try out for hockey. |
| 394 | -->'''Tammy''' (frustrated): What do I know about hockey?! (''knocks Tommy onto his back'') |
| 395 | -->'''Tommy''' (slightly dazed): More than you think. |
| 396 | * OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Several games take place offscreen. Notably in ''D2'', Team Russia deals Team Iceland its first defeat (allowing the Iceland-US rematch to be a true winner-take-all in the double-elimination format set up); Team USA also defeats Team Canada offscreen, likely not to alienate the Canadian demographic. |
| 397 | * OffIntoTheDistanceEnding: Seeing that his team is fine without him, Gordon Bombay happily walks out of the Eden Hall rink unnoticed at the end of ''D3''. |
| 398 | * OnceAnEpisode: Each film features a scene in the Mall of America and at least one scene where the Ducks are in roller blades. |
| 399 | * OhCrap: |
| 400 | ** Fulton's slapshots tend to strike fear into the Ducks' opponents. |
| 401 | *** When he winds up for a shot against the Cardinals, everyone ducks for cover -- which turns out to be a ruse so that the Ducks can score a more conventional goal. |
| 402 | *** When Fulton fires off his slapshot against the Hawks, the goalie is literally screaming in fear before the puck hits him and knocks him into the net. |
| 403 | *** In the second movie, when the returning characters practice against the new recruits, Fulton readies his slapshot. The returning characters immediately panic and rush out of the way. The new characters (especially [[TheBigGuy Portman]]) wonder why until Fulton takes his shot. |
| 404 | *** Fulton does this again later to Iceland's goalie, when it's his turn at the shoot out. The goalie had previously blocked one of his shots but messed up his hand doing so, so he's shaking nervously, and ends up failing the save because Fulton gets him in the head. |
| 405 | ** During the first movie's championship game, Reilly looks visibly unnerved when Bombay makes it clear that he's [[NotAfraidOfYouAnymore no longer intimidated by the Hawks]] and is determined to put Reilly in his place. |
| 406 | --->'''Bombay:''' You're going down, Reilly. |
| 407 | * OhNoNotAgain: Banks joined the Ducks because he was mandated to, and needed a while to win over his teammates. He goes OhCrap in ''D3'' when seeing that Orion assigned him to Varsity because he is the Ducks' best player. |
| 408 | * OminousLatinChanting: The Varsity team gets a very excitable ''Dies irae'' over their plays. |
| 409 | * OnlySaneMan: Russ and Julie are this in the third movie. They're talking about how things will change with Coach Orion, with Julie mentioning she's going to try her hardest but her parents are okay with her coming home if it doesn't work out. Russ says he doesn't have that option; his dad jokingly threatened to whip his butt if he loses his scholarship. When Orion administers ToughLove and BrutalHonesty, they get in line and listen, with Russ outright reminding Charlie that being at Eden Hall is an opportunity most of them wouldn't have. Though they both have a NotSoAboveItAll moment by going along with pranking Varsity when the latter starts an EscalatingPrankWar. |
| 410 | * OpposingSportsTeam: First the [[BrutalBirdOfPrey Hawks]], then Iceland, then Eden Hall Varsity Warriors. [[SlobsVersusSnobs Slobs vs Snobs]] |
| 411 | * OrderedToCheat: Two in the first film: |
| 412 | ** The first time, Gordon orders the team to take several falls, but Charlie refuses. It becomes a WhatTheHellHero moment and the beginning of a mild HeelFaceTurn. |
| 413 | ** During the championship game, Reilly orders [=McGill=] to take Banks out. [=McGill=] is only too eager to comply. |
| 414 | * PapaWolf: |
| 415 | ** Adam's actual father and Gordon tag-team this when Reilly orders [=McGill=] to check Adam from behind, giving him an incapacitating head injury. Mr. Banks gives a BigOMG and heads down to the ice to help his son as paramedics load him on a stretcher. Bombay goes over to Reilly and says, "To think I wasted all those years, worrying about what you thought. You're going down, Reilly." Indeed, it's implied that Bombay didn't forcibly recruit Adam just for his skills, but also to keep him from succumbing to Reilly's pressure. |
| 416 | ** It's revealed that Orion is this to both his real daughter and to the Junior Varsity team. He gave up his NHL career to help her recover from an accident and spends a lot of time with her. Later, when he finds Junior Varsity engaged in a grudge match with Varsity, he yells at them both to stop and tells Varsity that he would discipline them if he were their coach. While Varsity taunts the Ducks, they leave with minimal fuss. Later, Orion gets mad on learning the board wants to suspend the kids' scholarships and calls on Bombay to argue their case. |
| 417 | * ParentalSubstitute: Gordon for Charlie, who doesn't have a father. Gordon lost his own father when he was about Charlie's age so he knows how he feels. Gordon even falls in love with Charlie's mother but their relationship has ended by the time the second film begins. Hans is implied to have been one for Gordon in a similar way. |
| 418 | * ThePerfectionist: Gordon Bombay the lawyer at the start of ''D1''. His crooning of his 30-0 record and immediate disavowal of [[NoodleIncident the Frasier case because he "scored with the court reporter" with the "intelligent body"]] speaks to Bombay's outlook at that point in the plot. It was probably something he got from his old coach Jack Reilly, who bemoans the lone second-place banner from the 1973 season among the sea of championship banners just prior to Bombay the coach's first game against the Hawks. |
| 419 | * PleaseWakeUp: Subverted. Larson goes to Adams's side when the kid gets knocked out in the first movie. He starts shaking him and saying, "Adam?" with increased urgency and yelling at [=McGil=] for checking him. Fortunately, Adam just needs medical treatment and is recovered by the end of the movie. |
| 420 | * PhraseCatcher: "Shut ''up'', Averman!", and, unsurprisingly, "''Goldberg!!!''" |
| 421 | * PowerfulButInaccurate: Fulton's slapshots are powerful enough to knock a goalie into the net, but his accuracy in the first film is 20% at best. It gets better as he gains more experience. |
| 422 | * PunctuatedForEmphasis:"I am Goldberg, THE GOALIE!!" |
| 423 | * APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Inverted. ''D1'''s BigBad Jack Reilly was Gordon Bombay’s coach during his childhood. |
