The Karate Kid (TV series)

The Karate Kid is a thirteen episode animated series which debuted on NBC's Saturday morning lineup. It starred Joey Dedio, Robert Ito, and Janice Kawaye. It is based on the popular Karate Kid series of films. Hoping to build from the franchise's popularity, DIC Entertainment, Saban Entertainment, and Columbia Pictures Television premiered an animated Karate Kid on NBC's 1989 Saturday morning schedule.

Overview
The show retains apprentice Daniel LaRusso (voiced by Joey Dedio) and his mentor Keisuke Miyagi (voiced by Robert Ito) but abandoned the karate tournament motif for an adventure/quest setting. A miniature shrine with healing powers had been taken from its resting place on Okinawa, and it was up to Miyagi and Daniel to recover it. Together with Okinawan girl Taki (voiced by Janice Kawaye), the karatekas searched the globe and, naturally, encountered several opportunities to chop and kick their way out of trouble. Taki only appeared in the cartoon series in 1989 compare to Kumiko (pronounced KOO-MEE-KOE) from the 1986 live-action sequel The Karate Kid, Part II.

Episode formula
The episodes typically followed a similar formula: Mr. Miyagi would obtain a lead on the shrine's location in some exotic corner of the world. Daniel and Taki would follow up on it, and in the process encounter some villains who had either obtained or were seeking to obtain the shrine for their own evil purposes. After engaging, and of course, defeating the villains, Daniel would come 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 would continue into the next episode.

Syndication
As of May 2009, the show can be purchased on iTunes, and can be streamed for free in the US on Netflix, Internet Movie Database, Hulu, and Minisodes are available on Crackle.

Cast

 * Joey Dedio - Daniel LaRusso
 * Robert Ito - Keisuke Miyagi
 * Janice Kawaye - Taki

Additional voices

 * Charlie Adler
 * James Avery
 * Bever-Leigh Banfield
 * Bettina Bush
 * Darleen Carr
 * François Chau
 * Cam Clarke
 * Townsend Coleman
 * Danny Cooksey
 * Brian Cummings
 * Jim Cummings
 * 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
 * Katie Leigh
 * Kadar Lewis
 * Sherry Lynn
 * Mary McDonald-Lewis
 * Joey Miyashima
 * Claudette Nevins
 * Toy Newkirk
 * Dyana Ortelli
 * Rob Paulsen
 * Diane Pershing
 * Brock Peters
 * Hal Rayle
 * Peter Renaday
 * Robert Ridgely
 * Davis Roberts
 * Josh Rodine
 * Neil Ross
 * Kath Soucie
 * John Stephenson
 * Cree Summer
 * Brian Tochi
 * Tamblyn Tomita
 * Marcelo Tubert
 * Chick Venerra
 * B.J. Ward
 * Anthony Watson
 * R.J. Williams
 * Anderson Wong
 * Keone Young

Crew

 * Ginny McSwain - Voice Director