The Magical World Of Disney #334: Top 100 Disney Movies, Part 4

94. D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994)

D2: The Mighty Ducks (also known as The Mighty Ducks 2) is a 1994 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Sam Weisman. It is the second and penultimate installment in The Mighty Ducks trilogy and it is a sequel to the 1992 film The Mighty Ducks and produced by Walt Disney Pictures, The Kerner Entertainment Company and Avnet–Kerner Productions. In the United Kingdom and Australia, the film was titled The Mighty Ducks (the first having been titled Champions and subsequently, on home releases, as The Mighty Ducks Are the Champions).

Gordon Bombay is forced to withdraw from the minor hockey league with a knee injury. Much to his surprise, he is given the job of coach of Team USA Hockey for the Junior Goodwill Games in California. With most of the Ducks and a few new players in tow, he sets forth for LA. All appears to be going well for a while, but the hype of Hollywood starts to get to Gordon, and he is distracted when Iceland, the favorites to win the title, appear on the scene.

Did you see The Mighty Ducks? You basically get the same thing here except this time, it’s the Ducks of the USA going up against the Iceland hockey team, USA vs. the World, hence why I always use The Mighty Ducks franchise joke when I talk about the Pitch Perfect movies and essentially Pitch Perfect 2 is D2: The Mighty Ducks, a sequel similar to the first movie except the main characters are taking on characters in the same situation around the world. That’s pretty much what this is, a retread of the first movie except against an international opponent to up the tension and intensity.

Does it work? For what it is, it’s fine. It’s about as harmless as the first movie, it’s got a comedy level on the same par as the first movie, and it is what it is, a sequel that’s about the same caliber in terms of story, characters, and comedy that it was in the first movie.

Of course this movie does have at least one thing that the other Mighty Ducks movies did not have that makes it stands out on its’ own….ROCK THE POND!!!!

93. The Parent Trap (1998)

The Parent Trap is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Nancy Meyers, and produced and co-written by Charles Shyer. It is a remake of the 1961 film of the same name and an adaptation of Erich Kästner’s 1949 German novel Lisa and Lottie (Das doppelte Lottchen).

Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson star as a divorced couple who separated shortly after their identical twin daughters’ birth; Lindsay Lohan stars (in her film debut) as both twins, Hallie Parker and Annie James, who are fortuitously reunited at summer camp after being separated at birth. David Swift wrote the screenplay for the original 1961 film based on Lottie and Lisa. Swift is credited along with Meyers and Shyer as co-writers of the 1998 version.

The Parent Trap was theatrically released in the United States on July 29, 1998 and was a box-office hit, grossing $92.1 million against a $15 million budget. It received positive reviews from critics, with Lohan’s performance in particular earning high praise.

Here’s another one of those movies that grew on me over time, my sister loved it and not too long ago, I really did start to come around to it.

Lindsay Lohan makes an amazing film debut playing both the twins Hallie and Annie and Quaid and Richardson have a lot of charm and chemistry together.

Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer, who made the Father Of The Bride remakes modern classics, seem like the perfect duo to tackle this project and they do a pretty good job of keeping the main crux of the story in check, they don’t modernize the entire concept and in fact, they probably could’ve benefited more from more modernization, but as it stands, I think it works really well, one of the best Disney live-action movies from the 1990s, especially late 90s when the live-action movie department was REALLY struggling, this is definitely one of the highlights.

#100 & #99

#98 & #97

#96 & #95

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‹ Time About The Movies – November 18, 1994

He’s A Family Guy #286: A Shot In The Dark ›

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