Are you wondering what the differences are between Karate Kid the Musical and the original Karate Kid movie are? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Let’s deep dive into all the major differences!
Daniel LaRusso is a nerd
In the words of Rainier Wolfcastle in The Simpsons ‘help my son is a nerd’. In the Karate Kid movie, when the story starts, Daniel LaRusso has already got some experience doing karate. In the musical adaptation, it ignores this and acts as if LaRusso has never done any karate before.
Beyond this, unlike the hot head persona of the original movie Daniel, the Daniel LaRusso in the musical is something of a bumbling idiot. This was somewhat jarring, and both works as an update of the character, but also fails him in other ways.
In the movie, some of LaRusso’s drive comes from him being a hot head and never back down Italian American from Jersey. On the flip side, his already having experience doing karate in the movie kinda lessens the aspect of his eventual transformation from nerdy wimp into All Valley Karate Champion.
Freddy or Freddie
This is a minor one, but when checking the spelling of the character’s names, I noted that in the credits for the movie, Daniel’s neighbour Freddy is spelled double D-Y, but on the website for the musical tour, Freddie is spelled double D-I-E. Strange change, or maybe just a typo on the part of whoever put the musical’s promo site together?
Another change with Freddie is he has a sub plot about going to university which is not present in the movie. This is clearly just the musical producers trying to flesh out the roles of minor characters. This is furthered when he is shown to work at the country club that Ali attends with her parents, and unlike in the movie where just Daniel looks through a window in a kitchen door to see Ali dancing with Johnny, Freddie joins Daniel here in the musical.
Additionally, the portrayal of Freddie in the musical makes him much more of a geek than even the overly nerdy Daniel.
No Beach Party
In the original movie, Daniel first meets Ali at a beach party, having been invited along by his neighbour Freddy. In the musical, the beach setting is changed to a video game arcade complete with Ms Pac-Man and a Namco multi arcade machine. The note on this latter arcade machine is that it wouldn’t have existed when the original film was released as you didn’t get arcade machines loaded with multiple Namco games like you do with modern Arcade1Up machines.
Mr Miyagi Magic
It turns out Mr Miyagi has healing hands which seem to work like magic. Twice in the movie and musical we get scenes where Mr Miyagi rubs his hands together and then does some strange healing touch which helps LaRusso feel better. This is significantly expanded upon in the musical compared to the movie.
The first time it happens is after Mr Miyagi has got Daniel to wax cars, paint fences and sand the floor. Daniel protests that his shoulder hurts and Mr Miyagi then does his healing trick. In the movie he quickly rubs his hands together before putting his hand into Daniel’s shirt and squeezing his shoulder to heal him. That scene probably wouldn’t fly if the movie was made today…just saying. In the musical, this is shown as much more of a technique that Mr Miyagi has to gear himself up for.
The second is just before the final showdown with Johnny Lawrence in the All Valley Karate Championship final.
In the movie we see Mr Miyagi rub his hands together as if he is about to do something, but in the musical, we see a longer version of his technique play out and he seems to heal Daniel with magic energy with very deliberate movements and touch. Oddly, after doing this feat of healing, Mr Miyagi then seems weakened by performing such a miracle. This somewhat plays into the long-held ideas that techniques and powers from Japan and that region of the world are in some way mystical.
It also weirdly reminds me of Michael Clarke Duncan’s ability from The Green Mile, although fortunately Mr Miyagi didn’t seem to expel the negative energy from the injuries from his mouth as John Coffey does.
Bonsai Tree differences
In the movie and the musical, there are scenes where Mr Miyagi trims and cares for bonsai trees. These hold significance in both versions of the story, but in different ways. In both the movie and the musical Daniel takes an interest in the trees and Mr Miyagi encourages to imagine a picture of a tree in his head to then trim a real bonsai tree to look the same.
In the musical, this is given much more significance, as Daniel is initially unable to imagine the picture of the tree to work with. This idea is revisited a couple of times, and then is used for the ending of the show as after winning the All Valley Championship we get a scene where Daniel finally sits down and is able to imagine the tree to begin trimming one in real life. This doesn’t happen in the movie and is used to show that Daniel is now fully developed with his ability to control his inner self.
LaRusso gets a black belt
In the movie, Mr Miyagi steals a black belt for LaRusso when entering the All Valley Karte Championship. When signing up to take part, the person signing people in reveals that only people that are brown belt and above can take part. Mr Miyagi then distracts the guy doing the sign ups and steals a black belt from his bag and hands it to Ali who takes and gives it to Daniel. In the musical, this is seemingly skipped over.
There is a scene where Mr Miyagi tells Daniel that he has graduated from his training, but as a form of unofficial training he doesn’t award him any belt, so where LaRusso gets the belt in the musical is left as a mystery. We can assume that the same scene happened, but that they just didn’t show it on the stage version.
John Kreese Differences
Now maybe this is a Mandella effect thing, but I’m sure in the production I saw of the musical John Kreese had got his arm tattoo on the wrong arm. I’m also pretty sure that you never hear the character’s name said out loud, and maybe that is true of the movie as well, but felt strange. Either way, there were a couple of other noticeable differences with the character.
To begin with, his past in Vietnam was more heavily incorporated into this story than should be for Karate Kid part 1. Obviously, this becomes a major part of his character in the Cobra Kai series that followed years later, but here it is referenced and explored more than it was in the original where it wasn’t explored explicitly at all.
I’ve only seen the musical one time, but I’m also pretty sure that it was John Kreese who suggested LaRusso fight in the tournament whereas in the movie it is Mr Miyagi who suggests it.
Shaking Hands and Cobra Kai Never Dies
In the musical, there is an exchange between Mr Miyagi and Daniel where Mr Miyagi advises Daniel to shake the hand of his opponent, which initially Daniel isn’t keen on as Cobra Kai had been causing him such trouble and bullying. Still, Daniel does offer to shake hands with one of the Cobra Kai fighters he beats, and the Cobra Kai fighter accepts and shakes hands with LaRusso.
After shaking LaRusso’s hand, we then see John Kreese rip the belt of this guy and tell him he’s out of Cobra Kai. This scene didn’t happen in the movie and further shows off the no mercy attitude of Kreese’s character.
Lastly, at the end of the musical, we do get a final moment with Kreese where upon Johnny Lawrence losing, Kreese does declare ‘Cobra Kai never dies’ which perhaps shows a hint at the future trouble the character will cause, and also how important that phrase and the name Cobra Kai would later become to the Karate Kid franchise after the success of the Cobra Kai TV series.
It is a shame that there wasn’t a moment included from the start of Karate Kid 2 which takes place immediately after the events of the first film. In the sequel we very quickly see Kreese start to beat up Johnny, who is then saved by Mr Miyagi. Kreese then attempts to fight Mr Miyagi who defeats John Kreese and then shows mercy to break his spirit.
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