My Issues With Averman (and the Rest of the Mighty Ducks)

There is something special about a TV or movie character that grew up/lives in the same area as you.  I'm not talking about the actor playing the character (while that is nice as well), but the actual character on screen.  There's a strange kind of validation and this is not specific to the small town folk.  At a screening of Anchorman in San Diego, I saw the audience erupt in laughter as Will Farrell tried to convince Christina Applegate that San Diego meant whale's vagina in German.

I saw Anchorman twice in the theaters (once in San Diego, once in Irvine), and while the joke got laughs both times, I could tell that the San Diego crowd appreciated the joke a lot more.  It was almost as if the laughter beamed "he's talking about us!"  I think sitting with the hometown audience actually made the experience more enjoyable.  To see a movie taking place in San Diego with the local folk (even though San Diego is a population of 1 million plus) is pretty surreal.

Unfortunately movies often perpetuate stereotypes, which kind of kills that enjoyable hometown experience.  Anchorman takes place in San Diego but doesn't make fun of San Diego.  Fargo, on the other hand, takes place in Minnesota and gives their characters the Minnesota "accent".  It's ironic that Fargo makes Minnesotans look ridiculous since Joel and Ethan Coen, the writers and directors of the film (whom I love dearly), are both from Minnesota.  I don't believe that their intent was to ridicule Minnesota or show how all Minnesotans talk, but as a result of the film, this is one of the first misconceptions about Minnesota that I need to fix whenever I meet someone who wants to know where I'm from.  Don't get me wrong, I love the movie, and I blame this annoyance on the viewers not being able to discern fact from fiction, not on the Coens.

This leads me to The Mighty Ducks, a film that I have a strange connection with.  It was aimed at me in so many different ways.  I was a kid, I was from Minnesota (where the movie takes place), and I loved hockey.  So on paper this movie was heaven on earth for me, but actually things get kind of complicated (Flying V's and triple deeks aside).  

I love the underdog story, I love the fact that they make allusions to the good team being from Edina (one of the richest cities in America, people say Edina stands for Every Day I Need Allowance), and I love the fact that they make pee-wee hockey seem like it's broadcast TV worthy (not a huge stretch, high school hockey is amazing in Minnesota), but there are two things that stick out like a sore thumb.  The Minnesota North Stars in which they attend, and the fact that Les Averman is from Brooklyn Park.

I was a huge Minnesota North Stars fan and I believe this was the last game of theirs I saw before their movie to Dallas.  It was a game against the Hartford Whalers.  It was the game the kids attended in the movie, which we were told at the time was going to be titled Bombay.  The North Stars ended up losing the game in the waning seconds after Adam Burt flipped a shot over Jon Casey off of a face off with about 4 seconds left.  It left a bad taste in my mouth and I have to relive that every time I watch the movie.  They conveniently left out the heartbreaking end of that game.

Les Averman is probably the only kid in the movie that I don't like and I don't like him at all.  At then end of the film the kids all say where they're from.  I was hoping to hear Brooklyn Park, but I was hoping to hear it from someone else, not Averman.  A lot of the kids improve in the film or start to stick up for themselves, but not this kids.  He's just dead weight who tells bad jokes.  I wasn't expecting Charlie Conway (Joshua Jackson) to be from Brooklyn Park, but I was hoping we'd get represented by someone who I didn't think was completely lame.  Fortunately I haven't received any criticism from anyone comparing me to him since we're from "the same place".  

Currently I reside in a weird place, Southern Orange County.  There have been plenty of TV shows, fictional and reality and movies about this specific location, but I have no connection either way.  Perhaps it's because I called Minnesota and San Diego home, while I call South OC just a temporary place live.