The Mighty Ducks

image for The Mighty Ducks

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Not suitable under 9; parental guidance to 10 (language, sexual references, violence)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for The Mighty Ducks
  • a review of The Mighty Ducks completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 24 December 2023.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 9 Not suitable due to language, sexual references, and violence.
Children aged 9–10 Parental guidance recommended due to language, sexual references, and violence.
Children aged 11 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: The Mighty Ducks
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: The content is very mild in impact
Length: 103 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

When cutthroat lawyer, Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez), is arrested for driving under the influence, he is given a community service sentence and told he is now the new ice-hockey coach of ‘The Mighty Ducks’, a ragtag joke of a team that doesn’t have a uniform or proper equipment and who haven’t won a game in a very long time. Discouraged by the players he sees, and haunted by the memory of his own failure, Gordon encourages the kids to cheat and winds up alienating his team and infuriating the parents. With some powerful advice from an old mentor, Gordon decides to give it another shot and try to teach the kids to love the sport like he once did. Making a connection with a fatherless player called Charlie (Joshua Jackson), who hopes that Gordon will fall for his mother, he begins to get the team on track. When Gordon inspires his boss to sponsor the team and they finally get proper equipment, they begin to make more progress. But will Gordon’s old coach Jack Reilly (Lane Smith) play by the rules? Will Gordon be able to face his demons? And do The Mighty Ducks actually have what it takes to win the championship game?

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Guilt; Pressure to succeed; Cheating: Winning at all costs.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • A group of kids put dog poop in a purse and leave it for a guy to find. The guy gets angry and chases the kids. They escape when he falls on a log and hurts his genitals. He yells after them that he will use their eyeballs as hockey pucks.
  • A kid is hit in the legs and knocked down on the ice.
  • A character pushes and punches another character.
  • Players repeatedly knock each other down on the ice, shoving each other.
  • One boy grabs another and knocks him down.
  • A boy on rollerblades bangs into a woman in a mall, knocking her and all her shopping into a fountain.
  • Two boys shove each other and throw things during a science class.
  • Two boys slam into each other. One character flips another over his shoulder.
  • A coach tells his players that he wants them to target and attack another kid. He states they are to, “finish him off. I want him out of the game”.
  • Two guys shove a girl and another boy tips one of the boys into a seating box.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Aspirin is taken and mentioned.
  • Sports Illustrated magazines are shown and referred to.
  • MTV is mentioned.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • One character tells another, “Your mom is busy with the mailman”.
  • In relation to a sexy magazine, one boy says to another, “You don’t even know what to do with it”.
  • Gordon asks Charlie what type of men his mother likes.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • There are some brief glimpses of women in swim suits.
  • A boy and a girl kiss.
  • Gordon and Charlie’s mum kiss.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Gordon is drinking while driving on an icy road. He is arrested for drunk driving.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Bastards
  • You suck
  • Little Monkeys
  • Pissed
  • Idiots
  • Hell
  • Moron
  • Bitch
  • Jerk
  • Shut up
  • Losers
  • Crap
  • Scuzzy male-faced rat
  • For God’s sakes
  • Spaz.

In a nutshell

The Mighty Ducks is a sports-based drama from Disney, featuring a few well-known faces amongst the cast members and a predictable plot. While it is hailed as a family movie, due to the language, violence, and sexual references, this is not one for younger children but is better suited to children over 10 and older audiences.

The main messages from this movie are to believe in yourself and to try your best; and that it doesn’t matter what uniform you wear or who you play for, what matters is how you play the game.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Teamwork
  • Cooperation
  • Friendship
  • Persistence
  • Trust.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Blaming a child for things beyond their control.
  • Cheating to get what you want.
  • Making dangerous decisions, such as driving while intoxicated.
  • Using violence or bribery to manipulate others.