How Can I Watch Karate Kid

[Shanel Arrendell]

Iwanted to start watching Cobra Kai but I have only seen The Karate Kid (1984) and The Next Karate Kid (1994). Do I need to see any other previous films before watching Cobra Kai for better understanding?

MEGAN PINTO

I sit beside my father and watch his IV drip. Each drop of saline hydrates his veins, his dry cracked skin. Today my father weighs 107 lbs. and is too weak to stand. / I pop an earbud in his ear and keep one in mine. / We listen to love songs.

HALYNA KRUK

hand-picked grains they are, without any defect, / as once we were, poised, full of love // in the face of death, I am saying to you: / love me as if there will never be enough light / for us to find each other in this world // love me as long as we believe / that death turns a blind eye to us.

KATE GASKIN

We were at a long table, candles flickering in the breeze, / outside on the deck that overlooks the bay, which was black / and tinseled where moonlight fell on the wrinkled silk / of reflected stars shivering with the water.

It's a new professional martial arts league that is holding its first-ever event in Miami on Thursday night. The event, called Karate Combat: Inception, pits some of the world's top karate fighter's against each other.

The league hopes to bring the action even closer to its fans. The league touts itself as being the "first ever to display biometric, nutrition, training, and DNA-based data in real-time via its custom interactive Heads-Up Display, giving fans unprecedented insight into all fighters' hidden strengths and weaknesses."

Even though one character says that "fighting doesn't solve anything," the script seems to indicate otherwise. The movie also deals with remembrance of U.S. wartime injustices. But hard work, dedication, and discipline are all valued. Respect for your elders is important.

There's a very clear line between the good guys and the bad guys. Daniel is inspiring in his tenacity to learn, and Mr. Miyagi is a worthy teacher. Characters demonstrate self-control, perseverance, and courage. It's worth noting that a Vietnam veteran is depicted as a psychopathic scoundrel.

Several fights -- mostly outside of the martial arts competition. Fistfights, which are usually five-on-one, end in black eyes and bruised ribs for Daniel and his rivals. During the karate competition, the sparring is "sanctioned," but people still end up hurt.

Parents need to know that The Karate Kids is a classic '80s martial arts movie that's still a fine pick for families with older tweens. The Karate Kid was re-made in 2010 with a younger perspective starring Jaden Smith. It has a fair number of swear words (including "s--t"), insults, and fights -- as well as a scene of marijuana use. This is a standard new-kid-in-town flick, but it's also got soul thanks to the teacher-student relationship between wise Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) and lonely teen Daniel (Ralph Macchio). Issues of class, race, (teen) romance, and even war are explored in this coming-of-age tale, where karate is a metaphor for life. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.

In THE KARATE KID, fter moving from New Jersey to a small apartment complex in Southern California with his single mom, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) finds himself an outsider at his new suburban high school. The cool guys in school drive expensive convertibles and take karate so seriously that they're more than happy to beat Daniel silly again and again. Daniel's one pretty friend Ali (Elisabeth Shue) is unfortunately also the ex-girlfriend of Daniel's chief bully, blackbelt-champion Johnny (William Zabka). Unable to adequately defend himself, Daniel turns to his apartment's Okinawan super, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), for help. Miyagi agrees to teach Daniel karate -- but in his own, unique way. After some unorthodox training (waxing cars, sanding floors, painting fences, catching flies), Miyagi convinces Johnny's aggressive karate instructor (Martin Kove) to make his pupils back off ... until the next karate championship.

This movie isn't a slick, angsty coming-of-age drama, but there's so much to just enjoy about it. Shue's Ali is sweet -- especially because she doesn't mind Daniel's working-class background -- but the teens' romance is filler for the central relationship in the movie: that of Daniel and Mr. Miyagi. Not many movies can make multi-generational friendships seem authentic, but Macchio and the late Morita managed to achieve a closeness that was believably touching. When Daniel tells Mr. Miyagi "You're my best friend," it's not awkward -- it's true. Daniel and Mr. Miyagi are a more relatable Luke and Obi Wan or Harry and Dumbledore, and it's that archetypal teacher-hero dynamic that ultimately makes The Karate Kid a winner.

