The Karate Kid was released in 1984 and my son, Jon, was born in 1985, so he never saw the widescreen version. He told me he had never seen any version, even on television. I asked why he wanted to see it and he said "because of all the references to it" that he'd heard in other places.

You can know when a movie has made a cultural impact when it's quoted by later movies and when other entertainment venues use items originated by the story. Wikipedia has a section called "Impact" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Karate_Kid. The movie "Dogma" even has a character who quotes the line "Wax on, wax off" from this movie.

The Karate Kid stars a much younger Ralph Macchio, the late Pat Morita, and Elisabeth Shoe. Here's a video I selected for it: