In "D3: The Mighty Ducks," the same old cast of characters returns for some more good old times on the ice. The scrappy, wise-cracking kids that formed The Mighty Ducks hockey team are now full-blown teenagers, voice-changes and all. This time around, they are awarded scholarships to the prestigious Eden Hall Academy, a school who take their hockey just a bit too seriously. Emilio Estevez's character is written out of most of the movie, making way for the hard-headed Coach Orion (Jeff Nordling), who leads The Ducks under their new moniker, The Warriors. As they fight for dominance with the varsity team, they also have to fight for their right to stay in school, lest the school board revoke their scholarships and cast them out simply for not fitting in. Along the way they learn more valuable life lessons and grow with one another, yada yada yada, so on and so forth.If it feels like the formula is wearing thin, that's because it is. Don't be mistaken, "D3" is of the same caliber as "D2: The Mighty Ducks." It's an entertaining enough, simple and nostalgic sports flick that appeals to the whole family, but is nowhere near as inspiring and as spirited as the original. When compared to the original "The Mighty Ducks," this is just a ho-hum sequel that offers nothing new and is obviously made with intentions of milking a franchise name, which is made abundantly clear by its low budget look. But when it comes to Disney and its track-record for sequels, would you expect anything less? It's not all bad though. The acting from the kids is spot on and their chemistry is great as usual. Hans (Joss Ackland) makes his return to the series and even though Emilio Estevez looks tired in the twenty minutes or so he spends in the film, it's better than not having him at all. His turn as the Ducks' lawyer is a stand-out, a nice call-back to the original film. Overall, "D3: The Mighty Ducks" is a contradiction, a mediocre display of nostalgia. It's entertaining enough, but too bland to really have a lasting effect. See it if only to complete the "trilogy" (although I get the feeling that if Disney felt they could, they would have forced more movies out of it) and to reminisce in the good old days, before Emilio Estevez faded away completely, before Joshua Jackson became irritating and before Kenan Thompson went SNL.

Unlike many other people I really enjoyed this movie. I thought the lesson that "there comes a time when you must let things go" was well conveyed. Charlie learns that, even though "the ducks" were the best thing that has ever happened in his life, great things can end and began again in a different way. D3 had quite a few coming of age lessons that is tried to teach from misjudging people to contemplating your future. (spoiler) When Hans died I cried and cried. Over all it was my favorite Mighty Ducks movie. Yea Emilio Esteves was not in most of it but that was just another part of a lesson they were trying to teach

It amazes me how members of this site bash movies but then they seem to make reasons for not bashing it in their critique. Once again if you are watching a movie, such as "Team America: World Police" for instance, that is intentionally created to offend people and you write a comment saying it's the most offense movie you've ever seen (giving it an awful 1 out of 10 because of it) you've essentially given the movie a bad rating while giving the exact comments the movie should get if it's a 10 out of 10. Just like in this 3rd installment of The Mighty Ducks series. The movies were mad to have low brow stupid "kiddie" humor because they were created mostly for children.I can tell you that as far as ice hockey is concerned it is the best movie when it comes to real ice hockey. It still has it's ridiculous scenes but is much more realistic than the first two as far as quantity of plays that actually seemed real. I would imagine that it was a direct result of the actors needing stunt doubles less as they began to become better and better skaters.Oh well.

"D3: The Mighty Ducks" boasts Emilio Estevez's name all over the ads and credits - and I still remember when it came out how they even featured his name on TV commercials. But he's only in the film for perhaps five minutes. He agreed to make a cameo if Disney would fund his post-Vietnam film, "The War At Home," and they did. But they really milked the $3 million for all its worth.The troop of Mighty Ducks return yet again and yet again they are the underdog. This time the kids are all a bit older and dealing with more mature subjects - including romance. Estevez provides counseling at a crucial moment in the film, but it just comes across as spontaneous and totally random.This is a terrible film - the first two were bad to begin with but this reeks of sequelitis. It's just there to make money, and the lousy cast, bad director and atrocious dialogue doesn't help any.Please, no "D4."