Mighty Ducks Redux: Final Chapter

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

...We know that "Charlie" was the hero of the first movie. While he was not the best player ("Adam" got hurt during the championship game and was carted off the ice), he scored the winning goal on a penalty shot. One would think this event would instill in him boundless confidence. He’d practice more and certainly become an even better player. This seems to be the case, as he’s good enough to play in the Junior Olympics. But when he volunteers to sit the championship game out, this goes flying in the face of everything that we were led to believe had occurred between the two films. Clearly, he’s not as confident as we thought. If you ask me, a winner wants to be on the ice when it’s crunch time. "Charlie" is not a winner here. He chooses to sit. Besides, if anyone shouldn’t have played, it should have been "knuckle puck" himself, Keenan Thompson. After all, he was the newest player.

This leads us to the third film, when somehow, "Charlie" is the team leader, yet still not the best player. "Adam" remains the best player and is rewarded with the honor of being the only Duck to advance to the varsity team. It now appears though, that "Charlie" is a much better player. He no longer cares about coaching, just scoring (goals and chicks). How are we supposed to believe he’s improved so much? He was never a great player in the first movie. He was simply lucky that "Adam" got hurt, otherwise "Adam" would’ve taken the penalty shot. Heck, if "Adam" didn’t get hurt, the game would’ve never even been that close. In the second movie, "Charlie" volunteers not to play, like the true pansy that he is. Yet now, he’s somehow a scoring machine? Come on. It’s laughable.

So, there’s the problem of The Mighty Ducks movies. One of the central characters’ "skill arc," if you will, makes absolutely no sense. There’s implied growth in skill, a receding of said skill, and then it reappears again. This makes it hard to root for "Charlie Conway." He learned nothing from getting lucky enough to score the winning goal, tucks tail and runs when it’s crunch time, and then he suddenly becomes a winner. All without a "Charlie" practicing and getting better montage sequence. I hope the writer who came up with the "Charlie" subplots was fired. Then again, all is forgiven because "Charlie" popped "Joey Potter’s" cherry in Dawson’s Creek.

-Backwords K
Backwords K is a contributor to the wonderful world of Taylor Bunts