| 424 | * PutOnABus: Half the kids from the first film, presumably to make way for the newcomers. Also, Charlie's mom, said to have re-married during Gordon's comeback attempt. Hans is said to be visiting his mother, leaving the shop in the care of his brother Jan. |
| 425 | * PuttingTheBandBackTogether: Charlie goes around town gathering his teammates at the start of the second film. The montage serves as a rapid way to introduce the returning Ducks players to those in the audience who hadn't seen the first film, such as Banks first being seen practicing his moves in his suburban home driveway by himself which indicates both his being studious at keeping up his skills in the off-season and also being a LonelyRichKid (or would be if it weren't for the Ducks coming by -- he immediately jumps at the chance at joining them). |
| 426 | ** Along the way, an AlmostKiss between Connie and Guy is broken up, upsetting the latter. |
| 427 | -->[[MakeOutKids "I was]] ''[[SubvertedTrope this close]]''!" |
| 428 | ** Also serves as a plot point when the team shows up to play for the first time after getting back together. Seriously, for the ''first'' time: |
| 429 | ---> '''Bombay''': Haven't you guys been practicing in the off-season?\ |
| 430 | '''Averman''': You know, I knew we forgot something. |
| 431 | * PetTheDog: Larson staying with Banks until the paramedics arrive after [=McGill=] injures him. |
| 432 | * PintSizedPowerhouse: Because Ken Wu is tiny compared to everyone else on his team, he can use his figure-skating to move past them and score goals easily. Russ's older brother even recognizes this and gives him some tips on how to fight guys bigger than him. |
| 433 | * RagTagBunchOfMisfits: The Ducks, when they were simply District 5, are a band of underdogs who were basically at the bottom of the barrel (they didn't even have proper hockey equipment). Once they become the Ducks, they become champions. |
| 434 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: |
| 435 | ** The Dean of Eden Hall in the third film likes the Ducks and does his best to fight for the Ducks even when the Alumni and the Board want to revoke their scholarships. |
| 436 | ** Subverted with Ducksworth in ''D1''. He seems like one at first, forcing Gordon to become a pee-wee hockey coach for his community service in the hope that it would make Gordon a better person and attorney. Ironically he ends up firing Gordon after Gordon displays his newfound integrity by refusing to let Banks continue playing with the Hawks in violation of district rules. |
| 437 | ** Coach Orion proves to be this. Despite making a bad first impression on the team by interrupting Dwayne's lassoing game and making Charlie do laps, he really wants them to become better hockey players. Hans says as much, that he knows what he's talking about. When Bombay gives Charlie the courage to apologize to Orion and ask to rejoin the team, Orion welcomes him back with a smile, showing all is forgiven. Later he goes PapaWolf on finding out the board wants to take away their scholarships and gets Bombay to argue on their behalf. Orion also compromises on making training sessions fun and productive. |
| 438 | * RecursiveCanon: After Disney branded their NHL franchise the Mighty Ducks a year after the first movie was a hit, it's established in-universe in ''D3'' that the NHL team was specifically named after Gordon Bombay's team once they rose to national prominence. |
| 439 | ** Exploited for all its worth in the final act of ''D2.'' The climactic game takes place in the Ducks' home arena (then known as the Arrowhead Pond) and in the third period the team come out wearing the Ducks' home uniforms. The novelization also canonizes the naming of the team after Bombay's squad in the epilogue. |
| 440 | * RightBehindMe: In ''[=D2=]'', three Hawks players tie a piece of rope to trip the incoming roller-skating Ducks as revenge for their loss, but don't realize there's one player unaccounted for... |
| 441 | -->'''Larson''': ''(hiding out of sight with his teammates)'' One large order of shredded Duck coming up! |
| 442 | -->'''Deep offscreen voice''': [[BaritoneOfStrength They won't know what hit em!]] |
| 443 | -->'''Norbert''': I know! ''(all three Hawks laugh then stop)'' ....who said that? |
| 444 | -->''(Hawks turn around and [[OhCrap see Fulton Reed standing behind them]])'' |
| 445 | -->'''Fulton (still baritone)''': Hi guys. ''(smiles and proceeds to [[CurbStompBattle beat them up]], strip them down and tie them to a tree)'' |
| 446 | * RousingSpeech: The most memorable of these is toward the end of ''D2'', when the Ducks fear they will lose the Goodwill Games championship to Iceland. There's another one in the middle of the first movie when Bombay urges them to get behind the "Ducks" nickname. |
| 447 | ** After explaining the circumstances surrounding the end of Orion's playing career, Gordon gives a short but heartfelt one to Charlie next to the Eden Hall trophy case. Gordon attributes the turnaround in his own life after his DUI arrest to the influence Charlie and the Ducks had on him. He also mentions that he told Orion the same thing when he approached him about taking over the role of head coach, and that he was hopeful that Charlie and Orion could learn from each other. He knows Charlie still has the ability to effect positive change in his peers and his superiors, and encourages him to be that person. This leads Charlie to finally reconcile with Orion and the rest of the Ducks. |
| 448 | * SarcasmBlind: The team mutinies against Bombay when some of them overhear him bad-mouthing the team, although Bombay was actually being sarcastic and defending them against Coach Reilly. When Bombay tells Karp he was being sarcastic and asks if he knows what that is, Karp sarcastically replies, "Nooooo!" |
| 449 | %%* SarcasmMode: Mostly from teenage Ducks in ''D3''. |
| 450 | * SarcasticClapping: Coach Stansson of Team Iceland gives Bombay a sarcastic little clap after beating Team USA 12-1. |
| 451 | * {{Scholarship Student}}s: In ''D3'', the Ducks receive scholarships to a prestigious private school called Eden Hall Academy. The varsity hockey team is pissed off because the Ducks took the junior varsity roster spots that would have been available to their younger siblings. However, they're initially nicer to Adam Banks, who gets called up to the varsity team himself. Due to his family's wealth and his exceptional talent, Adam likely would have gotten onto the team by conventional means, anyway. When the Ducks fail to perform, the Board of Trustees threatens to pull their scholarships, but Gordon Bombay comes to Eden Hall with his lawyer hat on and saves his former team. |
| 452 | * SecondPlaceIsForLosers: The philosophy and chant of Hawks' coach Jack Reilly, something which he instilled and lingered in Bombay the young player and into Bombay the lawyer: |
| 453 | --> '''Reilly''': Remember, it's not worth winning... |
| 454 | --> '''Gordon''' (secretly mouthing the chant dejectedly along with Reilly's team): ...if you can't win BIG!. |
| 455 | * SeriousBusiness: Apparently children's hockey games are this in the team's hometown: The local paper covers them, complete with large headers and dramatic photographs. |
| 456 | ** How Reilly treats children's hockey, to the point where he orders one of his players to freaking ''injure'' Banks, badly enough that Banks has to be taken out on a stretcher. |
| 457 | ** No American state is more crazy about hockey than Minnesota, but the films definitely take it up to eleven. |
| 458 | * ShockinglyExpensiveBill: An $857 formal dinner in ''D3''. |
| 459 | ** The shopping montage mentioned below is also an example as it shows the cash register for Hans's sporting goods store quickly racking up a massive bill for the newly sponsored Ducks. |
| 460 | * ShoppingMontage: In the first film, after sponsorship allows the Ducks to buy proper hockey equipment. |
| 461 | * SignificantName: Gordon Bombay has two brands of gin in his name (Gordon's Gin and Bombay Sapphire), and the plot of the first movie starts with him getting arrested for drunk driving. |
| 462 | * SingleParentsAreUndesirable: Charlie tells Bombay about how his mother's potential suitors run like hell as soon as they see him. |
| 463 | -->'''Bombay:''' So what kind of men does she usually date?\ |
| 464 | '''Charlie:''' Jerks. I mean, most of them like ''her'', but as soon as they catch a glimpse of me, pow! Warp speed! They are gone! |
| 465 | * SkippingSchool: Charlie and Fulton do this in the third installment, going to an amusement park instead. One worker there knows what they're doing, but promises to keep quiet as he did the same thing. Fulton comes to his senses and decides to return, but Charlie needs a pep talk from Bombay. |
| 466 | * SlobsVersusSnobs: The Ducks against the OpposingSportsTeam in ''D1'' and ''D3'' are the clearest examples, with the Ducks as the Slobs (and even in ''D2'', several Iceland players give off the impression that they look down upon Team USA such as with mocking laughs). Part of Banks' difficulty in integrating with the Ducks in ''D1'' also stems from this, with the Slob part best encapsulated with Jesse's nicknaming of Banks "cake eater" and overriding Charlie's attempt to reach out to Banks by leading the other Ducks in shunning him at the start of the Huskies game. |
| 467 | ** Emphasized by the Varsity team calling the Ducks "white trash" and "affirmative action." |
| 468 | * SmartBall: ''Russ'' grabs this in the third movie. He tells off Charlie for jeopardizing their scholarship with his bad attitude and even if they dislike Orion personally, they can learn from him. When Charlie and Fulton temporarily leave, it's implied he gets the other Ducks to pay attention in class and work hard. |
| 469 | -->'''Charlie:''' What the hell are we playing for, anyway? Some stupid school? The alumni? I mean, ''Warriors''? What the hell are we now?\ |
| 470 | '''Russ:''' Look, man, we're on scholarship! I'm staying. |
| 471 | * SmoochOfVictory: Connie and Guy at the end of the first movie. The third ends with Luis [[AllGuysWantCheerleaders making out with a cheerleader]] and Charlie kissing Linda, a girl whom he was courting throughout the film. |
| 472 | * TheSmurfettePrinciple: Connie is the only girl on the original District 5 team. |
| 473 | * SoapboxSadie: Linda creates a petition to change the "demeaning" Eden Hall Warriors team name. |
| 474 | * SoLastSeason: Several of the Ducks' tricks from the first film get counteracted in the second (including the Flying V and Fulton's power slapshot). |
| 475 | %%* SomeonesTouchingMyButt: This happens to Julie in the second film, when the entire team is tied together during a practice: |
| 476 | %%--> Somebody better watch their hands! |
| 477 | * SoreLoser: The Hawks team. Even a year later they're pretty upset that they lost to the Ducks. |
| 478 | * SorryOciffer: The cop who pulled Bombay over on suspicion of DUI gets enough evidence when, having asked Bombay to turn down the car stereo, he hears Bombay admit that it was "a 'widdle' noisy". |
| 479 | * SoundOff: Used in ''D2''. |
| 480 | --> I don't know but I been told |
| 481 | --> Team USA's gonna win the gold |
| 482 | --> Listen up and listen good |
| 483 | --> We're all headed for Hollywood |
| 484 | * SpinningNewspaper: Used to keep the first two films moving. |
| 485 | * SpoilerCover: The main poster for the film spoils the fact that Adam Banks eventually joins the Ducks. |
| 486 | * SpoilerTitle: The UK video title for the first film is [[spoiler:''The Mighty Ducks Are The Champions'']]. |
| 487 | * StealthPun: The "Oreo line" from the first film - [[spoiler: The Hall brothers, centered by Guy Germaine]]. |
| 488 | * SternTeacher: At least one at Eden Hall. |
| 489 | --> "Every Monday, you'll have a practice quiz; every Wednesday, you'll have a real quiz; every Friday, you'll have an exam; and anytime I feel like it, you'll have a surprise quiz or exam." |
| 490 | * StoneWall: In the final game of ''D3'', the Ducks prove that they've shed their GlassCannon weaknesses by shutting out the Varsity. |
| 491 | * SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: [[spoiler: Hans in ''D3''.]] |
| 492 | * SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: All three films have several examples of this. |
| 493 | ** Though Fulton eventually improves enough for the Ducks to use him for real, just slotting in a shooter with massive power but poor accuracy isn't a winning strategy. Gordon realizes this and sets up a BaitAndSwitch, exploiting the Cardinals' fear to create an opening for Guy to score. |
| 494 | ** Banks (Reilly's former star player) gets cross-checked by [=McGill=] on orders from Reilly (resulting in [=McGill=] getting a penalty). Adam is knocked unconscious, and the paramedics put him on a stretcher while checking his eyes for a concussion. Bombay, [[WellDoneSonGuy after 20 years of beating himself up over his missed penalty shot]], realizes just how little Reilly thinks of his players. |
| 495 | ** Reilly is not mentioned again coaching hockey in the second movie. It turns out that training your players to seriously injure your opponents is a good way to get fired. |
