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 Saturday mornings in 1989.

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 before the opening through a narration in which he explains the episode's plot from his character's point of view. Morita provided opening narration for every episode aside from episode 8.

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.

Syndication

The show 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. As of May 2018, the show was no longer available on iTunes, Netflix, or Hulu. In Canada, the series can be streamed online via CTV's "CTV Throwback" video on demand service.

Episodes

Cast

Additional voices

Crew

Cobra Kai series

With regard to the series Cobra Kai, Jon Hurwitz clarified that the Karate Kid series is not canon, but an Easter Egg from it appears in Season 3, in response to the question about the Karate Kid animated series' official status within the Karate Kid / Cobra Kai universe. The Easter Egg is in the form of the Miyagi-Do shrine, briefly seen at Chozen Toguchi's dojo in Okinawa halfway through the season.