Dre Parker is the main protagonist of the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid. who is Daniel LaRusso's equivalent.

He is portrayed by Jaden Smith.

Biography[]

He was born in 1998, in Detroit, Michigan who has been living there with his mother and father, until he passed away and later he moved to China in 2010. His mother got a job transfer at her car factory.

Dre was an average 12-year-old boy, who was enjoying life in Detroit, Michigan. He was about to start middle school. 

His mom's car factory gave her a job transfer, so she and Dre had to move to China (mirroring Daniel and Lucille LaRusso moving to California, for Lucille's job transfer to a computer lab). 

Dre, dismayed, observed his friends and relatives in Detroit waving goodbye (while taking a taxi to the airport). The, with his mother, he got on a plane that was headed for China. During the flight, Dre spent the time sleeping, talking, learning to speak Mandarin Chinese (中文), and reading books in Chinese. During the flight, under is mom's urges, Dre attempted to say “你好吗？” (Chinese for: "How are you?") and “你叫什么名字？” (Chinese for: "What is your name?") to a Chinese man sitting in a seat opposite to him, but failed to say it with the right pronunciation. The man then responds that he is from Detroit. Dre, relating to the man, then says "what's up?" to him.

After Dre and and his mother arrive at their new apartment and move in, he tries to get Mr. Han for some repairs, but he is not really responding. He checks out the park by playing basketball and ping pong. He then meets a pretty young girl he develops a crush for named Meiying, much to the dismay of Cheng. Seeing this, Cheng proceeds to beat Dre up.

Dre then starts school the next day, something he wasn't found of at first. He wears makeup over his black eye, hiding the injury he sustained in the fight from his mother. Once his mother finds out, he claims that he ran into a pole, but in reality he was beaten by Cheng.

At school, Dre meets Meiying again and learns about Cheng. He spots her practicing violin and was impressed by her abilities. He later went to the Forbidden City for a school field trip. After he dumps water on Cheng and his gang of friends, he gets chased by him and beaten up once again, with Cheng's gang with him. Suddenly, Mr. Han the maintenance man saved Dre and beat up Cheng and his friends. Mr. Han healed him later on using fire-cupping.

The following day, Dre and Mr. Han go to the Fighting Dragons studio, the place Cheng practices Kung-Fu. There, Mr. Han made a deal with their teacher, Master Li, which meant that Cheng and his friends will not bother Dre. The conditions are that Dre will fight in an upcoming kung-fu tournament and must show, or else it would be open season on both him and Mr. Han.

Dre meets with Meiying at the Shi-Shi festival. At the theatre, she tells him an old Chinese love story. Dre shows her what a pinky swear is and they share a kiss.

Dre starts training. He gets disappointed by the lesson's where he has to hang up his jacket, unhang his jacket, pick up his jacket, drop his jacket, put on his jacket, take off his jacket and more. Mr. Han later states that Kung Fu is everywhere even in daily tasks and shows it too him. They train in other places such as a Shaolin temple which is on a mountain.

When Mr. Han gives Dre a day off from training, Dre convinces Meiying to skip school for a date. She rushes to her audition that she did not know was re-scheduled to a day earlier and Dre follows and watches. He then learns Meiying cannot see him anymore. Dre meets Mr. Han and learns that his wife and son died in a car accident. Dre then learns the Cobra Pose with Mr. Han. With Mr. Han's help, he apologizes to Meiying and her father in Mandarin Chinese for bringing dishonor to their family. Meiying's father accepts his apology and allows his daughter to attend his tournament because she made a promise to him and that in their family, they don't break their promises. Dre continues his training.

Dre competes in the tournament. He is unaware of the rules but later proves himself to be a worthy competitor. He beats a majority of Master Li's skilled students including Zhuang. He faces Liang in the semi-finals where he gets injured and Liang gets disqualified. Dre was eager to return and Mr. Han reluctantly healed him. Dre later faces off with Cheng, who easily wins the first round, knocking Dre off the mat. But reluctant to give up, Dre gets right back up to face off with his rival. The second round then takes place with Cheng fighting on the offensive, much to Dre's advantage he defends well and uses his flexibility to sleep the latter's leg and strike him in the face, with Dre winning the round and making the score 1-1. The two go at it again but this time Dre takes an a lot more aggressive approach to things and puts Cheng in a scissor headlock before bringing him down and striking him the face to win the round, making the overall score 2-1. Master Li then calls time out and orders Cheng to 'break' Dre. With that being said, Cheng aims for Dre's leg throughout the fourth round and does so more aggressively each time resulting in Dre being dropped to the ground in immense pain.

Dre finally manages to fight through the pain and gets back on his feet. He uses the technique he saw when traveling to the 'spiritual mountain.' He does so, leaving Cheng to be distracted by his methods. The official's flags are drawn and the two fight it out in the final round which ends in Dre knocking Cheng to the ground with an audacious kick to the face. Much to his surprise, Dre wins the tournament as well as winning his former bully's respect.

Trivia[]

• He is named after Drake Parker.