The Failure of The Karate Kid Cartoon & The Collapse That Preceded It
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- Опубліковано 29 лис 2023
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Embark on a nostalgic journey as we delve into the failure of "The Karate Kid" cartoon!
In our exploration, we'll uncover how the idea for "The Karate Kid" cartoon was conceived and the creative minds behind its development. We'll discuss the challenges faced in bringing the iconic film franchise to the animated world and the changes that needed to be made as the syndicated market collapsed as a result of too many shows.
We'll explore its connections to "The Karate Kid" film series, the reboot and "Cobra Kai".
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Is it me or did this show feel like a proto type for The Jackie Chan Adventures?
In that there was a supernatural story with a celebrity/IP bolted on? At least in Chan’s case it was just a guy named Jackie, sort of like the Spartan X comics.
I was about to say the same thing. Magical McGuffins that cause mayhem around the world, the trio who chase them down and learn life lessons, martial arts, magic.
Really does seem like Jackie Chan Adventures learned from Karate Kid's mistakes
Fun fact, they wanted to use Jackie Chan for the main character in that show, but couldn't, because they wanted the audience to be able to actually understand what he was saying.
I thought that when Jackie Chan adventures came out.
I said the exact same thing
3:17 Wow look at all of the amazing movies released in 1984! I'm so glad I was a kid in the 80's!
The '80s were an underrated Golden Age of film and music.
The sheer tenacity of DIC to adapt anything that was popular with kids into a cartoon will always impress me. They did a New Kids on the Block cartoon at one point!
There was a Rambo cartoon.
Freakin' RAMBO.
As a kid, I had sandals based on said cartoon. Not the movies.
@coldsnap5742 - They should've made a Death Wish kids cartoon. That would've been badass.
They made a cartoon about every Nintendo game at once and I loved it.
Cartoon adaptations often added magical elements where there were none originally. Punky Brewster is another one that comes to mind. In the cartoon she has a magical troll friend lol. Bizarre
All my life, I had known and loved, Saturday Morning cartoons. They were an absolute staple in my life every Saturday. And every year, in September, they gave us new shows. I still remember the day that I woke up on Saturday morning, eager to see what new animated Saturday morning shows there were going to be, only to not have a SINGLE kid's show on other than Saved by the Bell and Saved By the Bell knockoffs. And I hated Saved By the Bell. That was a DARK DARK day in my life. The day Saturday morning's died. I've been bitter ever since.
They actually managed to recover the shrine in the 8th episode, then it immediately gets lost again, never to be returned. Made me think it was the pilot and aired out of order.
A very odd series.
It was surprisingly common for ‘80s cartoons to have a pilot episode later in the run. Bionic Six, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, Chip & Dale’s Rescue Rangers, and more had an episode during the run where the viewer is like, “wait, is this the FIRST episode?” And that was because, thanks to broadcast airings, TV stations were seldom expected to air episodes in any kind of order, and syndicated shows were often discouraged from doing so.
So for the cartoons that even bothered to have origin story episodes, more often than not they weren’t produced or aired at the start.
I.I.R.C. the shrine was accidentally destroyed in the final episode, which made me sad. It was also just weird to see a series actually resolve its plot.
I guess now they’ll be trying to make a Cobra Kai cartoon, where old Johnny teaches kids lessons while saving the world from the Zombie King.
I love how the action in the intro becomes increasingly implausible as it goes on. The torpedo surfing bit gets all the attention, but the last scene is Miyagi, the world's best stunt driver, catching monster air in the world's toughest kei car.
I agree, but if you asked me if I thought Miyagi couldn't do all those things and if I dislike that Karate lets you surf torpedoes... then I'd have to say no, do MORE of that.
I had a couple Karate Kid figures back in the day, the spring-loaded action features broke almost immediately. My mom tried returning them for a refund and they refused, which was the last time we ever went back to that store (the Woolworths in Portland, ME as I recall).
I didn't know there was a cartoon for Karate Kid. You learn something new every day
The theme song has been stuck in my head for over 30 years
It's ridiculous how good your videos are. You guys should be on cable.
2:56 Ok, I didn't say anything last video when it happened. But I love the clever slip in of Jason Vorhees clips just in the other movie footage. A+ to the editor.
That's two in a row for having a Jason tidbit and a Taskmaster clip inserted in the edits. Two things I love!
Like it or not that saban guy is one shrewd businessman. Dude knows how to make money. Especially the way he did with the power rangers.
There's one thing I noticed about the voice cast. Tamlyn Tomita, who played Kumiko in the second movie, is listed as "additional voices". However, she's only listed for one episode. It's the first episode, which IMDB says has a plot about going to the Amazon. What part did she play? Was it weird having such a minor role in something that her character could have been a big part of?
