Disney has made a slew of big, saccharine inspirational sports movies throughout the decades. The Love Bug (1968) may have been one of the first, followed by the Herbie films in the 70s and 80s, but they really established an essential constituency in mainstream cinema with The Mighty Ducks in 1992. (Remember the Titans (2000) still pulls at the heart strings). Disney has churned out at least one sports movie a year (usually more) since then, and most carry a formulaic arc that defines a Disney sports movie as its own classification of film. The unapologetically inspirational McFarland USA (2015), starring sports-staple Kevin Costner as high school cross country coach Jim White, is another contribution to this legacy.

The unorthodox coach who leads a ragtag group of not-obvious athletes to inevitable victory over lustrous competition is a feel-good bit of American ideology, and the grand tradition of Disney sports pictures. America’s fascination with the underdog, as it mirrors the existence of America itself, is the crux of what maintains the success of this formula from picture to picture.

White ends up in McFarland, CA, a mostly Latino town where he is extremely out of his element, earning the condescending nickname “Blanco,” meaning “white” in Spanish. Tasked with coaching a truly terrible football team, he notices his players are quick on their feet and eager to run, leading him to form the school’s first cross country team. The disciplined and dedicated work ethic his students possess from their before- and after-school jobs picking vegetables works to White’s benefit, as he refines those qualities into the sport.

Of course, the boys’ first meet results in a catastrophic defeat; an expectation of any Disney sports picture. But, McFarland eventually scrapes out their first win, and it’s all uphill from there. The big-money schools McFarland competes against dismiss the team as a pushover, only to find themselves reminded cross country isn’t a sport won by fancy uniforms and country club memberships. Even the team’s “anchor,” the pudgy kid who doesn’t seem fit to run, gets his moment to shine, when the team inevitably wins the first-ever California cross country state championship. You know it’s coming, but when the moment arrives, you don’t feel any less proud of the accomplishment.

And all the while, there’s a more important story being told about the Whites and the hard-working agricultural families that inhabit the indigent town. It’s told through beautifully-shot, wide angle framing of beautiful California landscapes. It’s depicted in the dusty streets of downtown McFarland, through the free-range chickens roaming the backyards of its citizens, and through Quinceañeras and vegetable picking. McFarland USA is a story of cultural exchange, of the power of determination and hard work, and the realization that the American dream still exists, however hard it can sometimes be to identify.

Kevin Costner told Collider, “If you want to make a great sports movie, don’t put too much sports in it. It’s the backdrop. The movie is about, if you work harder, you can be better, and you can be more than you think you can. It’s just set against the world of cross country.”

Almost anyone who’s seen a half dozen Disney sports films could write the storyboard for the next one - but like Costner said, they’re not about the sports. Disney’s formula continues to be effective because it creates an opportunity for greater, more universal messages about life and hope and perseverance, applicable well beyond the spectrum of athletics.