History Trivia / TheKarateKid

* GeniusBonus: There is serious implication throughout the series that Miyagi's style is Goju-Ryu (Hard-Soft Style) karate. First of all, his family name is "Miyagi", the same as that of Chojun Miyagi, founder of Goju-Ryu. There is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment when you see a photo of Chojun Miyagi on the wall among the pictures of Miyagi ancestors. A lot of the techniques Miyagi uses and teaches are lifted directly from Goju-Ryu (which, considering that Pat and Ralph trained Goju-Ryu to prepare for their respective parts, isn't strange).

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: The actors playing the villains; Creator/WilliamZabka, Creator/MartinKove, Creator/YujiOkumoto, Creator/ThomasIanGriffith and Creator/SeanKanan, are obviously friendly with the main protagonist actor, Creator/RalphMacchio, and Creator/PatMorita when off-screen.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Creator/WilliamZabka, Creator/MartinKove, Creator/YujiOkumoto, Creator/ThomasIanGriffith and Creator/SeanKanan are obviously friendly with Creator/RalphMacchio and Creator/PatMorita when off-screen.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Creator/WilliamZabka, Creator/MartinKove, Creator/YujiOkimoto, Creator/ThomasIanGriffith and Creator/SeanKanan are obviously friendly with Creator/RalphMacchio and Creator/PatMorita when off-screen.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Creator/WilliamZabka, Creator/MartinKove, Creator/ThomasIanGriffith and Creator/SeanKanan are obviously friendly with Creator/RalphMacchio and Creator/PatMorita when off-screen.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Despite they're on-screen arch-enemies, but off-screen the actors are obviously friendly toward each other.

* ActorSharedBackground: Creator/RalphMacchio is Italian-American just like Daniel [=LaRusso=].

* ActorSharedBackground: Creator/RalphMacchio is Italian-American just like Daniel LaRusso.

%%* GeniusBonus: There is serious implication throughout the series that Miyagi's style is Goju-Ryu (Hard-Soft Style) karate. First of all, his family name is "Miyagi", the same as that of Chojun Miyagi, founder of Goju-Ryu. There is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment when you see a photo of Chojun Miyagi on the wall among the pictures of Miyagi ancestors. A lot of the techniques Miyagi uses and teaches are lifted directly from Goju-Ryu (which, considering that Pat and Ralph trained Goju-Ryu to prepare for their respective parts, isn't strange).
%%** In ''Series/CobraKai'': Daniel mentions that kata is the foundation of his karate. Goju-Ryu is based on two kata, ''Sanchin'' and ''Tensho'', formalizing the "Hard" and "Soft" aspects of Goju-Ryu respectively.

* GeniusBonus: There is serious implication throughout the series that Miyagi's style is Goju-Ryu (Hard-Soft Style) karate. First of all, his family name is "Miyagi", the same as that of Chojun Miyagi, founder of Goju-Ryu. There is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment when you see a photo of Chojun Miyagi on the wall among the pictures of Miyagi ancestors. A lot of the techniques Miyagi uses and teaches are lifted directly from Goju-Ryu (which, considering that Pat and Ralph trained Goju-Ryu to prepare for their respective parts, isn't strange).
** In ''Series/CobraKai'': Daniel mentions that kata is the foundation of his karate. Goju-Ryu is based on two kata, ''Sanchin'' and ''Tensho'', formalizing the "Hard" and "Soft" aspects of Goju-Ryu respectively.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Before ''Series/CobraKai'', numerous ideas were bandied about for a hypothetical fifth Karate Kid movie, including an idea where a dying Mr. Miyagi would be trying to get his affairs in order (and would feature an older Johnny as a doctor) and a crossover with the ''{{Franchise/Rocky}}'' franchise several years prior to the release of ''{{Film/Creed}}'', [[https://movieweb.com/the-karate-kid-rocky-movie-crossover-pitch-ralph-macchio/ which Ralph Macchio said was the single worst sequel idea for the series he had heard]]. By both the admission of Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, ''Series/CobraKai'' was the first time a sequel had appealed to them enough to commit.

* UnderageCasting: Creator/PatMorita was born in 1932, and Miyagi is a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII veteran.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Was given little to no promotion on Creator/{{NBC}} during its original run and was quickly axed after only thirteen episodes due to abysmal ratings.

Works in this franchise with their own Trivia pages:

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Was given little to no promotion on Creator/{{NBC}} during its original run and was quickly axed after only thirteen episodes due to abysmal ratings.

!!The Video Game
* NoExportForYou: Inverted: Despite being programmed in Japan, the game was not released there. Not that the programmers or the Japanese audience cared about the game anyways.

* NoExportForYou: Inverted: Despise being programmed in Japan, the game was not released there. Not that the programmers or the Japanese audience cared about the game anyways.