| 496 | ** One of the Iceland team players injures Adam's shooting hand after he makes a goal, whacking it with his stick. Adam tries to shrug it off and insists he can play. Bombay gives him a reality check when seeing him wrap it in gauze: if the pain is that bad, he needs to rest and recover because he could badly hurt himself. Even in the finals, he's playing gingerly when the same player whacks the same area but makes a shootout nonetheless. |
| 497 | ** During the group stage of the Jr. Goodwill Games, we see Team USA run roughshod on inferior teams without much need for scouting or heavy preparation. Meanwhile, Wolf Stansson is seen in the stands studiously watching the Ducks play. After USA are thoroughly blown out by Iceland, the team blasts Bombay for the lack of preparation, noting Iceland had clearly done their homework on them. When the team works through their issues and get back to it, part of the training montage includes working on their stamina and studying Iceland on tape. |
| 498 | ** Russ's brother and friends are really good hockey players, especially considering they're from southern Los Angeles. Despite that, they have no chance of playing professionally without any contacts; Charlie can only recruit Russ to the team to fill Adam's spot and then gives up his number when Adam's wrist recovers in time for the final game. For what it's worth, Russ's brother doesn't mind and cheers him on at every game. |
| 499 | ** After the Ducks get their scholarships to Eden Hall, Gordon informs them that he won't be coaching them anymore and Orion will be taking over. While the Ducks are upset by this, the fact is that no hockey player has the same coach at every level of the game. |
| 500 | ** Bombay is a good coach, but he doesn't know how to prepare his team for professional player levels. That's why he asks Orion to take over, because Orion used to play for the NHL and has expertise he lacks. By contrast, Bombay quit hockey when he was a boy, and his comeback was limited to one minor league season. Sure enough, Orion gets the team up to par when they start listening to him. |
| 501 | ** Adam is the only Duck that consistently trains in the off-season. While part of it is career pragmatism -- scouts are watching the Goodwill Games-- he really likes the sport. Orion notes that he's the only Duck dedicated to improving himself and puts him on the Varsity team because he outpaces his teammates in terms of skill and discipline. Adam only returns to Junior Varsity after the board meeting, where it doesn't matter anymore. |
| 502 | ** Goldberg's poor practice habits and lack of athleticism catch up to him and Orion names Julie the starting goalie when she vastly outperforms him at practice. What's more, Orion makes him a line defense. It turns out that Goldberg's real talents were in this line. |
| 503 | ** The Ducks' reliance on gimmicks and trick plays rather than fundamentals bites them in their first game when their opponents catch on to them and exploit the team's poor defense to turn a 9-0 deficit into a 9-9 draw. |
| 504 | ** At the peak of their prank war, the Ducks challenge the varsity team to an unsanctioned game. The varsity team proceeds to take advantage of the lack of officiating to lay several dirty hits that would get them penalized in a real game. They didn't care so much about playing hockey in so much as they wanted to assault them for the fire ants prank. |
| 505 | ** Gordon opting to take a leadership position in the League rather than coach at Eden Hall because he couldn't afford to pass up the offer despite Charlie and the Ducks being upset about it also rings true. In the first movie he torpedoed his legal career to help the Ducks and in ''D2'' his shot at the pros was ruined by his injury and while Hendrix pays him a supposed huge sum to coach team USA Gordon realizes the fame is getting to him and opts not try to and network with the celebs and use Hendrix to make himself "bigger". And as he mentioned to Jan he can't make a living coaching kids hockey. So with his future career prospects dwindling he really needed to take that position to make something of his life before it was too late. |
| 506 | * SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: |
| 507 | ** Be honest, as kids, how many of us actually noticed that Hans was swapped with his brother Jan for ''D2''? |
| 508 | ** The replacement players in ''D2'' bear some similarities to the departing players: |
| 509 | *** Dean Portman is basically Peter Mark with an AgeLift, as they are both loud-mouthed, HellBentForLeather, and have a rebellious attitude. |
| 510 | *** Ken Wu takes both Tommy and Tammy Duncan's role as the team's figure skater. He's also around the same age as Tommy and Peter Mark (in ''D2'' at least). |
| 511 | *** Like Tammy Duncan, Julie Gaffney becomes a second female member of the team, albeit that Julie is a goalie while Tammy was a scorer. |
| 512 | *** Dwayne Robertson takes over as the team's PluckyComicRelief, a trait mostly associated with Dave Karp in ''D1''. |
| 513 | *** About the only thing that Luis Mendoza has in common with Terry Hall is that they are both incredible speed skaters. |
| 514 | * SweetAndSourGrapes: Adam wants to keep playing in the second film despite a wrist injury because hockey scouts are watching the Goodwill Games. Bombay benches him when seeing how much pain he's in, reassuring him he will get his shot. After some disappointment, Adam takes this well and rests up. He then recovers in time for the big game and makes the final shot during the shootout, ensuring scouts see his talent. The third movie confirms he and his friends received prestigious scholarships. |
| 515 | [[/folder]] |
| 516 | |
| 517 | [[folder:Tropes T to Z]] |
| 518 | * TakeFive: In the first film, Tommy and Tammy Duncan are spotted on a hockey rink before practice. Bombay tells his team to get ready, then recruits the Duncans in private. |
| 519 | * TantrumThrowing: After getting ejected from the first Iceland game, Portman vents his frustration on things in the locker room. |
| 520 | * TapOnTheHead: Defied only once in the first movie. Reilly orders [=McGill=] to check Banks, who hits his head on the Hawks net railing. Gordon and Larson realize that Adam could have been seriously injured, with both losing their faith in Reilly and going to the kid's side. Banks is barely conscious when the paramedics come and orders Jesse in a weak voice to "kick some Hawk butt". |
