D3: The Mighty Ducks

D3: The Mighty Ducks (also known as The Mighty Ducks 3) is a 1996 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Robert Lieberman and sequel to the 1994 film D2: The Mighty Ducks. It is the third and final installment in The Mighty Ducks trilogy and was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Jeffrey Nordling, Heidi Kling, and Joss Ackland. Estevez, Kling, Ackland, Joshua Jackson, Elden Henson, Shaun Weiss, Matt Doherty, Garette Ratliff Henson, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Larusso, Aaron Lohr, Ty O'Neal, Kenan Thompson, Mike Vitar, Colombe Jacobsen, and Justin Wong reprise their roles from the previous films in the series with Scott Whyte, who played Gunnar in the second film, returning in a different role.

Plot
After their victory at the Junior Goodwill Games, youth ice-hockey team The Mighty Ducks and their captain Charlie Conway are awarded junior varsity hockey scholarships to Eden Hall Academy, a prestigious Minneapolis-area prep school that Coach Bombay attended. Charlie struggles with his transition from childhood to adolescence; he's outraged at Bombay, who is leaving the Ducks to take a job with the Junior Goodwill Games. In addition, Dean Portman and Jesse Hall have not accepted the scholarships, and thus will not be joining the team. Bombay informs Charlie prior to the start of classes that the team will be in good hands under the coaching of former NHL player Ted Orion.

The Ducks' start at the school begins unfavorably. The team faces new challenges, including bullying from the championship-winning Varsity team, the Warriors. Coach Orion is much sterner than Bombay, and insists on learning a new "two-way hockey" defensive style that abandons several Duck traditions and old in-game "trick" plays. These changes lead to Charlie and Orion butting heads, and Orion later strips Charlie of his team captaincy. The team loses Adam Banks when he qualifies to play for Varsity. The Ducks struggle in their opening game of the season, giving up a large lead to the other school. Later, Varsity challenges the Ducks to an unsanctioned early morning match to settle their differences; the Ducks are decisively routed. Witnessing this, Orion revokes the Ducks jerseys, declaring "The Ducks are dead". This causes Charlie and Fulton to quit the team, the former planning return to public school and seek hockey career, but the latter backs out due to disinterest in continuing hockey.

Charlie's acting out alienates him from his mother, teammates, and an ailing Hans. Hans suddenly dies, and Bombay comes to Charlie's house the day after the funeral to take him back to Eden Hall. He tells Charlie that Orion's career with the Minnesota North Stars ended when the team moved to Dallas and he stayed to care for his paraplegic daughter. Bombay tells Charlie the background story on how he first came to coach the Ducks and says he told Orion that Charlie was the heart and soul of the team, and it was his hope that both Orion and Charlie would learn something from each other. Emotionally touched by his words and feeling remorse over his behavior towards Orion and his fellow Ducks (including Fulton, who decided to play it by ear regarding hockey and rejoin), Charlie agrees to rejoin the team.

Arriving at the team bus for the next game, Charlie tells Orion he wants to play "two-way hockey". Surprised but pleased, Coach Orion welcomes him back. Before they depart, Dean Buckley, the school's headmaster, informs the team that its board of trustees wants to revoke the Ducks' scholarships and offers Orion a chance to start anew with a team of his choice. Satisfied with the team, Orion balks at the news, threatening resignation. At a board meeting the following day, Bombay, who was a practicing lawyer before coaching the Ducks, acts as the Ducks' attorney and fights successfully for their case, threatening the board with an injunction and promising to win the resulting lawsuit if the board expels the Ducks. The board reinstates the Duck's scholarships with much reluctance due to Bombay putting them in a no-win situation. Varsity is furious that the Ducks won't be expelled, but agree to a wager with the Ducks regarding the JV-Varsity match: If the Warriors win, the Ducks are expelled, but if the Ducks win, the team name will be changed to the "Mighty Ducks". Banks subsequently returns to the Ducks.

Prior to the annual JV–Varsity game, Orion brings back the Duck jerseys, giving the team a renewed vigor. Throughout the game, the Varsity dominates on offense. However, the Ducks play good defense and manage to keep the game scoreless after two periods. During the second intermission, Dean Portman returns to the team, giving them a much needed spark. Late in the game, the Ducks get two penalties and must play 5-vs.-3. With seconds left in the match, Charlie gets a breakaway and beats all the defensemen and goalie; he passes the puck back to Goldberg, now a defenseman, who scores into a wide-open net as time expires, securing a 1–0 victory for the Ducks.

Following the victory, Charlie embraces Orion and spots Bombay in the crowds, and they both look across the rink to a newly-presented Eden Hall banner with the Ducks' logo. Bombay then departs the rink with a smile amid a sea of cheering fans.

Cast
Paul Kariya, then-captain of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (now Anaheim Ducks) when the film was released, makes a cameo appearance during the second intermission of the Ducks/Varsity Warriors game. The film's co-writer Steven Brill was an attendant at an arcade.

Production
The third movie was originally going to be darker in tone, with the main antagonists written to be Bulgarians. Brandon Adams, who portrayed the character of Jesse Hall in the previous films, is the only actor to not reprise his role as a Duck. His absence in the film is explained as his character having moved away. Jesse appeared in the original script for the third film, but with minimal lines and screen time compared to the first two films.

Parts of the movie were filmed at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.

Box office
The movie debuted at No.4 in the box office and ended up grossing $22,936,273 in the US. It is the lowest-grossing film of the trilogy.

Critical
Like its predecessor, the film received negative reviews, and holds a 20% rating based on 15 reviews with an average rating of 3.8/10 on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes.

John Anderson of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a self-reverential salute to Ducks" while also saying that the film was "lazier" than its predecessors. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times described the film as predictable, saying that the "third version [is] more or less the same story: Evil, petty, vindictive, mean-spirited, cheating, lying snobs try to stop them, but the Ducks, after first dealing with cockiness, infighting, pride, anger and a new coach, redeem themselves in the big match." Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle said the film "struggles for laughs. Even its familiar, heavily orchestrated showdown-on-ice between the Ducks and a rude rival is little more than a tedious rehash of puckish mayhem".

Home video release
The film was released on VHS on January 21, 1997, on DVD on September 2, 2002 and was also released on Blu-ray disc as a Disney Movie Club exclusive on May 23, 2017. It was also released on the Disney+ streaming platform on September 4, 2020.