My Review of "The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (Season One)

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (Season One) is something that I least expected to see. There have been a lot of Mighty Duck off shoots like 3 movies, a cartoon TV series and even an NHL hockey team. The thing is that the franchise hasn't been used for quite some time. It's been that long that I almost forgot about the franchise until this showed up.

This season starts off innocently enough. The show revolves around a mother and son. The mother's name is Alex and her son's name is Evan. It just so happens that Evan is part of the Mighty Ducks minor league squad. In the first episode Evan gets cut from the team because he doesn't seem to be performing as well as the others. The coach not only cuts Evan but also says to him that he shouldn't bother because he'll never get to the level that he needs to in order to rejoin the squad.

This is the catalyst that encourages Alex to create a new hockey team that doesn't care so much about winning as it does to let the kids have fun on the ice. She appropriately names the team the Don't Bothers. From here Evan goes out to his school to try to recruit some characters to join this Don't Bothers team. He eventually finds a group of outcasts and convinces them to join this team.

Already there are many similarities to this TV show and the formula of the movie franchise. It kind of fits in a paint by numbers cookie cutter way but that's not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of us are nostalgic for this underdog formula. It explains why there's so many underdog sports movies out there in the first place. This one is a lot easier to digest because each episode is only 30 minutes long.

Eventually the team gets together and they decide to have practices at this dumpster of a hockey rink. There they find out that the owner of that dump is none other than Gordon Bombay the original coach of the Mighty Ducks. Unfortunately for them he is very surly and doesn't want anything to do with hockey anymore. Kind of like he was in the first movie.

As you can see it does follow the formula pretty well so you kind of know what's going to happen throughout this TV series. I'm glad they were able to show it in a TV series because 30 minutes per episode is the perfect amount of time to tell the small stories throughout the season. It's enough to keep our interest going and anticipate for the next episode. Now that all of the episodes are out I think people will have a good time binging the whole series in one sitting.

There are a lot of homages to the original movie and you can see that they've changed to fit today's climate of morals. It's great because they address some of the problems in organized junior sports nowadays. Some of the parents put a lot of stress on not only their children but on themselves and the hockey organizations. If this was a movie they wouldn't be able to spend an adequate amount of time to discuss these issues.

The chemistry between the kids feel genuine and fun. I guess that's the benefit of having sports team shows. They have the opportunity to show you how each of the teammates have bonded with one another. Having this shown in TV show format allowed the show to dive a little deeper into each of the supporting character's backgrounds and interests.

In addition to all this there were a few twists and turns that were pretty welcome as they dealt with a lot of the character relationships with one another. These social interactions have different levels that people can relate to. There are obviously the relationship with the children but then there's relationships among the adults with ring true to real life. I think adults can watch this show as well and relate to this show because some of the problems are genuine.

Then again there are a few setbacks. I'm sure only adults will notice the crazy amount of cheese and corniness that goes into some of the dialogue and situations. This is a family series after all. It has to fit all demographics so some of the adult viewers will have to hold in their groans in certain scenes. We know they're coming and still they make us kind of roll our eyes when we see them. It's not that far from the cheesiness of the original movies.

Overall, I had a great time watching this one. Again there were a few roll my eyes moments that I thought were really corny. I knew they were going to put them in there though so it wasn't a huge surprise. If you're into the original Mighty Ducks movies I highly suggest watching this series. I have to give them a 7 out of 10. It is highly enjoyable and it will give Mighty Duck fans a lot of nostalgic feels while watching it.