| 521 | %%* TeamSpirit |
| 522 | %%* TeamHandStack: "Quack! Quack! Quack!" |
| 523 | * TechnicianVsPerformer: |
| 524 | ** Adam Banks is a gifted hockey player, but Charlie is picked to be Captain because he is an emotional leader and has seniority with the ducks. Besides which, Adam doesn't ''want'' to be captain. |
| 525 | ** The Ducks themselves are the performers to the opposing technicians. [[SoLastSeason Doesn't work quite so well in the third movie.]] |
| 526 | ** While discussing Banks, Reilly tells Bombay that Gordon had more pure talent (Performer) but Banks practices harder (Technician). |
| 527 | * ThatPoorCat: After one of Fulton's slapshots in the third movie. |
| 528 | * ThemeNaming: All the Ducks' rival teams have names evoking aggression and hostility. "Hawk" is a common term for someone who favors military action over diplomacy, the real-life Vikings were infamously violent, and "Warriors" speaks for itself. In that spirit, the most feared member of the Iceland team is named Gunnar. |
| 529 | * ThoseTwoGuys: The Hawks' players, Larson and [=McGill=]. |
| 530 | * TitleConfusion: ''The Mighty Ducks'' was called ''Champions'' in the UK and Commonwealth countries. ''D2: The Mighty Ducks'' was simply called ''The Mighty Ducks'', the same as the international name for the first film. Ultimately the third film was called ''D3: The Mighty Ducks'' everywhere. |
| 531 | * TokenBlack: With Jesse Hall having left the Ducks by the beginning of the third film, Russ Tyler becomes this for the team. |
| 532 | * TokenGoodTeammate: While he doesn't have much screentime, Scooter, the goalie for the varsity team in ''D3'', is a mild example of this. While he is a willing participant in the pranks against the Ducks, he tries to discourage Riley and Cole from being overly antagonistic, and he genuinely congratulates Julie on a game well played after [[GracefulLoser Varsity loses]] at the end. |
| 533 | * TooFastToStop: Mendoza; he's the fastest skater on the team, and usually ends up crashing into the boards. He's only stopped once, and was as surprised as anyone else. |
| 534 | * TookALevelInBadass: Once per movie. |
| 535 | ** In ''D1'', the team goes from the laughingstock of pee-wee hockey to a championship team. |
| 536 | ** ''D3'' may be the best example. Early in the movie, Orion criticizes them for their lackluster defense and overreliance on trick plays that no longer cut it at the high school level. When they play against the Varsity, they prove that they took his lessons to heart by playing actual "two-way" hockey and ultimately shutting out the Varsity. Special note to Goldberg, who goes from being a ButtMonkey goalie to a competent defenseman knocking down players left and right, and shooting the winning goal. |
| 537 | * TookALevelInJerkass: Pretty much the ENTIRE team in ''D3''. Though the rival varsity players are pretty huge jerks too, the protaganists match them prank for prank through the first half of the movie, and also act very disrespectful towards their new coach, mostly just for the "crime" of shaking up their status quo and holding them to higher standards. A large part of the plot is focused on Charlie in particular getting over his new Jerkassery after having established himself as the team's most selfless player in the first two films. |
| 538 | ** Just look at how they treat Banks after he gets promoted to varsity (which wasn't his fault). They stop talking to him, blame him for the pranks the varsity does on them (even though he takes no part and didn't know about them until it was too late), freeze his locker along with the rest of the varsity players just because he's on the team, and Charlie insults him when he tries to explain himself and cheap shots him in the unofficial scrimmage in retaliation for playing clean defense. |
| 539 | ** Probably the biggest offense is when Fulton accuses Russ of being a "sell out." Russ is merely driven; he realizes what a great opportunity he and his teammates have at Eden Hall Academy and doesn't want any of them to blow it. |
| 540 | * TookALevelInKindness: When we first see Gordon Bombay, he's a cocky AmoralAttorney who hates kids and hockey. Over the course of the first film, he warms up to the Ducks (even becoming a ParentalSubstitute to Charlie) and rekindles his love of hockey, enough that he's playing minor league at the start of the sequel. |
| 541 | * ToxicFriendInfluence: Adam Banks was a bit of a jerk when he was on the Hawks thanks to Reilly's coaching and his hanging out with [=McGill=] and Lawson. Once he joins the Ducks, he [[TookALevelInKindness becomes a lot nicer]]. |
| 542 | * ToughLove: In ''D1'', Goldberg is scared of the puck, because before his shoddy equipment wasn't enough to protect him. When he gets an upgrade, that doesn't rid him of his fear. To help out, Gordon ties him to the goal, and orders everyone on the team to fire at him. At first, Goldberg is understandably screaming bloody murder and begging Bombay to let him go. After a few seconds, he realizes that he's still alive and not in pain and asks for everyone to keep firing. |
| 543 | * TrainingMontage: One in each movie. The third movie features a lot of ImprovisedTraining. |
| 544 | * TrashTalk: Ken Wu decides to try some under Russ Tyler's tutelage. [[RuleOfThree It takes him three tries to make any headway.]] |
| 545 | --> '''Ken:''' Yo, Russ, you gotta teach me how to talk some trash.\ |
| 546 | '''Russ:''' It can't be taught, Kenny-man. It's gotta be the first thing that comes into your mind. You just gotta go ahead and say it. Try it.\ |
| 547 | '''Ken:''' Okay. ''(to a nearby ref)'' Hey, ref--\ |
| 548 | '''Russ:''' Ah, ah...''(covers Ken's mouth)'' Pick another target.\ |
| 549 | '''Ken:''' ''(towards opposing team's bench)'' Hey, #44, you play--you, you, you play--you don't play real good.\ |
| 550 | '''#44:''' Yeah, right.\ |
| 551 | '''Russ:''' Shorter, man. Get to the point.\ |
| 552 | '''Ken:''' ''(towards opposing player on the ice)'' Hey, #9, bite me! ''(gets knocked on his butt)''\ |
| 553 | '''Russ:''' ''(chuckling)'' Now we're getting somewhere. |
| 554 | * TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: The Ducks' rollerblading trip in ''D2'' takes them from downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America in the suburb of Bloomington, back to Saint Anthony Falls downtown, then to the suburb of Edina, then downtown again. All in, this is between 40 to 50 miles of rollerblading in a single afternoon. |