There was even a short period of time in which I had just assumed Taki was Tomita's character in Karate Kid Part II. I didn't remember that the character in the movie was named Kumiko, so I remember thinking, "oh wow, she's different in the cartoon."
"Put 'em in a bodybag! Yeah!" That sums up the Karate Kid cartoon.
The cartoon seems way better than Part 3
Never knew about the glut of cartoon productions in the late 80s. Would be a very interesting subject to look into. Just to get a list year by year of all the kids shows and cartoons. To see much programming was out there.
It's on Wikipedia
It's a bit overwhelming
In the 80s, toy companies thought their products portrayed on cartoon shows = $$$.
That was mostly true at first, but by the late 80s there were too many shows and not enough good time slots, plus slapping a TV cartoon on the air didn't mean it was going to work as a toy advertisement anyway even if kids liked the show.
By 1988, most toy companies said "Nyet!" and refused to back any more cartoons, hence the toon crash in the weekday syndicated market. (Of course Disney was doing swimmingly with DuckTales and realized, hey maybe we can do something with the afternoon market that everyone's pulling out of, maybe make the whole afternoon a *Disney* afternoon...)
I mean, Gary Coleman had a cartoon in the 80s. Let that sink in.
🤣🤣🤣@@JohnClark-tt2bl
while we are sitting here WAXING NOSTALGIA..👊
I have trained a lot in martial arts, mostly in wrestling, Taekwondo, kickboxing, and Krav Maga.
I train at Longoria's in Lincoln, Nebraska.
I didn't think I had ever seen the Karate Kid cartoon, but that opening title sequence brought it all back.
But yeah, by 1989 there wasn't much room left for mediocrity in the animation sphere. Classics like DuckTales and TMNT were in their prime, Saved by the Bell had just debuted, and video games were being widely adopted.
TMNT WAS AT IT PRIME?
ARE YOU F'IN NUT!
It really was bad timing.
It didn't help that soon after channels like Nick and Cartoon Network would come soon after
@@frankieseward8667 Cartoon Network at the 90s was Hanna-barbera 2.0
no by the time the 90s hits DISNEY AND WB SHOWS like Darkwing Duck, Talespin, Tiny Toons Adventures/ Batman TAS, Animanaiacs, and others shows they were quality!
plus Fox Kids was one of the first programing that did weekday afternoon
I had no idea that Danny Cooksey was in this! He practically deserves an episode of his own considering how large of a role he would play in my childhood: Salute Your Shorts, Terminator 2, Mom and Dad Save the World, Tiny Toons... he was everywhere for a crucial period of two or three years.
Remember how after DIC cartoons, or I guess sometimes before I don't know, they would show that DIC logo can you hear a little girl's voice say "deek"?
I can still remember like way back when when I guess before they figured out the pronunciation was offensive to some Americans or something and that little girl's voice would say "dick" straight up.
I've spent nearly half my life studying martial arts.
Primarily because of the influence of martial arts in pop culture and my enthusiasm for it.
I grew up on Bruce Lee, Van Damme, The Karate Kid, Power Rangers, and much more.
I've studied multiple forms of Karate. As well as Muay Thai, Jeet Kune Do,
I was the President of The Martial Arts Club at my highschool and even taught some lessons after receiving my Black Belt at my Dojo in my late teens.
Miyagi says, you need hobby. 😸
@@LoneTiger I have several.
@@orinanime 👍
3:44 - Now, I love Rodney Dangerfield's "Back to School", but how in the HELL did it end up at #4 in 1986 beating out Aliens, the Color Purple, Out of Africa, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off?
That triple Lindy, man.😅
Apparently there's a version of the cartoon's shrine in Chozen's house in Cobra Kai. Which makes it even more hilarious if this cartoon ended up being canon.
This one should have been a slam dunk. It certainly had more reason to be made than the kiddified Rambo. Not being able to become a syndicated program must've really hurt the series. Even if it had one season, it would have reran for years. Plus, networks wouldn't have allowed the same level of mild violence syndication did. Seems Beetlejuice and Ghostbusters were the only movie to kid's TV show series that survived at the time.
Please cover Beakman's world or Video power next 😊
🎶It was Carmen San Diego all along🎶
Your content is amazing. Keep it up!
"Everybody's so creative" lady made me laugh out loud. 😂😂😂
3:48 - Chozen, the Karate Kid's nemesis in KK2, was actually Sato's nephew, not his son. Sato never had any children because he refused to marry anyone but Yukie, who herself refused to marry Sato. 🤔
What's truly hilarious, as evidence by her absence in Karate Kid 3, is that despite her clearing pining for Miyagi, he refuses to take her back to the states with him and just ghosts her ass lol.
