If you grew up in the 90s, you probably have some fond memories of one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time, The Mighty Ducks.  What was it about these movies that made them so great though?  I reviewed them recently and came up with some obvious and not so obvious reasons on why they were and still are so great.

1. The characters have awesome names

Two Words: Gordon Bombay.  No name is more majestic than that name.  Say it out loud: Gordon Bombay.  It’s a name that commands respect and I think it is up there with the greatest movie character names of all time right next to Darth Vader, Ferris Bueller, and one of my personal favorites, Rookie of the Year’s Chet Steadman.  It also gave us our captain, Charlie Conway.  Could you honestly think of a better name for the selfless team captain of The Mighty Ducks?  They even found ways to blend characters names into their lifestyles or positions while still sounding like real names.  They gave the cake eater (Adam Banks) who comes from a richer family the last name “Banks” and who could forget our favorite clumsy goalie, Goldberg!  Averman is a solid name for a fast talking kid with glasses, Luis Mendoza can really fly, and let’s not forget the bash brothers with their two great names of Fulton Reed and Dean Portman.  Tell me you wouldn’t pay the guy who created these character’s names to name your kid, and I’ll show you a mirror so you can look at a liar.

2. It showed that not all child actors eventually become coked out train wrecks

I recently watched a where are they now video on YouTube that showed where the actors and actresses that were in The Mighty Ducks are now.  A lot of them have had some pretty decent careers or are at least living a pretty normal life.  Charlie Conway went on to be a star on Dawson’s Creek and a bunch of other movies, and the wise cracking knuckle puck creator (Keenan Thompson) is now a cast member on Saturday Night Live.  A lot of child stars tend to have issues later growing up under the limelight, but these ducks must have stuck together and listened to Gordon Bombay when he told them, “You think losing is funny?”  I’d listen to someone named Gordon Bombay too.

3. It led to an actual NHL team being named after a fictional peewee hockey team

Seriously, how insane is that!?  I could be wrong but I don’t think there are any other professional sports franchises out there named after a peewee team in a movie.  To this day I still pick the Anaheim Ducks every time I play a hockey game, and you better believe I try to get a “Flying V” going every time.  Charlie mentions that they named that team after their team in the third movie, but I don’t know how many people realized that was an actual thing that happened in real life.

4. It made kids want to go outside and skate/rollerblade

You want to fix this national obesity crisis?  Instead of taking away sodas in cafeterias, show kids this movie when they’re about 7 or 8 years old, give them some rollerblades and a hockey stick, and watch these kids go from Goldbergs to Conways faster than Luis Mendoza.

5. It gave us the greatest shot term and sports formation of all time

I can only assume that the guy that came up with the names of the characters must have also came up with the two greatest hockey terms that didn’t exist before these movies.  The “knuckle puck” was a great little wrinkle they threw into the duck’s game plan, and it gave me something to practice when I was out skating around in my driveway for hours getting my childhood exercise on.  I could never quite get the puck to curve the way a young Keenan Thompson could however.  Also, “The Flying V” was a brilliant way to correlate a duck’s flying pattern to the hockey team, and to be honest the play looked like it would maybe actually work.  “The Flying V” also sort of sounds like a play out of Barney Stinson’s playbook from the show, How I Met Your Mother.  I hope at one point later in life one of the actors hit on a lady and said, “You know I was part of “The Flying V” when I was younger.  What are the chances of me flying into your V later tonight?” Quack! Quack! Quack!