Line #20 Main/TheKidsAreAmerican


1	An American movie takes place in a foreign land. Just to prove it to you, all the adults have an appropriate accent (or at least [[JustAStupidAccent some kind of accent]]). Then a kid shows up speaking fluent [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents American English]], and unless the kid is a stellar actor, this can poke a hole in SuspensionOfDisbelief.
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3	This is often a subtrope of UnexplainedAccent and AccentsArentHereditary.
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5	TruthInTelevision: With the pervasiveness of American media and the Internet, kids who grew up watching [=YouTube=] and Netflix will likely speak with American accents, especially if the child is less than 12 when their speech patterns aren't fully set. They will also likely adopt American English slang even in their own local languages which wouldn't be typical of someone who learned formal English back in the day only in their local school. Even afterward, a few people can adapt their accents and speech mannerisms, arriving in the US as late as 18 or 20 and managing to learn to speak English with flawless American accents.
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7	However, this trope still appears in settings where it is not feasible for children to be exposed to American English, especially in fantasy settings without an American FantasyCounterpartCulture. One effect is that it makes the children sound more innocent, at least to North American viewers, while the adults sound exotic and refined due to American accents being associated as a sort of default English.
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9	Of course, this trope tends to appear more due to practical reasons - the vast majority of Hollywood's movies are filmed in California, and there are a number of laws involving child actors all around the world. Finding a kid who lives in or near UsefulNotes/LosAngeles just makes the situation a lot less complicated. And due to Hollywood's gravity, this effect bleeds into animation and video games as well.
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11	----
12	!!Examples:
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14	[[foldercontrol]]
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16	[[folder:{{Film}} -- Animated]]
17	* ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973'': Most (but not all) of the adults have British accents, but all the kids have American ones.
18	* In ''Franchise/HowToTrainYourDragon'', ''every single member'' of the parents' generation speaks with a Scottish accent. ''Every single member'' of Hiccup's speaks with an American one. WordOfGod is that this was intentional to make the younger generation more relatable to the western (read: American) audience and to underscore the divide between the traditionalist adults and the modern, progressive youth.
19	* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'': The Mousekewitz family starts off in Russia, and while Mama and Papa have extremely thick Russian accents, Fievel and Tanya have American ones ''before'' they move to America.
20	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', Geppetto (Christian Rub) has a foreign accent but Pinocchio (Dickie Jones) has a Midwestern American accent. Then again, Pinocchio was brought to life by a fairy of no terrestrial nationality.
21	* Disney has also inverted this trope, however. In ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', the Darling kids (with the exception of Michael) are practically the only characters with British accents. The same is true with Alice in ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'', though to a lesser extent. Some Wonderland characters sound English, but the most prominent ones sound American. (Incidentally, Alice and Wendy were voiced by the same British child actress, Kathryn Beaumont.)
22	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'', Duchess sounds Eastern European (voice actress Eva Gabor was Hungarian), while the kittens Toulouse and Berlioz sound American and Marie has a Mid-Atlantic/British accent, despite being natives of Paris, France.
23	* Simba in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', in sharp contrast to his parents (although [[Creator/JamesEarlJones Mufasa]] has more of a "Mid-Atlantic" accent than a non-American one, and Sarabi's accent wobbles between American and Madge Sinclair's native Jamaican). Scar, his uncle, however, sounds [[EvilBrit British]].
24	* The titular ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' is voiced by American Creator/AuliiCravalho, while many of the adults are played by actors from Australia or New Zealand. However, all of the lead actors are of Pacific Islander descent. It's not that noticeable since she speaks with a Hawaiian Pidgin accent as opposed to the Midwestern/Californian accent these teenage characters tend to have.
25	* In ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', the enchanted objects uniformly have British or French accents (the story is set in France). The only exception is Chip, who speaks with an American accent despite his mother, Mrs. Potts, having the quintessential English matron's voice, Creator/AngelaLansbury. The live-action remake amended this.
