Karate Kid Trivia!

Karate Kid Trivia UPDATED: 10th Oct 2000

Interesting facts and behind-the-scenes info about The Karate Kid ...

Exclusive Karate Kid Trivia ! [In no particular order...!]

NEW In the original Karate Kid, one of the actors seen waiting for Daniel and Miyagi back at the truck before Miyagi breaks the bottles (the guy who taunts him by calling him Mr. Moto) was credited as "Yahoo 1" played by Larry Drake. Heregularly appeared on the t.v. drama "L.A. Law" as the mentally disabled office worker "Benny" (I believe was the name). We also believe that we remember him playing the villain in the Liam Neeson movie "Darkman". [Thanks to Chris Lozano]

The part of Sensei John Kreese [played so superbly by Martin Kove, pictured left] was originally offered to Chuck Norris but he declined, not wanting to have his karate portrayed negatively. Instead, Norris helped the producers find the real martial artists that were used in the production.

There were many scenes that were planned that didn't make it into the final film. If you haven't already, why don't you check out our deleted scenes section?

Speaking of deleted scenes, did you know that the beginning of Karate Kid part II was originally filmed as the end of the first movie? The producers decided to save this part for the sequel when it became apparant that they had a good movie on their hands...

The Karate Kid started filming on the 14th October 1983 and was finished a mere 42 days later. It was a relatively low budget production. It grossed over $100 million at the US box office.

It was not really 'Pat' Morita who plays Mr Miyagi who is doing the fighting in the movie...or the 'crane' kick on the stump at the beach! ... see who it really was here...

Broken Edge actually appeared in the halloween dance scene

The rock band 'Broken Edge' who supplied some of the music in the movie, actually were the band playing in the halloween dance scene.

"Daniel LaRusso" was originally going to be called "Daniel Webber" (his name in the early scripts)

Johnny's Name was originally going to be "Donald Rice" (!)

"Johnny" was the name of the character of "Freddy" in early drafts.

Daniel's yellow car (given to him by Miyagi) is a 1950 Chevrolet Convertible finished in Canary Yellow

The other cars in Miyagi's yard were a 1948 DeSoto, a 1952 Stuebaker and a 1956 Nash Rambler.

One of modern karate's founding fathers was actually called Sensei Miyagi

UPDATED: Noriyuki "Pat" Morita [left], who was the actor who played Mr Miyagi is a honoury member of the 442nd battalion -just as he was in the movie. It was his idea to add the depth of back story (Internment camps, 442nd battalion etc) that so closely mirror his own life. He was nominated for an Oscar(tm) for his efforts.

Ralph Macchio who played Daniel named his first son 'Daniel' --surely after the character that made him famous.

Ralph Macchio was 4 years older (he was 22) then his enemy "Johnny" -played by William Zabka at the time of filming.

Karate Kid was made by the same producer/director team that brought you 'Rocky'...

Robert Kamen, who wrote Karate Kid, studied martial arts for 20 years after being "knocked about" himself as a kid. He learned karate and oriental customs from his own oriental karate teacher -- who became the inspiration for "Mr Miyagi".

Karate Kid was the title of a DC Comic series that started being published years before the film.

Karate Kid was the highest grossing video rental in 1985.

Nearly all of the locations used in the Karate Kid really exist! -see our locations section.

One of the Cobra Kai is played by Chad McQueen [left], son of Steve McQueen .

"Chuckie" -One of Daniel's school friends in the movie- is played by Frankie Avalon Jr.

Some of the scenes in the movie originally seem to have been meant to happen in a different order. This is given away by Daniel describing his bike as a 'Miyagi turbo' when he hadn't yet learnt Mr Miyagi's name.

Karate Kid has earnt a suprisingly low 6.9 average vote out of 10 with IMDB users... despite the fact that almost everyone seems to like it.

Mr Miyagi's janitor room in the movie was actually a car parking space in real life.

Daniel takes a beating on the same beach as was used for the witches scene in 'The Craft' and the volleyball game in 'She's All That'.

UPDATED: The Karate Kid Soundtrack [left] is available on CD, having been produced in Australia on the budget Karussell/Spectrum label.

The Karate Kid was the 500th Movie to be made with Dolby sound. It was also the first mass produced movie on VHS in Hi-Fi stereo.

Pat Johnson, the man who choreographed the fighting in Karate Kid, also played the referee at the end of the movie.

[more coming all the time]