Strictly for 12 year olds and younger...

What's your problem?

Dude, most Americans have no problem with British accents. We LIKE them. The decision to dub American voices over the British ones were made by the idiots in the Hollywood studios, who always cater to the lowest-common-denominators.

And it's best to spell-check before accusing an entire group of people of being too hoighty-toighty for "Brittish" accents. I'm just sayin'.

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This thread fails. But uhh... yeah that's Hollywood for ya.

Think before you type too.

I'm going to see it and I am far from 12.

Americans do not have a problem with British accents,they are very nice to listen to, but it is hard to understand them at times. I love watching the British version of The Office and other shows they show on PBS from time to time but the truth is sometimes I just cannot quite make out what they are saying and have to put the captions on. The movie is, after all, for younger kids who are still perfecting their use and understanding of American English and the task of understanding a British accent can be a bit daunting.

What the *beep* does the American education system have to do with this movie? Quit trying to take shots at our country, just because you cleary don't like the U.S. And for the record, us Americans can perfectly understand what you Brits say, so calm the hell down.

Has the complaining gentleman considered that with the script adapted and partially updated for American audiences (and very hilariously, I might add; the "Pirates of the Caribbean" reference and subsequent Disney crack was priceless) that the British voice cast might not have been available to go in and redub some large amount of their lines? (And Ian McKellan, Kylie Minogue and Dame Judi D. ARE in the U.S. cast.)

The original Brit actors probably did their voice-work two years ago, and getting them each rescheduled to get into the a studio with the movie's voice director, audio/animation crew, etc. is much more a logistical nightmare than doing it from scratch -- like retrofitting an old building with modern fire exits, handicapped access, telecommunications wiring etc., is often harder than just building a new building.

As for the script adaptation, there's nothing wrong and quite a bit right about being sensitive to cultural relevance. McDonald's, for example. doesn't serve beef hamburgers in Hindu parts of India. Even the first Harry Potter book was partly renamed in the U.S. since the cultural/mythic impact of a philosopher's stone has no relevance here -- just as the cultural/mythic impact of the Alamo, say, might not resonate the same way in London or Leeds.

Finally, there's the creative aspect. Many the Americans involved wanted to take the material and see what highly inventine people like Jon Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg could bring.

The original version still exists. It always will. Just like the original and the Americanized "Godzilla" movies -- BOTH of which are pretty damn good allusional-monster pics!