26	* Downplayed in ''WesternAnimation/DorothyMeetsOzmaOfOz''. Dorothy, Aunt Em, and Uncle Henry all have American accents, but Dorothy is the only one without a midwestern accent.
27	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'' is an American animated film about a Colombian family. Abuela Alma, her daughters, and sons-in-law have more noticeable accents than the grandchildren, who overall speak with more neutral American accents. This is largely due to the casting, where the older generations are mostly voiced by Colombians and the youngest generation mostly by Colombian-Americans and Latino-Americans. The exception is Uncle Bruno, who has Creator/JohnLeguizamo's New York accent.
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30	[[folder:{{Film}} -- Live Action]]
31	* ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'''s film adaptation has the adult characters speaking in English accents. All the children speak with American accent - except Nicholas Hammond, who was the lone Brit among his on screen siblings.
32	* Both film adaptations of ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' go with a WhereTheHellIsSpringfield approach to the location of Charlie Bucket's home and Wonka's Factory, and this trope winds up being invoked in one version and inverted in another. In the 1971 film ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'', which was shot in UsefulNotes/{{Munich}}, Charlie and his family are amongst the only people in town with American accents — while in the 2005 version ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', they're amongst the only ones with ''British'' accents.
33	* Inverted in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'': Everybody's American, but the one child occasionally slips into an English accent. This is due to her actress Carrie Henn, who was a Florida native, but was living in England at the time - and thus would slip between the two dialects. Both Newt's parents in the film speak with American accents, as does her brother (though he's played by [[RealLifeRelative her actual brother]]).
34	* In "Film/{{Coneheads}}", Connie speaks and acts like an normal American teenager, because she was born and raised on Earth. She talks and act like her parents in the original sketches.
35	* Also inverted in ''Film/SupermanII'', which was largely filmed in the UK. The few child characters who appear all have British accents, which is more glaring than usual because one is a kid from a hick town and the other two are a pair of streetwise black kids.
36	* In ''Franchise/JurassicPark'', John Hammond is Scottish while his grandchildren are American. However, his company is apparently U.S.-based, so it's easy to imagine Lex and Tim were raised in America. Either that, or their father's American. But then in ''The Lost World'', American actor Creator/ArlissHoward plays Hammond's adult nephew with an English accent...
37	** In the novel, Hammond is not specified to have any foreign accent, nor is he said to be foreign, period. Whereas Malcolm is subtly implied to be British; when he introduces himself, he says, "I do maths." Americans would more likely say "math." Perhaps the filmmakers picked up on this and inverted the apparent accents...
38	* This is inverted in ''Literature/TheKiteRunner'', which takes place partially in Afghanistan. The child actors were Afghan, but the adult cast was composed of Iranian, British and French actors. In fact, many of them had to learn Farsi for the part.
39	* In ''The Little Vampire'', an American family moves to Scotland. Everyone there has Scottish accents— except for the English-accented vampires.
40	* In Orson Welles's 1948 film adaptation of ''{{Theatre/Macbeth}}'', he had the cast affect Scottish accents (though the studio insisted on a separate audio track being recorded with American). The exception is Orson Welles's own daughter playing Macduff's [[CrossCastRole young son]]. The other prominent child character Fleance has all his dialogue removed.
41	* Averted with Emily Bennett in ''[[Literature/AmericanGirlsCollection Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front]]''. Australian-born Tory Green[[note]]Tory was born in Australia but moved to the States at a young age with her family.[[/note]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMTz1p-JXBY speaks with an American accent]] in ''[[Series/{{BarneyTheDinosaur}} Barney's Colorful World]]'' but pulls off an English accent when she played Molly's British friend in the film.
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44	[[folder:Literature]]
45	* In the ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheLamp'' series, the Gaunt twins' mother, Layla, is British by birth, but the novel makes no mention of her having an accent. On the other hand, her brother Nimrod is easily recognizable as a [[IAmVeryBritish posh]] [[TheQueensEnglish Englishman,]] particularly in comparison to his [[OopNorth dour manservant Groanin.]]
