Excessively whiny teenager Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) moves with his Frankensteinian mother (Randee Heller) from Newark, New Jersey to Reseda, where he will never fit in since he talks like a skinny, learning disable member of Gotti's crew. The family has travelled in search of a new beginning, after the "death" of Daniel's father (he left in search of Atlantis). Their new apartment's handyman is a kindly and humble and probably non-child molesting Okinawan immigrant named Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita).