D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996)

In "D3: The Mighty Ducks," the same old cast of characters returns for some more good old times on the ice. The scrappy, wise-cracking kids that formed The Mighty Ducks hockey team are now full-blown teenagers, voice-changes and all. This time around, they are awarded scholarships to the prestigious Eden Hall Academy, a school who take their hockey just a bit too seriously. Emilio Estevez's character is written out of most of the movie, making way for the hard-headed Coach Orion (Jeff Nordling), who leads The Ducks under their new moniker, The Warriors. As they fight for dominance with the varsity team, they also have to fight for their right to stay in school, lest the school board revoke their scholarships and cast them out simply for not fitting in. Along the way they learn more valuable life lessons and grow with one another, yada yada yada, so on and so forth.

If it feels like the formula is wearing thin, that's because it is. Don't be mistaken, "D3" is of the same caliber as "D2: The Mighty Ducks." It's an entertaining enough, simple and nostalgic sports flick that appeals to the whole family, but is nowhere near as inspiring and as spirited as the original. When compared to the original "The Mighty Ducks," this is just a ho-hum sequel that offers nothing new and is obviously made with intentions of milking a franchise name, which is made abundantly clear by its low budget look. But when it comes to Disney and its track-record for sequels, would you expect anything less? It's not all bad though. The acting from the kids is spot on and their chemistry is great as usual. Hans (Joss Ackland) makes his return to the series and even though Emilio Estevez looks tired in the twenty minutes or so he spends in the film, it's better than not having him at all. His turn as the Ducks' lawyer is a stand-out, a nice call-back to the original film.

Overall, "D3: The Mighty Ducks" is a contradiction, a mediocre display of nostalgia. It's entertaining enough, but too bland to really have a lasting effect. See it if only to complete the "trilogy" (although I get the feeling that if Disney felt they could, they would have forced more movies out of it) and to reminisce in the good old days, before Emilio Estevez faded away completely, before Joshua Jackson became irritating and before Kenan Thompson went SNL.