| 555 | * ATrueStoryInMyUniverse: After the first movie came out, The Walt Disney Company founded a pro hockey team called the "Anaheim Mighty Ducks". They're mentioned in ''D3'' where it's said they're a pro team named after the Ducks and captain, Paul Kariya cameos AsHimself. |
| 556 | * TruthInTelevision: Serious hockey players do have to learn to play two-way hockey eventually. Successful professional teams speak to its importance on a regular basis. |
| 557 | * TwoFirstNames: Russ Tyler; Peter Mark. |
| 558 | * TwoGirlsToATeam: Tammy Duncan and Connie Moreau in ''D1''; Julie "The Cat" Gaffney replaces Tammy for the two sequels. |
| 559 | * TyrantTakesTheHelm: Subverted with the new coach in the third movie. While Coach Orion is a lot stricter than Bombay, he knows what he's talking about and all the changes he makes to the team lineup and practices make the Ducks better players. Given the players' disrespectful attitudes towards him, the punishments he gives them are pretty well justified. |
| 560 | * UnderdogsNeverLose: Well, once Bombay gets the team's act together and adds a couple of ''very'' good players in Adam Banks and Fulton Reed, suddenly they can ''play''. |
| 561 | * UnnecessaryRoughness: The Ducks are frequently the victim of this until one or both of the Bash Brothers start dishing it right back to the other team. |
| 562 | * UnskilledButStrong: Fulton has unbelievable power but, initially at least, very little accuracy. In his first game, Bombay psyches out the opposing team by putting Fulton on the ice before the game starts and having him take practice shots at the empty goal, with only 1 in 5 being on target, but the obvious power on display terrifies the opponents, setting up a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty_play Statue of Liberty play]] later in the game where Fulton pretends he's going to take a shot at goal only for another duck to swoop in and score unopposed while the ''entire enemy defence'' is scrambling for cover. He gets better over the course of the series. |
| 563 | * UnspokenPlanGuarantee: |
| 564 | ** ''D1'': During the championship game, the Ducks' 3rd goal comes after Bombay draws up a play with the Duncans during the 2nd intermission. All we hear is Bombay addressing the two of them and telling them, "Let's show these Hawks something really different", before we cut to the on-ice action: [[spoiler: Tammy skates up just to the right of the Hawks' goal and starts spinning like a figure-skater, inflicting ConfusionFu on the entire Hawks team who have no idea what to make of it until Tommy calls out to her and sends her a pass which she pots in for the goal before the Hawks snap out of it.]] |
| 565 | ** ''D2'' has one shown failure and two unspoken successes, all against Iceland: |
| 566 | *** During the first Iceland game, Ken Wu outlines to Gordon a figure skating maneuver he can use to split the defense. He barely starts the maneuver when two Iceland defensemen clobber him. Notably, in the final Iceland game Ken tries the same maneuver again without explainting it ahead of time and this time it works scoring them their first goal of the game. |
| 567 | *** Second Iceland game, all we get is a brief HuddleShot of the Ducks at their bench while Charlie is explaining whatever his plan is with a markerboard. There's a hint when Averman exclaims in disbelief "this isn't the NBA!" [[spoiler: Charlie's plan turns out to be having Dwayne take the puck to center ice just short of Iceland defensive zone then flinging the puck at a high angle so that it drops down just in front of the Iceland goalie and bounce in, with Banks quickly skating in to make sure it has enough to get past. Dwayne shouting "Alley-oop, boys!" right as he launches it is how the basketball analogy comes in.]] |
| 568 | *** Ducks down by one to Iceland with two minutes left, Russ keeps getting swarmed by Iceland players every time he gets near the puck and has no chance to get his knucklepuck off for the tying goal. Bombay then calls timeout and calls the whole team in to a huddle to discuss his plan. We then cut to the Iceland bench and hear Stanson pep talking to his team about keeping three guys on Russ at all times; the camera then cuts back to the Ducks breaking the huddle with a "Go Ducks!" chant, so we never hear Bombay's plan: [[spoiler:he had Russ put on Goldberg's jersey and goalie equipment and pretend Russ was Goldberg once play resumed so that the Iceland players don't pay attention to him when the Ducks finally begin their attack on Iceland's goal. Russ-pretending-to-be-Goldberg then skates up the ice along with the other regular Ducks skaters like he's going to the bench for an extra skater before the puck is passed back to him. He then takes off the goalie helmet to reveal his true identity, takes Averman's regular hockey stick, and now has enough time to set up and shoot his knucklepuck because all of Iceland's players had fallen back to their defensive zone.]] Game tied. Wolf's horrified BigNo upon realizing he was OutGambitted seals the deal, as is his post-goal look of YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe at Team Iceland losing their chance at winning the title and having to fight it out in a best out of 5 shootout. |
| 569 | * VeryHighVelocityRounds: Russ's "knucklepuck." Oxymoronic as a knuckler is effective because it's ''slow''. More famously, Fulton's slapshot: he is capable of shattering plexiglass with it, and once left a puck-shaped indent in the hand of the only goalie to actually stop it. |
| 570 | * WakingNonSequitur: Mr. Tibbles is knocked out by Fulton's slapshot in ''D2'' and when he comes to he orders a cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate shake. |
| 571 | * WeUsedToBeFriends: In the first film, when Adam transfers to the Ducks, his former Hawk teammates immediately cut him off. In the final game, Coach Reilly orders the team to take Adam out of the game by whatever means, which one was more than happy to do. Crosses into MoralEventHorizon as said player actually injures Adam to the point he has to be carried off in a stretcher, and thinks nothing of it. |
| 572 | --->'''Larson:''' Adam! Adam, are you okay? (to [=McGill=]) What'd you ''do?'' |
| 573 | --->'''[=McGill=]''' My job. |
| 574 | * WeWinBecauseYouDidnt: In the third film, the Ducks' opponents' nine goals third period comeback to end the game in a tie is treated as a win for them and a very disappointing defeat for the Ducks (understandable as a four goal lead in hockey is considered a blowout). Orion privately admits to the Dean he would've preferred it if the Ducks lost so it would've be a true loss and have more impact on them. |
| 575 | ** That's also Gordon's legal strategy in the third film over the Ducks scholarships saying that if the board doesn't allow them to remain he will sue them and drag the legal proceedings out for years, throughout which they'll be unable to kick them out until the case is settled, until it's a moot point because the kids will have long graduated. Though Gordon also threatens that after all those years he'll still finally win the case and force them to pay damages because he's THAT good as a lawyer. |
| 576 | * WealthsInAName: Adam Banks, who is rich. |
| 577 | * WellDoneSonGuy: Bombay at the start of ''D1'' - in his case it's Coach Reilly and later his boss Ducksworth since his actual dad, who was very supportive of him, died when he was young. |
| 578 | ---> '''Bombay''' (at the law firm's office just after another trial win): No calls from the duck phone? |
| 579 | ---> '''Jeannine''': Not yet. |
| 580 | ---> '''Bombay''': (''impatient huff'') What's he waiting for? I saw him in the back of the courtroom - how about some kudos here, huh?! |
| 581 | * WhamLine: Midway through his first season as the Ducks' coach, Gordon and Hans are sitting in the latter's sporting goods store talking. Hans points out that the sports authority redistricted the area years beforehand, and that--since a lake is no longer a boundary--Gordon would have in the Ducks's District Five instead of a Hawk's district. While already close to the team, this seems to make him bond easier with them, and apparently clues him in on the fact that Adam Banks is not playing for the team he should be, as that's the very next shot. |
| 582 | * WhamShot: |
| 583 | ** In ''D1'', Adam gets checked from behind and crashes into the goal after making the shot. Then Larson skates over and finds out he's unconscious, begging him to wake up. |
| 584 | ** In ''D2'', Fulton's power shot, which could tear a hole into a goalie net as well as ''knock a goalie into the net by sheer force'', actually gets stopped by the Iceland team goalie. Didn't mean he got out of it unscathed. |
| 585 | ** Also in ''D2'', Bombay calls the team over for a time-out and gives them a plan. Cue the Ducks passing the puck to their goalie... who is revealed to be Russ wearing Goldberg's uniform. The crowd, including Russ's older brother, cheer as he finally makes his knucklepuck. |
| 586 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: |
| 587 | ** In the first movie Goldberg says that he won't be the team's goalie for long, because he was moving back to Philly with his mom. This never happens in the sequels and is never even brought up again, though in the second movie, his parents seem to be operating a deli together; possibly they were getting divorced, then changed their minds. |
| 588 | ** Jack Reilly orders one of his players, [=McGill=], to ''deliberately injure Banks''. [=McGill=] does so without any sign of remorse. Neither is shown suffering any real consequences beyond [=McGill=] getting a two-minute penalty. In real life, not only would Reilly and [=McGill=] likely be immediately kicked out of the league, but possibly face criminal charges. (Then again, for [[SecondPlaceIsForLosers guys like [=McGill=] and Reilly]] simply losing a game may be more than punishment enough.) Plus, neither Reilly nor [=McGill=] were ever seen or mentioned after the first film, which implies that Reilly was fired and [=McGill=] was kicked out after Adam's dad was done with them. |
| 589 | * WhatTheHellHero: |
| 590 | ** Gordon gets ''[[RuleOfThree three]]'' of them in quick succession in ''D2'' after he falls prey to the fame and loses what everyone liked about him; one by his team, one by Ms. [=McKay=], and one by Jan. In particular, after he berates his team for losing so badly to Iceland, they turn it back on him by pointing out that Iceland actually prepared for their game while he didn't. |
| 591 | --->'''Bombay:''' Twelve to one, huh? Twelve to one. You know what word comes to mind when you think of that, hmm? ''"Pathetic"!'' You guys were brought here to play hockey.\ |
| 592 | '''Jesse:''' What about ''you''?\ |
| 593 | '''Bombay:''' What ''about'' me, Jesse?\ |
| 594 | '''Julie:''' Coach Stansson knew everything about us. ''They'' were ready for us.\ |
| 595 | '''Luis:''' Yeah, and you spend your time driving around in convertibles talking to all those sponsor fools.\ |
| 596 | '''Fulton:''' Or hanging with the Iceland lady. We saw you two Saturday night.\ |
| 597 | '''Portman:''' Eating ice cream with the enemy, huh, Coach?\ |
| 598 | ''(shocked reactions from the team)''\ |
| 599 | '''Bombay:''' Hey, hey, what I do is none of your business. Is that clear? |
| 600 | ** In the third movie, a stubborn Charlie gets it from Hans, his mother, and his teammates. |
| 601 | * WhoNeedsOvertime: Played straight for the first and third films - the second one it's averted in the sense that [[spoiler:though the game went to a shootout instead of a traditional sudden-death overtime it's still extra play that was required due to a tie score after regulation.]] Interestingly, in the first film Gordon actually says the team will beat the Hawks in overtime before the below happens. |
| 602 | ** ''[=D1=]'': [[spoiler:Score tied at 4, Charlie draws a hooking penalty on a breakaway with no time left in regulation and is awarded a penalty shot (any Duck on the ice was eligible according to the ref, but Bombay chose Charlie). Charlie triple-dekes the Hawks' goalie and banks his shot off the post and in for the game-winner.]] |
| 603 | ** ''[=D2=]'': [[spoiler:Russ, pretending to be Goldberg since Iceland had been swarming him every time he got on the ice as a normal skater, launches his knucklepuck unimpeded and gets it past the Iceland goalie to tie the score at 5 at the end of the third period. The game goes to a five-round shootout with the US going first; after four rounds each side nets three. Banks pots his attempt for the US, then Bombay pulls Goldberg and puts in Julie, who gloves Gunnar Stahl's shot to win.]] |
| 604 | ** ''[=D3=]'': [[spoiler:Scoreless game going into the dying seconds of regulation, the puck somehow ends up on the stick of Goldberg[[note]]who in this movie had been moved from goaltender to defenseman[[/note]] to everyone's suprise (including Goldberg's) - he fires it top-shelf past the varsity team's goalie.]] |
| 605 | * WorkingClassHero: The Ducks, to varying extents. In ''D1'', District 5 is centered around Minneapolis and has no money to spend on proper equipment at the start of the movie. Early scenes have them trawling through dumpsters to look for things like a nice purse (to prank unscrupulous people with) or thrown-away porn magazines (which Karp immediately starts trying to charge money to look through). Several of the players are at least implied to come from working-class backgrounds -- Charlie has a single mom who works at a diner, Jesse and Terry's dad works overtime just to attend his sons' games, Averman and Goldberg are found working part-time jobs when the Ducks reunite in D2, etc. It highlights the initial divide between LonelyRichKid Banks and the rest of the team more before Banks was able to settle in. |
| 606 | * TheWorfBarrage: |
| 607 | ** Fulton's slapshot subverts this twice in ''D2''. The first time, it's blocked by Team Iceland's goalie...but the goalie's intense pain (as well as a ''puck shaped bruise'') suggests that it was mainly sheer luck that his glove was in the right spot. Subverted completely near the end, when the shot unexpectedly works perfectly during the tie-breaker shootout. (On the other hand, viewers may notice the Iceland goalie (same in both games) visibly shaking nervously when Fulton steps up the second time, presumably having the pain fresh in his head from last time, which likely caused him to mess up the save the second time around.) |
| 608 | ** Invoked in ''D1'' when the Ducks start practicing in a proper manner (i.e., not by cheating) - specifically, how Bombay gets Goldberg to stop being afraid of the puck (kind of a problem if you're the goalie): tying Goldberg's limbs to the goal frame and having the rest of District 5 (plus himself) fire hundreds of pucks at him (Karp was especially eager at the chance). Goldberg was shaking in his skates and screaming bloody murder at first, but when he realizes pucks don't hurt he starts laughing and taunting his teammates to shoot harder. |
| 609 | --->'''Goldberg:''' My mother would not approve of this, Coach. She'd like me to live to my Bar Mitzvah.\ |
| 610 | '''Bombay:''' This ''is'' your Bar Mitzvah, Goldberg. Today you become a man.\ |
| 611 | '''Goldberg:''' Coach, I think you got the ceremonies mixed up. It's more like a circumcision! |
| 612 | * TheWorfEffect: Adam Banks is considered the best player on the team, but cheap shots knocked him out of the final in the first film and had him injured for most of ''D2''. |
| 613 | * WorstNewsJudgmentEver: Pee-Wee hockey results making front-page news seems a little ridiculous even by hockey-loving Minnesota standards. It goes even more overboard in the sequel, where the hockey finals of the Junior Goodwill Games not only gets huge newspaper coverage, but the paper's preview includes a giant FloatingHeadSyndrome image hyping Coach Bombay vs. Wolf Stansson. |
| 614 | * WorthIt: Said by Iceland player Olaf Sanderson after intentionally going after Adam Banks and receiving only a 2-minute minor; gets an IronicEcho later. Dwayne also has this attitude when he ropes Sanderson for trying to check Connie from behind. |
| 615 | * WorthyOpponent: |
| 616 | ** During a rollerblading hockey game against Russ's friends and older brother, Russ demonstrates his knuckle puck. Everyone is impressed, but Fulton, in particular, goes to Russ's side and says he liked his trick shot. Russ, who has seen Fulton's own trick shots, is pleased as he explains what it is |
| 617 | ** After the Ducks beat Iceland, star player Gunnar Stahl defies Stansson's criticism to lead his team back onto the ice to shake hands with their opponents, personally congratulating Charlie on their victory. |
| 618 | ---> '''Stansson:''' Gunnar...you lost it for me.\ |
| 619 | '''Gunnar:''' You lost it for yourself. ''(to team)'' Let's go shake their hands.\ |
| 620 | \ |
| 621 | '''Gunnar:''' ''(to Charlie)'' Good work, Captain Duck.\ |
| 622 | '''Charlie:''' Thanks, Gunner. |
| 623 | * WritersCannotDoMath: Hans states that Gordon scored 198 goals in a season. In their typical 17-game season, that’s a highly unrealistic, almost 12 goals per game. |
| 624 | ** Even worse is when Reilly tells Adam that he set a "new Hawks record" in their 17-goal barrage against District 5. There were two goals shown that Adam didn’t score, so the most he could have gotten is 15. That means Gordon, in his 12 goals/game season, didn’t score more than 14 once, and '''consistently''' scored 10 goals or more. |
| 625 | * WritingLines: After a display of insubordination, most of the team has to write "I will not quack at the principal" in detention. |
| 626 | * YouHaveFailedMe: During the championship game in the first movie, Reilly tells the Hawks "You lose this game and ''nobody'' makes the team next year!" Because he's a {{jerkass}} who's obsessed with winning, he presumably keeps his word. |
| 627 | ** In ''D2'', Wolf tells Gunnar he lost the game for him, but Gunnar just tells him off. Wolf reflects for a minute, then seems to see his point and goes to congratulate Gordon on his win. |
| 628 | * YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: |
| 629 | ** In ''D2'', the referee has a JawDrop when seeing that Dwayne brings a rope onto the ice to save Connie. He's too stunned to interfere until Dwayne lassos Sanderson and humiliates him. |
| 630 | ** How Charlie reacts when Bombay steps down in ''D3''. |
| 631 | ** Charlie says this verbatim in the very next scene when Fulton informs him that Portman has refused his Eden Hall scholarship. |
| 632 | ** Charlie has a complete meltdown during the first game of ''D3'' after getting an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for breaking his stick across the goalpost. |
| 633 | *** Seriously, Charlie overreacts in this manner to pretty much everything that happens to him in the first 3/4 of ''D3'' (Orion's coaching methods, losing the captaincy, converting to defenseman, being scolded by Casey for his on-ice behavior, tackling and insulting Banks during the dawn scrimmage, Fulton returning to school, Hans delivering the hard truth and then [[spoiler:dying]], [[spoiler:Bombay showing up at Hans' funeral]]. |
| 634 | *** ''D3'' is basically the story of Charlie learning to cope with change and adversity while dealing with the raging hormones of a 14-year old boy. |
| 635 | * YouWatchTooMuchX: Dwayne says his teammates watch too much TV. Russ says it's the safest activity in South Central Los Angeles. |
| 636 | [[/folder]] |
| 637 | ---- |
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