The story begins with a guy writing a script on an electric typewriter in an apartment in Hollywood. Screenwriter Steven Brill, inspired by watching kids playing hockey at a local rink where he skated, wrote a script about a rag-tag kids’ hockey team in Minnesota and sold it to Disney. A modestly budgeted flick at $12 million, “The Mighty Ducks” was released in 1992, grossed more than $100 million and inspired two sequels (1994 and ‘96), two TV series (one animated) ... and the idea, in the head of then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, of bidding for an honest-to-goodness NHL expansion team.

Life imitates art, right?

“There’s a line — I think it was in the third movie — that they snuck in there where Joshua Jackson (who portrayed Charlie Conway) said, ‘You know, they named a real-life NHL team after us,’” said documentary co-producer/director Scott Cikowski in a phone conversation this week.

“And, you know, we — myself, my co-producer (Russell Dinallo), our entire E-60 team thought that that was just, you know, the start of what could potentially be an interesting story to tell. So I guess that’s you know, that’s sort of where the the idea originated.”

It was a labor of love, Cikowski acknowledged: “I sort of grew up on those movies and was a fan of all the Mighty Ducks films growing up – the characters, the ‘Flying V,’ the triple-deke. You know, I’m sure I spent some time practicing the knuckle-puck in the driveway. There’s certainly still a Charlie Conway jersey somewhere in my parents’ house.”

The documentary includes footage of the introductory press conference in March of 1993, at which Eisner, newly-installed NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and then-Kings’ owner Bruce McNall (who got half of the Ducks’ $50 million expansion fee in exchange for waiving the Kings’ territorial rights) blew duck calls on stage. Eisner then confirmed that the team name would indeed be the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, shrugging as he said, “It’s Disney. What can I do?”

A look through the old columns archive reminds that he also predicted a Disneyland parade for the new team “after we win 38 or 39 games our first season,” and his team came closer than we thought. The inaugural Ducks were 33-46-5, after having just seven months to assemble not only a roster but a front office, scouting staff and the rest before opening night.

“One of the big story points is just this sort of weird and awkward marriage between Hollywood glitz and glam and, you know, the rough ‘90s era of hockey,” Cikowski said, noting that the over-the-top Disney-esque pregame ceremonies on opening night in Anaheim in October of 1993 aren’t that far removed from the way the definitely non-Disney Vegas Golden Knights do their pre-game festivities now.

Ah, but even with the horror at the time from the hockey establishment directed at the, uh, goofy name and the scowling duck logo, by Christmas of 1993 the Anaheim club had sold an estimated 80 percent of all NHL-licensed merchandise throughout North America, helped no doubt by said merch being available in Disney stores and theme parks as well as more traditional outlets.

The team was a phenomenon on store shelves in those early years but less so on the ice, though with tough guys like Stu Grimson and the late Todd Ewen on their roster they weren’t ever going to be bullied. They made the playoffs twice in their first nine seasons and won one series while going through five coaches in that span, and finished last in their division in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

And then, the unexpected. With a new coach, Mike Babcock, a general manager in Bryan Murray who had been bumped upstairs from behind the bench and a revamped roster, Anaheim began to make a mark.

On Jan. 8, after a 1-0 loss to Edmonton, the Ducks were 15-16-7-3, in the then-convoluted NHL standings format, with seven ties (no shootouts then) and three overtime losses, and were in third place in the Pacific Division. From there, they were 25-11-2-10 and, with 95 points, finished second in the division to Dallas.

“After Christmas, I think we started winning games more consistently,” goalie J.S. Giguere recalled in a phone conversation. “And it was nice that at the trading deadline, Bryan Murray really went out and improved our team, made some trades (for veterans Sandis Ozolinsh, Steve Thomas and Rob Niedermayer) that gave us a little bit more depth.”

But expectations were low going into the playoffs and a first-round matchup with 109-point Detroit, the defending champ.

“I don’t think we felt like we probably had the team to go all the way to the Final,” Giguere said. “But I think we felt we could be competitive, and I think, really, like when we were facing Detroit, if we’re being honest, I think all we wanted was an experience.”

What an experience. The Ducks stunned the Red Wings with a first-round sweep, won a five-overtime game in Dallas in Game 1 and went on to eliminate the Stars and their 109 points in six in the conference semifinal, swept Minnesota in the conference final and took the New Jersey Devils to a seventh game in the Meadowlands before losing in the Final.

The most memorable incident in that series, in Game 6, was captain (and future Hall of Famer) Paul Kariya being leveled by an open-ice hit by Scott Stevens — a hit that today would have gotten Stevens a match penalty and put Kariya in concussion protocol — only for Kariya to return to the ice 10 minutes later and then rip a shot past the Devils’ Martin Brodeur for Anaheim’s fourth goal in a 5-2 win that evened the series.

But there was no Hollywood ending, at least yet. Giguere was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the outstanding player in the playoffs, one of only five members of a losing team to win it. But the big trophy, New Jersey’s third in a nine-year span, went to Devils captain Stevens first and then eventually to Scott Niedermayer, Rob’s older brother.

Flash forward two years later. Coming out of the 2004-05 lockout, Scott Niedermayer signed with the Ducks — now owned by the Samueli family — as a free agent. Part of his reasoning was a desire to play with Rob. Their mom, Carol, acknowledged when I talked to her in September of 2005 that she’d openly rooted for Rob and the Ducks in that ‘03 Final, reasoning that Scott had already won twice. Scott’s response: “It made perfectly good sense to me.”

And 22 months later, Scott Niedermayer lifted the Cup again, as the Ducks’ captain, and the first guy he gave it to was his brother. So yes, the events of the 2003 loss helped set up the 2007 triumph.

And even though the team was by then simply the Ducks, maybe those alumni of the movies that inspired the franchise still felt some small bit of ownership.

“As this (2003) team is going on this Stanley Cup run, 10 years after the movie comes out, the actors who are in the film are still watching the games at the producer’s house,” Cikowski said. “I think that’s pretty cool.

“Marguerite Moreau, who played Connie, said that it’s weird watching the Mighty Ducks play because she still feels an odd connection to the team because of what she did as a child.”

jalexander@scng.com