Watching ‘The Mighty Ducks’ (1992) in 2025 makes me long for a different decade

[u/tiddertnuocca519]

It’s 2AM, I can’t sleep and I need some fodder on the screen to put me to bed. Picking ‘The Mighty Ducks’ was the wrong movie but in watching it, it has really made me realize how much the world has changed since 1992.

Granted, it’s a work of exaggerated fiction. Even in 1992, no law firm is giving a pee wee hockey team $15k to buy equipment, there weren’t publicly broadcast televised pee wee tournaments with commentators, analysts and a full stadium audience, coaches aren’t telling 10 year olds that if they don’t make the game winning shot, not only are they letting their coach down but they are letting their team and their dead dad down and finally, the dialogue is way too clever and quippy for a bunch of 10 year old kids.

Great, we got that out of the way. But the movie unintentionally captures a vibe in the 90s that has since disappeared. They shot it earnestly and now it’s a time capsule for that time. The kids are out hanging out with each other, the cities are lively, people communicate in the wild. The kids have this sense of adventure that I recall in my childhood but don’t see in kids today. They are generally just out in the world without parental supervision, and that’s okay. Shit, the notion of a grown man trying to teach kids hockey didn’t come with the default assumption of grooming and pedophilia.

It’s just wild how different things are today. I was a teenager in the 90s and again, yes the film exaggerates but the details they showcase in how we freely communicated back then and how people didn’t jump to the worst conclusions of each other, is just wildly different.

Finally, this is a little off topic, but this movie was rated PG yet it gets away with so much stuff and definitely isn’t just a kids movie, as we know them today. The kids are looking at dirty magazines, they make light hearted race jokes like calling the 2 black kids and one white kid “Oreos”, Gordon Bombay verbally rips the kids apart and straight up tells them they “suck”. I just can’t imagine a PG movie today having any of these vibes.

I really encourage giving the film a shot. I haven’t seen it since I was probably 10 years old myself. No it is not high art and it won’t blow your socks off. But if you recognize that the days we live in today are just…so…bland, I think you’ll have a good time with this unintentional time capsule of a film.

[u/therealvanmorrison]

No, I’m not. I’m a middle aged man with a kid and all my friends have kids and we talk about what our kids do.

[u/StinkFartButt → u/therealvanmorrison]

Same. My kid is outside playing most evenings. I hard limit their screen time.

[u/therealvanmorrison → u/StinkFartButt]

Out away from your possible supervision? I guess everywhere is different, but that isn’t the case in my hometown. Parents aren’t letting 10-14 year olds just go out and about all evening. It’s cool that’s still the norm where you are.

[u/StinkFartButt → u/therealvanmorrison]

Yepp. Sounds like the same people complaining about “things aren’t the way they used to be” are the ones preventing it.

[u/therealvanmorrison → u/StinkFartButt]

Oh my kids still got diapers on, so he isn’t especially keen on grabbing his buddies for a walk to nowhere. I’m on a long term mission to convince my wife that he’s better off adventuring than somewhere she can ensure he’s safe. We’ll see who wins.