I just saw this guy on history channel talking toys , way to go dude. From utube host to respected authority.
I’ve been in martial arts for 25 years. Competing , Teaching, traveling the world. I have a seminar that I am attending this weekend. 😂 I started when I was in my 20’s. Judo, karate, jujutsu/kenjutsu, western fencing, boxing and wrestling.
Hilary Swank is from Nebraska, she was born in Lincoln (actually at the same hospital Teena Brandon was born).
I graduated my Master's degree program in Sociology on her birthday and later obtained a couple community college associate degrees on the day Million Dollar Baby was released.
13 episodes was actually pretty common at the time for a cartoon. The Get Along Gang and The Legend of Zelda cartoon only got 13 episodes too. While Daniel and Mr. Miyagi aren’t the same without Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita, the voices aren’t too bad for them. Even though it has the Karate Kid theme there really isn’t anything that makes it stand out from other cartoons at the time.
A+ video!
LOVE IT! Another classic by Secret Galaxy!
Dear handsome man, always a joy to see a new video, and hearing your dad jokes
I owned a bunch of mopeds in college 15 years ago. Watching your channel makes me want to pick another one up. You put out some great information.
3:26 compare with what we get now. That looks like an all-time list, but it was just one year.
DIC stands for Diffusion, Information et Communication. It was the name of an international film and television production company that produced many children's cartoons in the 1980s and 1990s.
2:20 It's been so many years and just today, watching this video, I realize they are in Mexico on this scene, lol. Thanks for the video!
Still waiting on the Mr T, Karate Kid, Scooby Do cross over.
“The best around” not “the best karate kid he can be” I expect more from you and your greatness Dan.
I haven't been this early to a SG Video, since Dan did an action figure review!
That end of the video was pure perfection. You are really funny mate!!
Your next video should be about the rise and fall of DIC animation.👍
the rifftrax for The Karate Kid Part III is one of the most fantastic things ever
The opening theme song for the Karate Kid cartoon is cool! The cartoon was so mistreated by DIC, because they mostly try to cheapen their cartoon adaptions of movies!
Taki Tamurai should make a special guest appearance in the last season of Cobra Kai.
Karate kid CARTOON?! I thought Just KK1, KK2 and the new Cobra Kai tv series about them as adults is all we need.
I had the Karate Kid action figure with the breakable ice block. I loved that toy!
Karate kid cartoon ?! Never saw it before but awesome info
Daniel: _"I'm not by myself. I'm with you."_
Miyagi: _"To make honey, young bee need young flower, not old prune."_ 😹
Cobra Kai is so badass dude
You missed how the intro has Daniel surfing a torpedo that Miyagi saves him from while hanging upside down from a plane with a sick synth beat in the background.
The Karate Kid for the NES is a really underrated game...I enjoyed the crap out of it as a kid.
The character of the Karate Kid was created in 1966 for the DC Comics' Legion of Superheroes...
3:42 - I’m astonished Rodney Dangerfield’ “Back to Schoo” beat out “Aliens”, and many others.
Oh my god, I had ATTACK ALLEY despite not having any Karate Kid figures, I bet my mother's love for exotica convinced her to get me that playset for my G.I. Joes, haha. I always wondered what that set even was. I assumed it was some generic knock-off action figure thing
Didn't know there was a 4th movie.
I was one of those kids that took karate because of the movie. That said, for me it was mos like an exercise.
good video bud. still waiting on my Wizards and Warriors" tv show retrospective. that show was dope, it had good humor, some dnd style action, nd it actually sorta kinda holds up. made me fall in love with julia duffey pre-newhart too
🎼Doot. Doo doot. Doot doot. KARATE KID.🎶
I remember watching this on NBC on Saturday mornings. Think Saved By The Bell was slotted right after. There were like, break dancing dinosaurs for commercial re-joiners.
My experience with martial arts was a semester of Judo at the community college. Dropped it before the deadline. It was known to be tough to stick with.
Great video as always, but it would’ve been hilarious ti somewhere plug in Conan and Schalanski’s “ I can get to Macchio”😂
Was there a Friday the 13 part something in the karate kid movie reel. Looked like Jason was driving a truck trying to run over somebody
Used to watch this before school while having breakfast. Wow the nostalgia!
This sounds exactly like the kind of thing that's catnip for me - animated adventure show, globe-trotting heroes, the works. But I can definitely see why it fell through the proverbial cracks.
