Where i Watched It: Peacock

English Audio Description Available?: Yes

i was apparently living in a parallel dimension when I chose to watch this on Peacock back when it first dropped. For me, i saw two alternate audio English tracks, but neither was listed to me as having audio description at the time, nor did either track have audio description. Then, almost immediately after I brought it up, suddenly I became the only person I know of who had this problem, because everyone else could access the AD. When I went back to double check, I saw one of the two English audio tracks was now labeled as having audio description… and did.

However, I did not rewatch this film. honestly, once was enough. Maybe if it was a film i felt like I could have loved more, or wanted to discover some other layer, but Champions is pretty straightforward in its hopes and dreams.

The funny thing is that the movie itself is this odd contradiction, where at some point in the film Woody Harrelson is given the opportunity to elevate his career. He knows that the only reason he’s being offered this job is because he’s at the center of a universal feel good story where a team of developmentally disabled basketball players are surprisingly taking the sport by force. But, he feels bad about using them for profit, and it becomes a hard pass.

Thing is… it’s kinda hard to cheer for that decision when we’ve instead made a movie about this guy’s life. It’s not like this movie would have ever gotten made if he was tasked with coaching some ragtag basketball version of The Mighty Ducks, at least not from a true story point of view. He’s *still* here only because his team of athletes hope to qualify for the Special Olympics.

Otherwise, this is The mighty Ducks. It’s a talented self absorbed individual being legally required to assist a youth team in becoming better at their sport. Everyone learns important life lessons, and we feel like we’ve done something as an audience by supporting this film.

Since I didn’t personally have audio description, I’ll skip beating that dead horse one way or another.

Final Grade: C+