History Main / TheKidsAreAmerican

* In ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}'', Geppetto (Christian Rub) has a foreign accent but Pinocchio (Dickie Jones) has a Midwestern American accent.

* Series/{{Angel}}'s son, Conner was born in America, but abducted when he was just a few weeks old and grew up in a "Hell Dimension" with his only human contact being his "father"/abductee, who had an English accent. Conner's accent is, of course, American.

----

* Simba in ''Disney/TheLionKing'', 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). Uncle Scar, however, sounds [[EvilBrit British]].

* In ''Disney/TheAristocats'', Duchess sounds Eastern European (voice actress Eva Gabor was Hungarian), while the kittens Toulouse and Berlkoz sound American and Marie with has a mid-atlanic/British accent, despite being natives of Paris, France.

* In ''Disney/TheAristocats'', Duchess sounds Eastern European (voice actress Eva Gabor was Hungarian), while the kittens sound American, despite being natives of Paris, France.

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 [[AmericanAccents American English]], and unless the kid is a stellar actor, this can poke a hole in SuspensionOfDisbelief.

* Inverted in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'': Everybody's American, but the one kid sounds British, and the film was made in Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom. Justified, since she's unrelated to any of the adults that appear on-screen; the extended edition DVD shows Newt's family, and they all have mild British accents.
** {{Lampshaded}}: The [[DVDBonusContent DVD interviews]] note that the actress's natural English accent is noticeable in some scenes (such as "There's a short-cut across the roof") but it was [[ThrowItIn kept in the finished film]].

* Inverted with ''QueerAsFolk'': The American series was set in Pittsburgh, but filmed in Canada -- the kid has a Canadian accent.

* A minor example from ''{{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.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Skyrim}}'', the majority of adult {{NPC}}s are Nords, and possess varying degrees of Scandinavian accents. All of the children in the game are also Nords, but not a single one speaks with any accent other than American.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' 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 [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries George Takei]]. 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.

* Some of the younger locomotives in ''ThomasTheTankEngine'' were given American accents in the later episodes, while some of the older locomotives were given British accents.

* On ''MikeLuAndOg'', Lu and Og sound American compared to the adults' British accents. Subverted with Mike, who ''is'' American.

----

* ''[[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' 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 {{Mako}}, has a Japanese accent, as does the warden from the episode "Imprisoned", played by [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries George Takei]]. 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.

** This is actually consistent. The British accents are only on the upper-class characters. The lower-class characters have American, usually Western, accents. All the kids we see are lower-class.

*** UnfortunateImplications ?

** 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 Daniel Dae Kim as general Fong or George Takei as the warden.

* In the 1971 film ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'', Charlie and his family are a few of the only ones with American accents — and in the 2005 version ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', they're a few of the only ones with ''British'' accents.

This actually has a fairly logical explanation. The vast majority of UsefulNotes/{{Hollywood}}'s movies are filmed in [[CaptainObvious 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.

This actually has a fairly logical explanation. The vast majority of UsefulNotes/{{Hollywood}}'s movies are filmed in [[CaptainObvious California]], and there are a number of laws involving child actors all around the world. Finding a kid who lives in or near Los Angeles just makes the situation a lot less complicated.

* In ''{{Series/OnceUponATime}}'', 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.

* Simba in ''Disney/TheLionKing'', in sharp contrast to his parents (although [[Creator/JamesEarlJones Mufasa]] has more of a "Mid-Atlantic" accent than a non-American one). Uncle Scar, however, sounds [[EvilBrit British]].

* Simba in ''Disney/TheLionKing'', in sharp contrast to his parents. Uncle Scar, however, sounds [[EvilBrit British]].

TruthInTelevision if the family has immigrated to the States; children's speech patterns aren't fully set until age 12 or so, anyone younger than that can learn a new language without an accent and/or pick up the local accent within a language with sufficient immersion.

This actually has a fairly logical explanation. The vast majority of {{Hollywood}}'s movies are filmed in [[CaptainObvious California]], and there are a number of laws involving child actors all around the world. Finding a kid who lives in or near Los Angeles just makes the situation a lot less complicated.

* In {{Series/OnceUponATime}}, 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.

* This is inverted in ''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.

* In ''TheAristocats'', Duchess sounds Eastern European (voice actress Eva Gabor was Hungarian), while the kittens sound American, despite being natives of Paris, France.

* ''TheSoundOfMusic'': Everyone has a British accent, except the youngest kids in the von Trapp family.
* In the 1971 movie version of ''CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', Charlie and his family are a few of the only ones with American accents — and in the 2005 version, they're a few of the only ones with ''British'' accents.

* Also inverted in ''Superman II'', 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.
* In ''Film/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. But then in ''The Lost World'', American actor Arliss Howard plays Hammond's adult nephew with an English accent...

* In the 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.]]

* {{Angel}}'s son, Conner was born in America, but abducted when he was just a few weeks old and grew up in a "Hell Dimension" with his only human contact being his "father"/abductee, who had an English accent. Conner's accent is, of course, American.