In Defence of Michael Brandon... (Gondarth Talks #11)

Showcase 24 in the Multi-Language series will be for Michael Brandon, someone who is regarded as one of the worst Thomas The Tank Engine narrators of all time... In this rather hastily organised video, I'd like to share my opinions on him.

[dmancluster]

I actually really liked Micheal Brandon. He had a lot of energy and it lead to him making a lot of funny sounds in his narration. For example, from "Thomas and the big bang."

[Ethan-eyjx]

Season 7 in the US could’ve kept the original music by Mike and Junior with the Michael Brandon narration. I know he usually narrates with the HiT era stuff. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m sure Brandon wouldn’t mind narrating the episodes with the original Mike and Junior music for S7, same with S6. Besides, he had more enthusiasm, energy and fun in his narration than Alec Baldwin.

Although to be fair, I would like to see him narrate some S5 episodes too like Cranky Bugs. That way he can make some of the darker stories entertaining with his energy. While having Mike and Junior music in them. LOL

[trainman]

4:50 Was Michael Brandon drunk while he was narrating?

[Zippy-dpmp]

Something I don't understand is, WHY DIDN'T HE GET TO PLAY SHINING TIME STATION'S MR CONDUCTOR?!?!??

[SuperPwnageHunter]

MIchael Brandon was my favorite narrarators of all time! I loved his voice and he was funny!

[shanemyoutubeshit]

Micheal Brandon is actually one of my favorites. Season 7 was one of my favorites as a kid, Emily’s New Coaches was my absolute favorite episodes as a kid. And I grew up on seasons 9-16. The seasons he acted in.

[sjharris]

I still like Michael Brandon's narrations. He's not the best narrator for the series, but I'd rather have him over the bored Alec Baldwin for season 6.

[SonicAndPokemon]

Michael Brandon MB Worst Narrators 😢 😔

[retroroy]

George Carlin was the best narrator, IMO. Then again, that's probably the childhood nostalgia talking.

As for Alec Baldwin's Season 6 narration, I honestly think the change had to do with Thomas and the Magic Railroad's failure at the box office. In Season 5 and the movie, he's got enthusiasm but in Season 6, you can tell he was doing the bare minimum to get his paycheck.

[backbayproductions]

Michael Brandon is a good narrator in my opinion. Some seem to hate on him too much. If there was anyone that was awful during the 2nd worst era of Thomas and friends (which is the new series era) Michael Angelis was the one! That guy showed little to know enthusiasm in seasons 7 - 12! Those seasons were much worse than the Miller Era!

[wwood-ctyn]

Michael Brandon is my favorite narrator

[HenryFan]

I’d like to point out the double standards with Alec Baldwin and Michael Brandon. When people say “oH, you HaVe To give Brandon credit for trying!” When his character voices are criticized for being obnoxious, which they are. But when Baldwin did goofy cartoony character voices, (which I love because they’re in contrast with his more dramatic performance as narrator) people will criticize him to no end.

Brandon for me, he has good energy, and performs well for the kids, but his narration tone at times makes me feel spoken down to. As dull as Baldwin in Season 6 may be, I like it because Baldwin sounds at least nice to the ear. Even if he may sound lifeless as hell, I at least don’t feel spoken down to.

[mphibianluigi]

I grew up with George Carlin and Michael Brandon's narrations.

[TheMultiFandomFangirl]

I never hated Michael Brandon as a narrator. Maybe it was because I grew up with his narration. I'm not bothered by the fact that he has very few character voices, his enthusiasm outweighs that flaw with me. It's the same way I feel with Ringo, and he's my favorite narrator.

It's nice to see someone pointing out his flaws, but not bashing in the notion that he's a bad narrator. People can have their opinions on him, but it's cool to see someone defend him.

[MikeNicholsonThomas]

Something I'd like to bring up regarding George Carlin, as far as his narrations are concerned, is when he was recording for the episodes back in the day, Britt Allcroft put a stuffed teddy bear in front of him as his "audience, " and he read to it like he was reading a story to a group of children.

Since you brought up that Michael Brandon's narration sounds as if he was also reading a story to some children, I wonder if HIT used a similar motif with him... Just a thought.

[idislikeallenginesgo]

I loved him as a kid, meh as a teenager. He's not awful, and I agree about the story telling thing. But he's just ok as a narrator for me. I like Angelis more, but comparassion isn't fare. Meh in my opinion. But about Baldwin, I love his 90s Narration. Toad, Oliver, Gordon, Henry and Duncan were his best voices there, but in Series 6, :I. Utter blandness. He's boring there. No voices besides Salty, the Fat Controller and Elizabeth! How? Is it the Tragic Failroad? Is it his divorce he had the same year? I don't know.

[lukamalesic]

5:58 You're forgetting Serbian dub's voice for Fat Controller, voiced by the narrator Bojan Žirović who was the our narrator since day one and still is.

[thegermanofsodor]

Since you said Mark does even less when it comes to character voices he actually voices all of the characters himself in read along readings on a thomas app called Read and Play and even tho most of them are based on the voices from the UK dub of the CGI series he still does some of his own

otherwise i can agree Brandon really wasn't that bad and i loved how you meantioned Manfred and Sky du mont since that's also my opinion on them

[MikeNicholsonThomas]

Technically this is GT Episode 11, unless you count the Video Memories series... :P

Anyway, I really don't think Michael Brandon is an awful narrator. Yeah, he's no George Carlin, but when you have Pierce, Alec and that Polish guy to compare him to (among other mediocre narrators), Michael B is actually pretty decent. Plus I do like his Diesel and Sir Handel voices for when he narrated that era :)

[christianthethomasandfrien]

You Sound Like Victor from Thomas and Friends.