In honor of its 40th anniversary, The Karate Kid is getting a new 4K release that looks like a VHS box that might have sat in a video store 40 years ago.
(I assume only the box looks like it’s 40 years old. If the print of the movie on that 4K disc looks like an old videotape, we’ve got a real problem.)
Yes, The Karate Kid — the seminal ’80s sports movie featuring Ralph Macchio as the underdog karate fighter Daniel La Russo — is now 40 years old. The Karate Kid is now the Karate Late Middle-Aged Man.
But that’s okay. Time makes fools of us all. And now you can revisit the original movie that launched the franchise and the hit Netflix legacyquel TV show Cobra Kai on a 4K Ultra HD disc, with a print restored from the original camera negative.
As you can see above, the packaging has been designed and even weathered to look like a worn-out VHS tape. Honestly, I’m surprised more old movies that people are nostalgic for haven’t gone this route. It’s fun.
READ MORE: Meet the Star of the New Karate Kid Movie
This new 4K disc for Karate Kid’s 40th anniversary includes extras like a new commentary track on the movie featuring the creators of Cobra Kai, Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg, plus 30 minutes of “deleted scene dailies” with “raw footage from a variety of unused scenes” that have never been released prior. The set also includes previously released special features like a commentary track from director John G. Avildsen, writer Robert Mark Kamen, and actors Ralph Macchio and the late Pat Morita, and several additional featurettes.
The Karate Kid 4K will be available on June 18. In addition to another scene of Cobra Kai coming to Netflix, a new Karate Kid movie is also in the works. Starring Macchio and Jackie Chan, it is scheduled to open in theaters December 13, 2024.
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