Really awful English dub

Anna Paquin as Ray? Alfred Molina playing a Mancunian? The voice pitch is far too high for all characters, the accents are generally all over the place and worst of all (bar maybe Patrick Stewart, who sleepwalks through this nonetheless) the voices just don't connect with the animation, which places it all firmly in uncanny valley. I'm cringing every time someone opens their mouth, which is making this film really hard to watch regardless of the stunning animation.

The best thing I can say about the English version voice acting is that it was at least well translated. But alas in this case that's not much of a plus point either because it highlights how much of the script is held together with cockney English cliche after cliche (and they're supposed to be from Manchester!). I'm honestly surprised Dick van Dyke wasn't cast.

The English casting director really messed this one up on an epic scale. You'd think after they screwed up the first American dub of Akira so badly they'd try to get this one right from the beginning! It's not like they couldn't afford big names, because they splashed out on a few. And generally, English dubs of Japanese animation has been better in recent years, which just makes me scratch my head even more with this one.

What does everyone else think.

Btw, before anyone criticises me for not just watching the Japanese dub, I'd rather do that, but the copy I have of the film doesn't have the Japanese audio track.