!!The original film series has examples of:
* ActorInspiredElement: Pat Morita himself designed the bonsai logo that was sewed onto Daniel's gi.
* ActorSharedBackground:
** Tamlyn Tomita, like Kumiko, was born in Okinawa.
** Danny Kamekona was from Hawaii, where the movie was filmed.
* AFIS100Years100Cheers: #98
* CastTheExpert: The referee in the final match is Pat E. Johnson, a karate expert and former student of Creator/ChuckNorris. He instructed many movie stars in karate. He is credited as the "fight instructor/choreographer" for the film.
* TheCastShowoff:
** Elisabeth Shue actually grew up playing soccer. She played with the boys as long as she could before finally taking up gymnastics.
** Ron Thompson was so skilled in martial arts that he was allowed to choreograph his own fight scenes.
* DawsonCasting: Ralph Macchio was 21 when the first film was made, playing a 17 year old. He was 26 playing an 18 year old in the third film. Not many people noticed thanks to Macchio's boyish good looks and high-pitched voice,[[note]]although Macchio himself was very uncomfortable being romantically paired with the 16-year-old Robyn Lively in the third movie[[/note]] making this one of the few effective examples of the trope. Avoided in the reboot, as the kids are actual kids. Poked fun at in a 90's commercial for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JpVJgSkGgk Brisk Iced Tea]].
-->'''"Daniel-San":''' Kid? I'm 35.
* DeletedScene: There were two confrontations between Daniel and Johnny which were eventually cut from the film:
** The first takes place in the school cafeteria just after Daniel has bought lunch for Ali. Seeing them about to take a seat, Johnny hurries over just in time to sneak a piece of blueberry pie onto Daniel's chair. Standing up with his pants covered in blueberries, Daniel is equally embarrassed and livid. In a brave act of revenge, Daniel smears what is left of the pie across Johnny's shirt and mayhem ensues. A photo from this scene can be found on the back of the novelisation.
** The other scene occurs later in the film and also takes place at school. Coming up from a drink at the fountain, Daniel finds himself face to face with Johnny and stands up for himself once again by questioning the practices of the Cobra Kai.
* ExecutiveMeddling: Thankfully avoided in the original film, the studio demanded that the quiet scene in which Daniel discovers a drunken Miyagi mourning his lost wife and child, who died in a relocation camp while he was away being a war hero in Italy during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, be cut because it "disrupted the flow of the movie". The director apparently went to ''war'' to keep it in the film. Pat Morita would later say that it was this scene that earned him an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for his portrayal of Mr. Miyagi. (Ralph Macchio disagrees, citing his presence in the entire film as the reason.)
* IronyAsSheIsCast: William Zabka (Johnny) had no martial arts experience prior to being cast in the film, except being an accomplished wrestler.
* ScullyBox: The crew had Pat Morita stand on a 4-inch box so they could fit him into the face-to-face shot.
* ThrowItIn:
** The song drunkenly sung by Mr. Miyagi was one he heard when he was a child. This even gets worked into the second movie as being Miyagi and Yukie's old song.
** The song playing in the country club Daniel crashes in the first movie is heard again in the second movie, on the radio in the cab ride from the Okinawa airport. Neither occurrence is a plot point.
* TropeNamers: WaxOnWaxOff, and formerly "[[OrderedToCheat Sweep the Leg]]".
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: There are scenes in an arcade, which have been almost completely replaced by home video game systems. This was excused in the [[Film/TheKarateKid2010 2010 remake]] taking place in China where arcades live on like Japan. Also, the presentation of karate as the ultimate self defense martial art in an otherwise realistic setting is obviously made in an era before MixedMartialArts, which demystified traditional martial arts.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The role of Daniel LaRusso was allegedly initially offered to Creator/SeanPenn. Since he was trying for more adult roles he turned it down.
** Creator/CharlieSheen also turned it down.
** Creator/ChuckNorris was offered the role of Kreese, but he didn't want martial artists to be portrayed in a bad light (he would later play himself in Sidekicks, another [[FollowTheLeader movie with a Miyagi-like mentor and a Kreese-like villain]]).
** Creator/ToshiroMifune auditioned for Mr. Miyagi. Although he was great in the audition (according to director John G. Avildsen in the DVD Commentary), it was felt that his version of Miyagi was "too serious" - and too scary - and played much like the samurai warriors he played in the Creator/AkiraKurosawa movies and he was turned down. His English was also quite poor at the time, which would have required him to learn most of his lines phonetically.
** Creator/{{Mako}} was offered the role of Mr. Miyagi but he turned it down to do ''Film/ConanTheDestroyer''. He did eventually play a similar character in ''Sidekicks''.
* WordOfDante: According to the commentary track on the home video versions of the movie, William Zabka came up with a loose backstory for the Johnny Lawrence character, in order to better "get the feel" for playing the character. He states in the commentary that he envisioned Johnny as having no father, and that Kreese is the closest thing to a father figure he had in his life.

** Creator/ToshiroMifune auditioned for Mr. Miyagi. Although he was great in the audition (according to director John G. Avildsen in the DVD Commentary), it was felt that his version of Miyagi was "too serious" and played much like the samurai warriors he played in the Creator/AkiraKurosawa movies and he was turned down. His English was also quite poor at the time, which would have required him to learn most of his lines phonetically.

** Creator/ToshiroMifune auditioned for Mr. Miyagi. Although he was great in the audition (according to director John G. Avildsen in the DVD Commentary), it was felt that his version of Miyagi was "too serious" and played much like the samurai warriors he played in the Creator/AkiraKurosawa movies and he was turned down.

Creator/CharlieSheen also turned it down.