The Karate Kid is a 1989 American animated children's television series which debuted on NBC's Saturday morning lineup. It starred Joey Dedio, Robert Ito, and Janice Kawaye. It is based on the Karate Kid series of films, and was produced by DIC Enterprises, Saban Entertainment and Columbia Pictures Television. The show was originally planned for daily syndication for fall 1988 with 65 episodes, before eventually settling on a 13-episode order for NBC in 1989.
Contents
Overview
The show retains apprentice Daniel LaRusso (voiced by Joey Dedio) and his mentor Mr. Miyagi (voiced by Robert Ito), but abandons the karate tournament motif for an adventure/quest setting. A miniature shrine with magic powers is taken from its resting place on Okinawa, and it is up to Miyagi and Daniel to recover it. Together with Okinawan girl Taki Tamurai (voiced by Janice Kawaye), the karatekas search the globe and, naturally, encounter several opportunities to fight their way out of trouble.
Pat Morita reprised his role as Mr. Miyagi from the films, providing opening narration for every episode aside from episode 8, in which he explains the episode's plot from his character's point of view.
Episode formula
The episodes typically follow a similar formula: Mr. Miyagi obtains a lead on the shrine's location in some exotic corner of the world. Daniel and Taki follow up on it, and in the process encounter some villains who have either obtained or are seeking to obtain the shrine for their own evil purposes. After engaging and defeating the villains, Daniel comes within a hair's breadth of retrieving the shrine, only to have it escape from his grasp by random chance (for example, drifting away after being tied to a bunch of balloons, or being swept into the ocean), thus ensuring that the search continues into the next episode.
Cast
Joey Dedio as Daniel LaRusso
Robert Ito as Mr. Miyagi
Janice Kawaye as Taki Tamurai
Additional voices
Charlie Adler
James Avery
Bever-Leigh Banfield
Michael Bell
Bettina Bush
Darleen Carr
François Chau
Cam Clarke
Townsend Coleman
Danny Cooksey
Brian Cummings
Jim Cummings
E. G. Daily (uncredited)
Debi Derryberry
Shawn Donahue
Fernando Escandon
Ron Feinberg
Takayo Fischer
Linda Gary
Ellen Gerstell
Ed Gilbert
Salim Grant
Edan Gross
Ernest Harada
Billie Hayes
Dana Hill
Michael Horton
Jerry Houser
Buster Jones
Dana Lee
Crew
Ginny McSwain – voice director
Dorothy Middleton - story editor
Michael Maurer - story editor
Home media and streaming
The Karate Kid was available for purchase on iTunes, and could be streamed for free in the U.S. on Netflix, IMDb, Hulu, The Minisode Network, and Crackle. The show was later available for purchase on Amazon Prime.
In Canada, the series can be streamed online via CTV's "CTV Throwback" video on demand service.
In 2025, the complete series was released on 4K Blu-ray via The Karate Kid Ultimate 6-Movie Collection, specifically as a special feature for The Karate Kid Part III.
Canonicity
With regards to the sequel series Cobra Kai, co-creator Jon Hurwitz clarified that, while the series is not canon, an Easter Egg from it appears in Season 3 in response to a question about its official status within the wider Karate Kid universe. The Easter Egg in question appears in the form of the Miyagi-Do shrine, briefly seen at Chozen Toguchi's dojo in Okinawa halfway through the season.