D2: The Mighty Ducks

**D2: The Mighty Ducks** is a 1994 American sports-comedy film and sequel to "The Mighty Ducks", directed by Sam Weisman, which was released on March 25, 1994 by Walt Disney Pictures.

## Plot

After sustaining a career-ending knee injury while playing minor league hockey, Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez) is given the job to coach the Team USA Hockey team for the Junior Goodwill Games in Los Angeles, California, consisting of the Ducks & five new players.

At first, things seem to be going well, but the hype of Hollywood starts to get to Gordon and he becomes distracted when Team Iceland (who are the favorites to win the competition) appear on the scene.

## Cast

* Emilio Estevez as Gordon Bombay
* Kathryn Erbe as Michelle McKay
* Michael Tucker as Mr. Tibbles
* Jan Rubeš as Jan
* Carsten Norgaard as Wolf "The Dentist" Stansson
* Maria Ellingsen as Maria
* Joshua Jackson as Charlie Conway
* Elden Henson as Fulton Reed
* Shaun Weiss as Greg Goldberg
* Brandon Adams as Jesse Hall
* Matt Doherty as Les Averman
* Vincent Larusso as Adam Banks
* Garette Ratliff Henson as Guy Germaine
* Marguerite Moreau as Connie Moreau
* Colombe Jacobsen as Julie "The Cat" Gaffney
* Aaron Lohr as Dean Portman
* Ty O'Neal as Dwayne Robertson
* Kenan Thompson as Russ Tyler
* Mike Vitar as Luis Mendoza
* Justin Wong as Ken Wu
* Scott Whyte as Gunnar Stahl

## Production

Principal photography for "D2: The Mighty Ducks" began on July 7, 1993 and ended on September 24, 1993. Filming primarily took place in Minnesota (in St. Paul, Minneapolis & Bloomington) and California (in Beverly Hills & Los Angeles).

The filming of the final game was the very first event to take place at the then brand new Arrowhead Pond, which attracted approximately 15,000 people. As the filming would span over several days, the production team was aware that the crowd would not be as consistent. In order to accommodate the dwindling crowd, cardboard stand-ups were brought in and moved around to fill-in shots.

Initially, Russia was considered as playing the role of the antagonists in the film, but given the relations between the United States and Russia had improved at the time of filming, the writers decided to use Iceland in the role instead.

Maria Ellingsen (the actress who plays the Iceland trainer, Maria) was in fact born in Reykjavík, Iceland and she taught the actors playing the Icelandic hockey team how to speak her native language.

The Ducks who appeared in the first film, but did not return for the sequel are Dave Karp (Aaron Schwartz), Peter Mark (J.D. Daniels), Terry Hall (Jussie Smollett), Tammy Duncan (Jane Plank) and Tommy Duncan (Danny Tamberelli).

Joss Ackland was apparently unavailable to reprise his role as Hans from the original film and his position in the film was replaced by Jan Rubes as Jan, Hans' brother. Hans' non-appearance in the film was explained as him going back to Norway to visit his mother.

The scene after the first game with Iceland where Coach Bombay makes the team do sprints is based on Herb Brooks' 1980 US Olympic team when they tied the Norwegian national team in an exhibition game. The team skated for about an hour even though the rink manager had turned the lights off.

## Box Office

"D2: The Mighty Ducks" grossed $10,356,748 during its opening weekend. Overall, it grossed $45,610,410.

## Critical Reception

"D2: The Mighty Ducks" received negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 21% based on 15 reviews with an average rating of 4.20\10.

Desson Howe of The Washington Post wrote: *"D2: The Mighty Ducks reaches an extraordinary low – even for a Disney sequel. This unctuous barrage of flag-waving, message-mongering, counterfeit morality, which contains the stalest kiddie-team heroics in recent memory, makes the original, innocuous 'Ducks' look like one of the Great Works."*

Marjorie Baumgarten from the Austin Chronicle gave "D2: The Mighty Ducks" a one-star rating, stating: "*D2 is nothing but pure formula. Only problem is that the formula doesn't work here because it requires the movie to repeat the same ground over again and that's extremely awkward in a story that's already progressed past that point. The entire narrative is then tenuous and when there wasn't much story there to begin with, “less” is certainly not a virtue."*

Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C-, calling the sequel *"even more banal than the original"*, adding: *"As an alternative to the violent Arnold Schwarzenegger film its title evokes, D2 fits the bill. But as a thought-provoker that lives by the standards it tries to set, this Ducks is pretty lame."*