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48	[[folder:LiveActionTelevision]]
49	* Inverted with ''Series/{{Queer as Folk\|US}}'': The American series was set in Pittsburgh, but filmed in Canada -- the kid has a Canadian accent.
50	* Similarly inverted in ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'', in which all the adults have American accents, but flashbacks of the Red and Gold Rangers have them as kids with New Zealand accents.
51	* A minor example from ''Series/{{Lost}}'': (Scottish) Desmond and (English) Penny's son, in one of his few lines, says "Mommy" instead of the British "Mummy". They're filming in Hawaii and can't exactly get a British 3-year old, so it gets a pass.
52	* Series/{{Angel}}'s son, Connor, was born in America but abducted when he was just a few weeks old. Connor grew up in a "Hell Dimension" with his only human contact being his "father"/abductee, who had an English accent. Connor's accent is, of course, American.
53	* ''Series/OnceUponATime'':
54	** Rumpelstiltskin has a Scottish accent, his wife has an English accent, and their son Baelfire has an American accent. It's not so apparent since the kingdom is shown to have accents from all over the globe.
55	** Here's a weird one. Rumpelstiltskin's father Malcolm has a Scottish accent like his son but [[spoiler: when he's restored to his younger self and becomes Peter Pan]], the accent is English.
56	** A case where it happens with the same character! Geppetto in the present day speaks with an Italian accent. His child self however speaks with an American one. Even so, his son Pinocchio speaks with an American accent too - even when raised by an Italian-sounding parent.
57	* A variant in ''Series/ShortlandStreet'': The [=McKay=] parents are both Australian, but their teenage kids (who immigrated with them) are Kiwi.
58	* Justified on ''Series/KimsConvenience'': Mr. and Mrs. Kim immigrated to Canada from South Korea, and [[AsianSpeekeeEngrish have a noticeable accent]]. Their children Jung and Janet were born in Toronto, and speak fluent Canadian English.
59	* ''Series/YoungSheldon'':
60	** Justified with Sheldon, who explains that he specifically adopted a mid-Atlantic accent because his Texas accent isn't good for his image as a highly skilled scientist.
61	** Played straight with the other child characters (e.g. Missy and Billy), who all have standard American / Californian accents, while most of the teenagers and adults have Texas accents. What makes Missy's case more odd is that her adult counterpart in ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' does speak with a Texas accent.
62	* A justified variant on ''Series/CallTheMidwife.'' Nurse Nancy Corrigan comes recommended to Nonnatus House by the nuns at her Irish orphanage. She speaks with a pronounced Irish accent. Her daughter, Collette, speaks with an English accent. Nancy had a TeenagePregnancy in a time/place where that was highly stigmatized and the nuns at her own orphanage arranged for Collette to be raised at an orphanage in London, under the [[FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo guise she was Nancy's sister]]. Since Collette is school-aged when Nancy arrives in Poplar, her speech patterns have already been established.
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65	[[folder:VideoGames]]
66	* In ''VideoGame/{{Skyrim}}'', the majority of adult {{N\|onPlayerCharacter}}PCs are Nords, and possess varying degrees of Scandinavian accents. Most of the children in the game are also Nords, but not a single one speaks with any accent other than American.
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69	[[folder:WebAnimation]]
70	* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with Dolph and his father on ''WebAnimation/CampCamp''. Dolph has a German accent (to highlight his similarities to [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler a certain nefarious World War II leader]]), while his father Stuart is a lieutenant of the US Army. The episode explains it in this one line:
71	-->'''Stuart:''' Oh! Why'd we have to raise you on that Germany Army base?
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74	[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
75	* ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatianStreet'': Zigzagged. The titular 101 Dalmatians are Doug, an American firefighter Dalmatian, having married Delilah, one of [[WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians Pongo and Perdita's]] (British) descendants, both bringing in 15 pups each from previous marriages, then siring 15 pups together and adopting 54 more. That means the pups' accents are either American or British. The American accents make sense for all of the pups from Doug's side, while Dylan and Triple D, who are from Delilah's side, having American accents does not. The rest of the pups vary with the trope.
