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Making Fiends (web series)

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Making Fiends
File:CharlotteMakingFiends.gif
Charlotte, a character in the cartoon
Type of site
Adobe Flash comedy series
Available inEnglish, one episode is in Bulgarian
OwnerAmy Winfrey
Created byAmy Winfrey
URLhttp://www.makingfiends.com
LaunchedOctober 4, 2003 - November 6, 2006

Making Fiends is a Flash cartoon series by Amy Winfrey. It follows the interactions between Vendetta, evil-hearted girl that regularly makes monsters called fiends, and Charlotte, a happy-go-lucky girl with every intention of making friends with Vendetta (thanks to her failure to realize that Vendetta despises her cheerful nature).

The site was first put up on June 3, 2003, and the series debuted with its first episode on July 14, 2003.[1] The series ended on November 6, 2006 at twenty-one episodes. Eventually, the site was updated and one part of the site revealed she was working on a new project.[1]

Characters

Charlotte: (Voiced by Amy Winfrey) A blue, optimistic girl from Vermont who could be described as 'too friendly' and extremely annoying; it is impossible for her to get upset. When Vendetta unleashes fiends onto her, Charlotte always ruins her plans by making the fiends do useful things. A running gag is that she sees projectiles thrown at her as gifts. Almost every episode includes her singing a song that she makes up. Charlotte has the uncanny ability to hold her breath for nine hours, and she does not like strawberries and fleas. She has a hamster named Buttons(GO TO NICK.COM TO FIND BUTTONS). She likes to sing about pencils, birds, Vendetta, and more. Charlotte is the only character in every web episode.

Vendetta: (Voiced by Aglaia Mortcheva) A green girl who makes fiends, both through stereotypical mad-scientist means and in the kitchen. She spends her time torturing the other children with the fiends she makes and using her giant bear-like hamster to get what she wants. In fact, she has complete run of the school because all the adults are afraid of her. She constantly tries to hurt Charlotte, but her schemes are always foiled by Charlotte's kindness. Her methods of destroying Charlotte in the web series are sometimes more adult in nature than in the cartoon. For example, she tricks Charlotte into wearing concrete shoes and walking off the edge of a pier (hoping that she will drown) and states in the "Naughty" Christmas song that if Charlotte were a Christmas tree she would "poke her eyes with wire". She seems to hate music that Charlotte is singing and only eats clams, grape punch and beef jerky. Some of her fiends include a large red cat that is always scaring the students and a red bird that sits at Mr. Milk's desk and always seems to be intimidating him. She speaks in a thick Bulgarian accent. Vendetta didn't appear in only one web episode, episode 14.

Mr. Milk: (Voiced by Peter Merryman) The teacher of Charlotte's class. He speaks in a nervous, disjointed monotone due to Vendetta's dominion, and is forced to do Vendetta's bidding out of fear of her. He is also afraid of the fanged red bird fiend that is constantly glaring at him. Mr. Milk is probably a take-off of either Caspar Milquetoast, a comic book character remarkably similar to him, or South Park's Herbert Garrison. In episode 14 we learn he has a tenor singing voice.

Marion: (Voiced by Amy Winfrey) A dark blue, overweight girl who sits next to Charlotte and talks quietly. Marion is terrified of Vendetta. Marion lost the class election in episode 12 to Marvin by 182 votes to one (Charlotte's vote).

Marvin: (Voiced by Peter Merryman) A dark green boy who almost always starts his sentences with 'my' (usually because his belongings are stolen from him), the only exceptions being 'Wonderful Wintery Day' and the April Fools Episode (due to the nature of the episode, however, Marvin still technically starts his 'sentence' with 'my'). He won the class president election after Vendetta & Grudge rigged the vote, but was punched by one of Vendetta's fiends and replaced by Vendetta herself. He brought a banana to show and tell because his dad works at banana factory.

Malachi: (Voiced by Peter Merryman) A dark grey boy. Some speculate that he is a Puritan because he speaks in complicated, Shakespeare-like phrases and refuses to sing because it is blasphemous. His dire cautions are ignored by Charlotte. During attendance he does not say 'here' or 'present'; instead, he says 'presenteth!' He also does not believe in electricity and thinks it is evil dark magic.

Maggie: (Voiced by Amy Winfrey) A grey girl who doesn't speak until episode 14, when she cogently remarks, "Charlotte's dumb."

