Review of Making Fiends

Amy Winfrey, a west-coast Flash artist and animator, began developing the darkly comical Making Fiends in 2003, along with other popular web cartoons Big Bunny and Muffin Films.  Having attracted interest from Nickelodeon, Making Fiends is a relatively simple but slightly subversive Flash cartoon that has found immense popularity.  The voices in the show are provided by Peter Merryman, Aglaia Mortcheva and Winfrey herself, who worked on her animation skills at UCLA and as a staff animator on South Park.

Clever and irreverent, Making Fiends is a fairly classic series of short episodes which follows the devious doings of Vendetta, an evil little girl genius who creates a host of various monsters and beasts to keep her grade school in the merciless grip of her control.  Enter Charlotte, an impossibly cheery, sprightly young girl who somehow manages to foil all of Vendetta’s dastardly plans.  Potentially violent situations in a seemingly child-friendly environment lead to moments of irresistible dark humor that will make even the most stoic grin wickedly.