76	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' has this with the Boonchuy family. Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy [[ImmigrantParents immigrated to the U.S. from Thailand]] and speak English with a thick accent. On the other hand, Anne was raised in Los Angeles and speaks with an American accent.
77	* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' is a good example: None of the main, 12- to 16-year-old actors have non-American accents, but plenty of adults do: Iroh, played by {{Creator/Mako}}, has a Japanese accent, as does the warden from the episode "Imprisoned", played by Creator/GeorgeTakei. James Hong plays the mayor of Chin in season two, which also introduces the Foggy Swamp Water Tribe, whose members sound as if they hail from the DeepSouth. This is probably a TranslationConvention, as they all write in traditional calligraphy.
78	** On the other hand, Sokka & Katara's, Toph's, and Zuko's parents all have American accents. Worth noting, however, is that Aang's ParentalSubstitute Gyatso has a Japanese accent.
79	** It's also worth noting that with a larger talent pool of adult actors the show is far more likely to cast Asians for the adult roles, even if they have American accents, like Creator/DanielDaeKim as General Fong or George Takei as the warden.
80	* Intentionally done in ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}''. The elderly Hudson has a thick Scottish accent while the rest of the clan range from American accents to neutral. This was done to highlight the generational differences and acceptances each had of the modern world. As the series progressed, more Clans living in Modern Times would be discovered (Specifically the English, Japanese, and Guatemalan clans) spoke in region appropriate accents. An explanation of the Avalon Clan (who all grew up with Scottish or English accented characters yet still spoke with an American accent) was never given.
81	* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': Both Jackie and Uncle have been living in America for years, but retain noticeable Chinese accents. Jade is fresh out of Hong Kong but speaks flawless American English.
82	* Some of the younger locomotives in ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' were given American accents in the later episodes, while some of the older locomotives were given British accents.
83	** Averted with the humans, however, where both the children and the adults, in that case, all have British accents.
84	** [[WildMassGuessing The newer engines were imported from America (or Canada) after the British locomotive industry went under?]]
85	* On ''WesternAnimation/MikeLuAndOg'', Lu and Og sound American compared to the adults' British accents. Subverted with Mike, who ''is'' American (specifically, from New York).
86	* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': Star and her parents are from AnotherDimension. However, while they both have British accents (though they are [[FakeBrit played by American actors]]), Star's accent is American. Other people from Mewni have American accents, so it ''could'' be justified by Star's family being royalty, but that would still leave Star's accent unexplained.
87	* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': Issac Sumdac has a Hindi accent, but his daughter Sari has an American one.
88	* Inverted with ChildProdigy Dexter from ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', who speaks with a vaguely Eastern European accent despite being 100% American like his parents. Likely a reference to the show's creator being a Russian immigrant to America as well as the fact that Russia and the rest of the Soviet Union produced a large number of renowned scientists.
89	* In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Stewie inverts this. His family speaks with accents one might find from Rhode Island, while he speaks with something of a British accent (it's there but it's subtle, though much less subtle in the first handful of seasons), playing into the EvilBrit trope he was from earlier seasons. In a segment from the second ''Viewer Mail'' episode, he plays this straight, where his British counterpart speaks with an exaggerated Texan accent, while the rest of the family speaks with British accents. In "Send in Stewie, Please", it is revealed [[spoiler:that Stewie had been faking his accent all along. When his therapist suggests that he speak in his normal voice and be like everyone else, Stewie reverts back to his British accent, since he does not want to be like everyone else.]]
90	* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' has Kahn and Minh Souphanousinphone, the Hills' Laotian-American neighbors. They speak in thick accents but their American-born daughter Connie does not. Keep in mind that Minh and Connie are both voiced by Creator/LaurenTom.
91	** It's established in the family's first appearance that the family moved to the U.S. twenty years before the events of the show, so it's justified that Connie would have an American accent whereas her parents' accents would reflect their Laotian upbringings.
92	* ''WesternAnimation/DragonTales'': Max and Emmy are Mexican-American. They speak with American accents, but their parents have Latin accents.
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Context Main / TheKidsAreAmerican