I have a 2-year-old son, which means I am familiar with Thomas and Friends. I’m curious about an accent I hear on one of the characters. It’s Vincent, the engine that runs the Steamworks. What sort of accent is he supposed to have? My knowledge of British regional accents is pretty limited. It doesn’t sound like Cockney, and it certainly isn’t Scottish or Irish. The official Thomas website doesn’t say anything about Vincent that sheds any light on this question.
Crap. I just realized that this might belong in Cafe Society. Could a Mod move this thread, if necessary?
Peep peep, said Thomas. Your mistake is in thinking we’re from Britain. Actually, we’re from the Fourth Circle of Hell.
It’s probably a patois such as is commonly heard spoken among slave populations.
Luckily, no one was hurt.
Diceman, can you cite an episode? My kids have just about every Thomas DVD known to man, so I could check it out later.
The Thomas the Tank Engine wiki site offers no insight into the back story of the character. But the site’s a great resource.
FWIW, the voice of Victor (and many other characters on that show) is performed by Matt Wilkinson.
I wondered the same thing this morning!
I sounds to my American ear like a very gentle eastern European accent?
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So be it.
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I’ve always heard Victor’s accent as pseudo-Russian. None of the affected accents are really all that good.
At the bottom of the wiki link in anson2995’s post is this:
Victor is based on No. 1173, an 0-4-0ST+PT locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works that worked on sugar plantations in Cuba.
So presumably it’s supposed to be a Cuban accent.
The OP said it was Vincent, but everyone else is saying Victor. I don’t recall a Vincent either (would be cool, 'cause that’s my son’s name), but can someone clarify? Is there no Vincent?
I think the OP was confused/mistaken – the engine who runs the steam works is, indeed, Victor.
In case anyone wants an example, here’s an episode which features Victor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tbBJyYYig8
I watched it- Victor speaks at about 1m in.
That’s not any kind of British accent. It’s some kind of East European accent, maybe a really bad Russian accent. Not sure; but not British.
Clearly, Victor was a Russian agent sent to Cuba to help out with the revolution. Eventually Castro sent him to the Island as a spy. He’s been sounding out all the proletariat railway workers, and soon the streets will run with Sir Topham Hatt’s blood, not to mention all his bourgeois cronies.
Just llstened to the link from StephenG. My family is from the Baltics, so we’re very familiar with an Eastern European/Russian accent and this is not one of those. I’m with dangermom on this one as far as Cuba goes, though I don’t think he’s a Soviet transplant. If he is, he’s been in Cuba for many years. Or maybe there’s an outside chance he’s Mexican? I picture him saying “rich, Corinthian leather.” Just not sure there are very many Mexican immigrants in Britain, but who’s to say about the Island of Sodor?
He sounds like he’s supposed to be Cuban or at any rate, Hispanic.
I can almost hear him say: “say hello to my little friends”.
Sounds Spanish to me. Something approaching a relocated Antonio Banderas, maybe.
Agreed on Hispanic/Cuban.
Yeah, I meant Victor. :o
So, it’s possibly a bad Cuban accent?
As to what a Cuban/Russian/whoever is doing on Sodor: Heck, Sodor is pretty much the British version of Springfield. There’s so much crap on that island, it’s got to be larger than England itself 
Yes, and they likely had a long imperialist history and influence on the rest of the world. I’ll bet those Chuggingtons gained their independence from Sodor in a bloody revolution some centuries before.
Don’t mind him, he’s from Barcelona.