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The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, review: a franchise that's not all it's quacked up to be

Emilio Estevez stars as crabby coach Gordon Bombay
Emilio Estevez stars as crabby coach Gordon Bombay

Disney + has ruffled feathers in streaming television with blockbuster superhero shows WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier taking the fight straight to Netflix and Amazon.

But Disney is still all about family entertainment as it reminds subscribers with this sweet if forgettable sequel series to the Mighty Ducks movies of the early Nineties. For those not au fait with grunge-era Disney sports sagas, the films spun an archetypal underdog tale in which scrappy kids overcame their insecurities by excelling at a violent sport often involving smashed teeth and pucks flying at 50mph.

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers updates the formula with typically Magic Kingdom efficiency (it is co-created by original Mighty Ducks producer Steven Brill). Emilio Estevez is even back as crabby coach Gordon Bombay. Having seemingly abandoned his successful legal career he is lifted out of a mid-life rut when his Minneapolis ice-rink is hired by a team of no-hopers, “The Don’t Bothers”, led by Evan (Brady Noon) and his mother Alex (Gilmore Girls’s Lauren Graham).

The twist is that Evan and Alex set up their new outfit after Evan was rejected by the original Mighty Ducks and their smug coach (Dylan Playfair). Yes, the strivers Bombay steered to greatness have themselves becomes the bullies. Now the dark horses are Evan and his team-mates. They are a stereotypical grab bag of geeks, weirdos and sundry marginalised figures (including the obligatory “popular girl” who is actually a misfit on the inside).

Lauren Graham stars as struggling parent Alex
Lauren Graham stars as struggling parent Alex

There are echoes of Karate Kid sequel Cobra Kai, which likewise caught up with cherished characters from a teen classic in late middle-age. The crucial distinction is that the Netflix hit subverted the source material and delivered a moving meditation on growing older. Game Changers, by contrast, is all about reinforcing the Disney message about being the best version of yourself – in this case by excelling at sport and becoming well-liked at school.

Being an American drama, the child actors glow with confidence. They have the butter-wouldn’t-melt quality of pre-teens and the self-possession of 25-year-olds. Graham, meanwhile, does her best as a mom for whom ice hockey has become an outlet for her frustrations towards her awful boss at work and the pressures of single motherhood.

And Estevez is agreeably cantankerous as a grumpy old (ish) man hauled onto the ice once more and against his better judgement. Mighty Ducks viewers may well empathise with his reluctance as they, too, are dragged back to a franchise that perhaps isn’t all it’s quacked up to be.

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