PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Champions (Mighty Ducks, The) (Remastered) (1992)

Champions (Mighty Ducks, The) (Remastered) (1992)

If you create a user account, you can add your own review of this DVD

Released 17-Mar-2003

Cover Art

This review is sponsored by
BUY IT

Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Family None
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 1992
Running Time 99:17
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Stephen Herek
Studio
Distributor

Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.
Starring Emilio Estevez
Joss Ackland
Lane Smith
Heidi Kling
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI $29.95 Music David Newman


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Not 16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
English for the Hearing Impaired
Spanish
Swedish
Norwegian
Danish
Finnish
Spanish Titling
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement Yes, sort of
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Another Buena Vista remaster and re-release in the wake of them assuming responsibility for the distribution of their own titles. In this instance the remaster is relative to the audio and video transfers only and does not involve any improvement in the extras department.

    There is probably no need for me to reiterate the comments I made in my review of the original release regarding the great game of (ice) hockey, the great city of Minneapolis and the not so great promotional push of the Disney Corporation for its then gestative team in the National Hockey League - The Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim. If you want to check those comments out, then look here. To save you the hassle, the plot synopsis from that review is repeated hereunder:

    Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez) is a former hot shot pee-wee hockey player who grew up to be a very successful lawyer. Winning is everything and every court case is treated as if it were a Stanley Cup final itself - and he goes for the "W" every time. This naturally does not endear him to everyone - especially the District Attorney and a judge, who get some divine intervention as far as retribution is concerned, when Gordon is arrested for driving under the influence. After his boss does a deal with the judge, Gordon finds himself on a leave of absence from work with 500 hours of community service to fulfil as coach of a local pee-wee hockey team. Only this is no ordinary pee-wee hockey team - this is District 5, the worst of the worst basically. No talent, no equipment, no coach. But things go from bad to worse when the totally self-indulged, and disinterested, Gordon finds his first game as coach is against his old team and old coach - The Hawks and Jack Reilly (Lane Smith). We start to see what went wrong as far as Gordon was concerned, and go along for the ride as he attempts to rediscover the joy of hockey - with a little help from money from his boss and equipment from his old mentor Hans (Joss Ackland). We also get the obligatory romantic sub-plot as the slowly reforming Gordon takes a shine to Casey Conway (Heidi Kling), mother of one of his players, Charlie (Joshua Jackson). Being Disney, we get the obligatory happy ending as this bunch of losers and their loser coach hit the heights.

    Okay, the story is so clichéd it is not funny. There is little of obvious originality here, and this plods a very well-worn path of moralization that even by Disney standards is pretty well-dosed with saccharine. But then again, that is part of the charm of the film. From minute ten it is obvious where this film is going but you still sit there and enjoy the ride anyway. All very strictly by the Disney numbers book, there is not much here that is going to be confused with great film making at all. The acting is pretty much by the book, with little flair coming from anywhere. Emilio Estevez has barely established any credibility as an actor anyway, and this is certainly no great highlight in his career resume. Heidi Kling is so good that she has barely disappeared without trace as far as film is concerned, judging by the rather short list in her entry on the Internet Movie Database. Lane Smith fills his typical solid role playing here, with a decent if not especially memorable effort as the win-at-all-costs coach. Director Stephen Herek pulls no great strings here and does the by-the-book job required of him by Disney.

    All in all, there is nothing at all memorable here, yet it is a film that I enjoy coming back to for some reason on a reasonably regular basis. However, it has to be said that despite the remastering, what we have been given here remains a decidedly ordinary presentation. There are plenty of better family films out there in the market place and only real fans of the main cast need apply here.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

    You may well recall that the original release was not exactly what you would call flash as far as the video transfer went. Well, the news is that the remastering seems to have had little effect on the transfer. What improvements I did see were verified as being the result of the change in the player in my setup, as opposed to any improvement in the transfer.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and, once again, despite the claim on the packaging it is not 16x9 enhanced. Do I really need to rant once again about the stupidity of releasing non-16x9 enhanced widescreen transfers?