I did a tv episode review on this.
i actually remember the cartoon. i never had any of the remco figures but i stared at them for hours in the wishbook
I did see this cartoon as a kid, great coverage!
just a heads up, in your 80s tees commercial you mention they have robotech. They do not
I noticed two moments where normal gags were averted. No "is it cannon?" And no "that's Alf and Mr T, two different series, but can you imagine?". What's up with that?
So this show was a Karate Version of "Carmen Sandiego"?...
When I was ten my family moved to Pipestone MN. My neighbor there was a black belt and he trained me and my brother for free for years. Most of the training was in weapons. To this day, 30 years later, we're pretty awesome with swords and nunchucks and ect
I had the NES game!
It was infuriating!
The Karate Kid animated series is great and I wish that a second season would happen. 😀👍
8:07 oh hey Tamlyn Tomita was in one episode. She was Kumiko in Part 2
I actually got “free” training by maintaining a dojo. I took on some maintenance work specifically to train and not pay. Money was tight. I liked martial arts. I wanted to become proficient. I had an opportunity to do just that. It wasn’t as magical as Karate Kid. The whole time I was very aware that my sensei was taking a hit from my lack of cash payment. It was an interesting time.
Just as I was never aware that there was a Karate Kid animated series, I was also never aware that Hornby - a company more well known for their model railways, of all people - produced a set of action figures via Remco.
Oh by the way - the outro was pure gold. I tried watching it with the closed captioning on, but the subtitles waved the little white flag.🏳🤣
That animated TV series adaptation was almost forgettable because it lasted one season. I remember watching that show before watching any of the four live-action films. I watched an episode of the Karate Kid on youtube, I'm not sure if it's still there.
Never saw this, like the theme though. 🎶
I used to watch this, but couldn't remember what it was called. I discovered the "Karate Kid" movies years later, and never made the connection.
I’m almost 45… I’m watching this thinking, “how the hell did I NEVER see this?” Saturday mornings? 13 episodes?
And then at around 8:40… “it was cancelled because it couldn’t compete with The Real Ghostbusters.”
Ahhhhh. Well yeah, that makes sense then. I never missed an episode of TRGB.
I remember seeing one commercial for the toys and Mr Miyagi saying "Santos!"
So where does the final fatal fight between Karate Kid and Nemesis Kid fit in?
The only thing I remember from this cartoon is Miyagi singing "The Bear Went Over The Mountain" while they crossed a snowy range. That has stuck with me for the last 100 years, for some reason...
'The Myagiverse' is now canon. Thanks SG.
Damn no shoutout to How I Met Your Mother? Ralph Macchio and William Zabka doing an appearance (and Zabka doing a great recurring role) definitely factored into Cobra Kai being a thing,
I loved the theme music from this show.
I watched it but the cartoon fell into the classic plot armor trap. How the shrine was always just being lost and found by evil or selfish. The inner city kid who shrank them was the dumbest lot idea around.
How does this channel not have more subscribers?!? Your videos are INCREDIBLE!
The late 1980s was a sad time for animation, particularly for Saturday mornings. Even though I was older (finishing High School) I still looked forward to something of quality, if childish, being made but everything was turning to crap. CBS (or NBC) was all news at this point, and I mostly remember terrible cheap looking CGI 3D cartoons from Asia or poorly drawn, poorly written projects (Rambo? Chuck Norris? Karate Kid, even the Garfield and The Peanuts was low quality). I took this as a hint to grow up and find other hobbies to do but I still missed my old Saturday morning routine. Funny enough, when I got to college I was nurse my hangovers by watching this crap.
I used to watch the opening of this show all the time on Saturday mornings.... but would generally change the channel right after. 😅 Maybe I shoulda given it more of a chance.
I wonder if that's why seeing the show's opening in this video unlocked a memory for me, but none of the other clips seemed familiar. Maybe I always changed the channel, too.
I had no idea the legendary DIC did such shady things, let alone ruin the market like that.
Great cartoon. Amazing theme song. I said what I said.
I studied martial arts over about 16 years. I've likely forgotten most of my training after all these years.
It's frustrating when a series gets so interesting that it gets canceled before satisfying closure... speaking of closure, how about the next history of be that of "kid video".
We already did Kidd Video
@@SecretGalaxyTV I'm sorry I didn't know when did you broadcast it
Oh Daniel San I thought I smelled failure that toilet isn't going to clean it self.
Even though I had absolutely no training, as a kid who watched all the karate movies, I was pretty sure that I was a karate master 🤣🤣
I really enjoyed the first season of Cobra Kai but couldn't make it through the second season. It seems like they were taking the focus off of Johnny and putting it on Miguel and the weirdos. It was starting to become a teen drama. I don't know if it got better after that season but I might give it another shot if it did.
Things got pretty crazy - Too much happened to impart here, but I think season 3 and 4 were pretty awesome.