7 Greatest Kids Sports Movies Of the '90s, and the 3 Worst

Culture
By Liam Boylan-Pett

Why is everyone so quick to defend Space Jam? The amount of arguments I've had about Space Jam not being a bad movie could be counted on one hand. But intensity of those arguments are similar to that of Cruise and Nicholson in A Few Good Men: It ends with me saying, "SPACE JAM ISN'T EVEN A TOP FIVE KID'S SPORTS MOVIE OF THE '90S!!!!" and the other arguer saying "YOU'RE GOD DAMN WRONG ON THIS ONE!!!!"

The description of my argument above may be an exaggeration. Many of my my friends, however, do love Space Jam and I have never been a fan. At all. Arguments do occur. I'm even sent pictures like the one that Men's Humor posted on their Instagram account with about 330,000 followers that showed a picture saying: "Either you love Space Jam or you're wrong."

Space Jam is not a great movie. It isn't one of the top five kid's sports movies of the '90s. The list that follows proves that. Keep reading for the 7 Best Kid's Sports Movies of the '90s followed by the 3 worst of the same time period.

1. Ladybugs

The premise of Ladybugs, where Rodney Dangerfield dresses his fiancee's son in drag to dominate the young girls' soccer league he coaches in, is ridiculous. As is the movie itself. And it may be a little more adult oriented with Rodney Dangerfield at the helm, but I remember laughing at it as a youngster. 

2. Mighty Ducks 2

"Quack! Quack! Quack!" and "USA! USA! USA!" are two of the greatest chants in American Sports history. 

3. Little Giants

The Annexation of Puerto Rico made it to the NFL. The fact that a play from a 1994 kid's movie had an impact on an NFL game is unreal. 

4. Rookie Of The Year

Did he just say, "Funky butt loving?" Baseball movies crushed it in the '90s.

5. Mighty Ducks

The Flying V! The triple deak! The jerseys! Holy cow this movie was awesome.

6. Angels in the Outfield

I still get chills watching this film. As I mentioned earlier, baseball movies in the 90s crushed it. Except for Little Big League failing to live up to expectations. Also, talk about star power: Danny Glover, Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Adrien Brody, Matthew McConaughey, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt!

7. The Sandlot

Squints, you devil you. Way to get Wendy Peffercorn. This scene is film-making at its finest. The set-up, the smile, the soundtrack, it is perfect. Thank you Squints, for everything. 

I struggled picking Sandlot over Angels in the Outfield, but I'm willing to admit that growing up, I loved Sandlot more even though I still want to go to a high school basketball game and choreograph an Angels' Wing Flap to this day.

**Now that we've ended on that high note, let's bring it back down with the three worst kids sports movies of all time ...

1. Mighty Ducks 3 

You tried Might Ducks trilogy, you really tried. However, this one just wasn't up to snuff. I still enjoyed the movie, but placing it on a best list wouldn't be fair to the movies listed up top. Although, horse turd brownies. Heh, heh.

2. Air Bud

A movie with a basketball-playing dog wasn't that good? No way. 

3. Space Jam

Listen, I love basketball and I love Looney Tunes. They did not mesh well together though. I wanted to love Space Jam, but I couldn't do it. I remember being highly disappointed when I was a kid. Maybe I expected too much and thought it was going to be the best movie ever. When it failed to do that, it was crap to me. I look at it as one of those movies that people have to say they like because it's cool to like. Too bad it's boring. 

The bottom line is that I would re-watch any of the movies listed in the best seven if they were on cable on a weekend afternoon, but I wouldn't watch Space Jam.