    Just as with the original release, there really is something visually awry with the transfer here. This basically seems to revolve around the slight diffuseness of the image, which is quite obvious during much of the film. This is anything but a sharp transfer, and detail is quite ordinary at times. Where the transfer really falls down is that this is not a clear transfer; there is a consistent graininess throughout much of the first part of the film, but this progressively worsens during the film. The later portions of the film seem to have a combination of grain and low level noise - this is especially noticeable in the scenes at the school that feature the blackboard (such as at 65:33), which really look quite disgusting. Shadow detail is pretty decent by comparison.

    The colours here are quite well saturated and have a reasonably natural feel to them in general. While the film could certainly have benefited from a dash more in the saturation stakes - and certainly a heck of a lot more in the vibrancy stakes - there is no real cause for complaint. There is nothing approaching over-saturation here and colour bleed is not an issue.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer, as the slight loss of resolution on some pan shots would seem to be inherent in the source material since they have been present in all previous VHS tape and DVD incarnations of the film that I own. There is a rather consistent problem through out the transfer with aliasing. This is however not as bad as the earlier release, even though this seems to be player related. There remains however plenty of aliasing in the transfer and examples include the car at 9:07, the building at 10:41, the seat at 11:57 and so on throughout most of the film. Film artefacts are quite prevalent but are really not that intrusive.

    Whilst the original release was an RSDL formatted DVD, this new remastering appears to be a single sided, single layered DVD - despite the claims on the slick cover that the layer change may trigger a slight pause.

    There are eight subtitle options on the DVD, including English and English for the Hearing Impaired options. I sampled these and they both seem to be very decent with no significant problems at all.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The earlier Region 4 release differed notably from the Region 1 release by the lack of a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. This is rectified on the current release that features two such soundtracks - one in English and one in Spanish. I listened to the English soundtrack.

    Dialogue comes up pretty well here and there is no problem with understanding what is being said. There did not appear to be any significant problems with audio sync either, although once or twice I thought such a problem was about to break out.

    The original music score is from the pen of David Newman and a quite ordinary effort it is too - as befitting a Disney by-the-numbers film. Nothing memorable at all in my view, but reasonably supportive of the film in a typically Disney schmaltzy kind of way.

    Surprisingly, the remaster 5.1 soundtrack really does not add a lot to the film experience. Oh sure, the bass kicks in every so often to enhance some point in the film but overall the surround channel usage is pretty ordinary and ambient noise from the rear channels virtually non-existent. Sure it is better than the 2.0 soundtrack on the original release but hardly a glowing advertisement for the format. The balance of the soundtrack is a little less front and centre than before but still closer to that than being an enveloping soundtrack. Thankfully the remastering into 5.1 has eliminated the distortion that was previously prevalent in the end credits.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    Well at least there is no Special Edition appellation on this extras-bereft package.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 4 release misses out on:

    The Region 1 release misses out on:

    This new remaster is much more on a par with the Region 1 release than the earlier Region 4 release. As those familiar with my review of the earlier Region 4 release will recall, there was a minor audio sync issue with the Region 1 release on my previous setup. This is not an issue on my current setup and there is little to choose between the two versions transfer wise now. The presence of the preview trailers on the Region 1 release is hardly significant so all in all, call this one even - although both are far from demonstration discs.

Summary

    Champions (The Mighty Ducks) remains a typical Disney by-the-numbers film that does its job reasonably well. Nothing approaching great film making but reasonably entertaining, as long as there is a decent gap between viewings. Quite why it spawned two sequels though remains one of the great mysteries of the film making business. Whilst somewhat better than the earlier Region 4 release, this remains technically a mediocre DVD with nothing at all in the way of extras. At the price, there remain plenty of DVDs out there that are better value than this - even for fans of the film.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris (Biological imperfection run amok)
Saturday, April 19, 2003
Review Equipment
DVDDenon DVD-1600, using S-Video output
DisplaySony Trinitron Wega (80cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationYamaha RXV-795
SpeakersEnergy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right C-2; rears EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL

Other Reviews
MovieHole - Clint M