If you say "wax on!" to anyone born in the late '60s or the '70s, they'll immediately answer "wax off!" -- that's how big a cultural phenomenon The Karate Kid was in the '80s. Like Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Dirty Dancing, this is just one of those special, mid-'80s classics from which fans can quote countless scenes. And despite some dated details (the big hair, the track suits, the funny-looking cars and wardrobe), the story holds up remarkably well, because Daniel is a high-school Everyman. He's not Gossip Girl rich or Zac Efron handsome or extraordinarily gifted in any way; he's just a new kid in town who's willing to train hard, actually get to know an older Japanese man most teenage guys would have made fun of, and better himself in the process. Oh, and he does a killer job at winning the girl, the championship, and the hearts of moviegoers everywhere.

Families can talk about whether Daniel is the stereotypical "new boy in town" in The Karate Kid. How does he feel about starting over in a completely new place? How does Daniel's relationship with Mr. Miyagi change both of their lives?

How do class and financial status affect Daniel's place in the high-school hierarchy? Ali's country-club parents treat Daniel shabbily. Why? Kids: How do you treat people from different backgrounds or those who are new in town?

The Karate Kid saga began in 1984 when a martial arts instructor named Mr. Miyagi took on a teenage student named Daniel LaRusso. The movie spawned multiple sequels, an animated series, and a Jackie Chan reboot. In 2018 the streaming series Cobra Kai premiered, giving the saga new life. The YouTube original (which later migrated to Netflix) follows the continuing rivalry between Daniel LaRusso and his old nemesis Johnny Lawrence.

In 2010 Sony Pictures released The Karate Kid, a film which rebooted the franchise. Despite the title, the film focused on kung fu rather than karate. A sequel is currently set for 2024. The 2010 reboot and its connection to Cobra Kai will be addressed in the continuity section of this guide.

If you have a Netflix subscription, you can stream most of the movies in The Karate Kid franchise. As of this writing, the streaming service has the first three films, the Jaden Smith remake, and all of Cobra Kai. This leaves The Next Karate Kid and the animated series.

After years of waiting, Cobra Kai fans were finally able to dive back into their favorite martial arts show starting July 18, 2024. The season is streaming on Netflix, who claim that this season will be its last.

The Karate Kid franchise will return to the big screen in 2024. The upcoming film, which still hasn't garnered a title, will combine both universes of Karate Kid, and will feature Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio reprising their famous roles. The lead character will be a 17-year-old student named Li, who is described as a smart and scrappy skilled fighter who had his life uprooted to Brooklyn, New York. The film is slated for December 2024.

In 1989 DIC Enterprises and Saban Entertainment produced The Karate Kid, a Saturday morning cartoon series based on the popular film franchise. How do you make a cartoon show about The Karate Kid? Well, the show had very little to do with the plot of the movies. Daniel and Mr. Miyagi became adventurers, traveling the world to retrieve a missing magical artifact.

Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out our guides to upcoming movies, upcoming TV shows, upcoming comics, and upcoming comic conventions. If you're looking for specific franchises or genres, we have all the upcoming MCU, upcoming Star Wars, upcoming Star Trek, and upcoming DC movies & TV for you. If you're a fan of superheroes and not specific to just Marvel or DC, we have overall guides to all the upcoming superhero movies and upcoming superhero TV shows (and new seasons) as well.

Just like young Daniel LaRusso never could have imagined becoming a martial arts master, the cast and crew behind the making of The Karate Kid (1984) likely never could have expected the franchise the film would spawn.

What started with a kid from New Jersey and his bonsai tree-loving karate teacher has now blossomed and grown into a universally recognized household name. After the first film made over ten times, its estimated budget, the future consisted of a completed trilogy, a spin-off film, an animated series (we're not kidding), a remake, and a hugely successful sequel series. That said sequel series, Cobra Kai (2018-Present), has become one of the crown jewels in Netflix's esteemed crown, and a new season is set to hit the streaming service on September 9th, just in time for the start of the school year.

With Cobra Kai generating a wealth of new interest in the series, some may finish the hotly anticipated season wanting more and not wanting to wait another year for the sixth season, here's how to watch every film and television entry in the Karate Kid series both by release date and in chronological order.

Since there are no prequels or anything of that sort, following the main timeline is pretty straightforward. We'll cover the mainline entries in the series first and then focus on the non-canonical ones and how they relate to the franchise.

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