The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers
By Ashley Moulton,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Predictable hockey team reboot has iffy jokes, language.
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The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers
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Based on 5 parent reviews
Lots of language
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What's the Story?
In The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, it's nearly 30 years after the underdog Mighty Ducks burst on the scene, and the Ducks have been transformed into a hyper-competitive elite youth hockey team. Evan (Brady Noon of Good Boys and Boardwalk Empire) gets cut from the team, and his mean head coach tells him that if he's not good at hockey by the ripe-old-age of 12, he shouldn't bother playing at all. His mom Alex (Lauren Graham, Gilmore Girls and Parenthood) decides to organize a team of kids who want to play just for the love of the game, and wrangles together the "Don't Bothers" team just before the start of the season. The Don't Bothers include a bunch of kids with minimal hockey skills and a general lack of cool. They practice at a run down ice rink managed by Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez), the coach from the original "Mighty Ducks" movies. Bombay is down on his luck and has sworn off hockey forever, but it seems likely that the Don't Bothers will win him over and bring him back to coaching. Can this rag-tag team of misfits learn to play hockey and have fun while doing it?
Is It Any Good?
Like the kids on the Don't Bothers, this series has a lot of untapped potential. The acting by ever-charming Lauren Graham and her kid co-stars is decent, but the writing makes The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers' characters fall flat. The plot lines are very predictable and follow fairly standard middle school cliches. While there's fantastic gender and racial diversity in the cast, it's offset by a disappointing number of jokes or plot points based on steoreotypes (around body image, nerdy-types, religion, race, and more). All the characters are using smartphones and having posts go viral, but much of the humor seems very much stuck in the 90's.
Tweens will likely enjoy the underdog story and watching the middleschoolers overcome obstacles. Grown-ups will probably wish this re-boot left them with more of the same warm fuzzies they remember from the original ("Ducks! Ducks! Ducks!").
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about extracurricular activities. Do you think there's a certain age when kids stop playing sports (or doing other activities) for fun? How do you feel about that? Have you ever felt pressure to succeed at a sport or activity?
Many of the kids on the "Don't Bothers" are portrayed as kids who don't fit in at school. Do you feel like that sometimes? How can you be compassionate towards kids who seem like they have a hard time finding friends?
TV Details
- Premiere date: March 26, 2021
- Cast: Lauren Graham, Emilio Estevez, Brady Noon, Kiefer O'Reilly, Maxwell Simkins, Swayam Bhatia, Taegen Burns, Julee Cerda, Bella Higginbotham, De'Jon Watts
- Network: Disney+
- Genre: Comedy
- Topics: Sports and Martial Arts, Friendship, Middle School
- TV rating: TV-PG
- Last updated: February 18, 2023
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