Rubella: (Voiced by Elissa Calfin) Vendetta's new fiendish friend who resembles a very large girl. She eats non-edible food (like wood, glass and plaster) and talks in one- and two-word sentences. She is named after a disease of the same name. She replaced Grudge, but when she gave Vendetta a music bear which Vendetta obviously dislikes, she fires her and re-hires Grudge, who is again fired soon after this.

Grudge: (Voiced by Peter Merryman) Vendetta's giant hamster. Grudge does not speak, but rather grunts and growls, and is Vendetta's constant sidekick. In episode 18 Grudge is replaced by Rubella, but is accepted again by Vendetta after helping her get rid of a music bear given from Rubella, but was fired again after hicupping (he ate a music card given to Vendetta from Charlotte, so when he hicupped, it played music. That was what made Vendetta replace him in the first place.) but is again accepted by Vendetta fend off her own wild fiends in episode 20.

Giant Cat: (Voiced by Amy Winfrey) Also called "Big Red Kitty" or "Hellcat". Vendetta's cat fiend whom Charlotte spends a lot of time with, much to Vendetta's dismay. Giant Kitty may be an homage to children's book and animated TV character Clifford the Big Red Dog. It has an insatiable appetite, as seen in episode 10. The Giant Kitty always closes its eyes when giving its distinctive meow. It doesn't like baths, but when it is brushed its contented purrs shake the whole school.

Buttons: Charlotte's pet hamster, her "favorite hamster in the whole world", first seen in episode 2 of season 1. He is also very scared of Vendetta and her fiends. He is known for making a high-pitched noise at the sign of any danger.

Buttons 2 (Scissors fiend): A fiend Vendetta made for Charlotte that looks like a bird and can cut things with its scissorlike beak. Charlotte thinks it's a puppy, and makes it a good friend. Buttons 2 likes cutting up pink construction paper. He has a talent for making Valentines and rescuing Charlotte (and sometimes Vendetta).

Mrs. Minty: (Voiced by Peter Merryman) One of Mr. Milk's substitutes. She refers to the classmates as "buttercups", "ducklings", and other diminutive terms of endearment. She kicks out Grudge with a newspaper and hands out tests. Her main debut is in episode 9 of season 1 and she is also seen in episodes 20 and 21, but does not talk. She has an irritating demeanor towards Vendetta, who leaves her class, and returns with two pencil fiends.

Mort: Seen in episode 19 being picked up by an ice cream fiend. Despite the fact that he was only seen once, he becomes more developed in the Nickelodeon series.

Other recurring characters include the lunch lady and the red frog fiend on the lunch counter.

How the series was made

The series was made with Macromedia Flash by Amy Winfrey, Unlike Life with John, this series used shots of drawings.

Episodes

Season 1: 2003-2004

  • Episode 1 - Pilot October 4, 2003 Charlotte moves from Vermont to the Clamburg Elmantary school, and "befriends" Vendetta, despite that she is to happy and dumb to realize that she doesn't like her.

EpisodeNumber= 2 Title= Show and Tell OriginalAirDate= October 4, 2003 Plot Summary = For "Show And Tell", Vendetta releases a monkey fiend, that eats Marions Unicorn toy and throws away Marvins bananas, but things go awry when Charlotte introduces "Buttons" {Her Hamster} to the Giant Kitty. ProdCode= 101

EpisodeNumber= 3 Title= Vegetables OriginalAirDate= October 5, 2003 Plot Summary = Charlotte notices that there are no veggies in the school menu, after Vendetta hears about that, she decides to make some screamy veggie fiends. ProdCode= 102

EpisodeNumber= 4 Title= A Fiendish Friend OriginalAirDate= October 6, 2003 Plot Summary = After Charlotte bothers Vendetta too much, so she decides to make her a snipping fiend, but the plan backfires when Charlotte befriends the fiend with love and renames him "Buttons 2" ProdCode= 103

EpisodeNumber= 5 Title= A Vendetta's Halloween (Special) OriginalAirDate= October 7, 2003 Plot Summary = It's halloween and there's 2 VENDETTAS? Charlotte dresses up as Vendetta and Vendetta gets the plan to get rid of her by making a fiend that only eats and drinks blood if he eats Charlotte, only he then eats a sugar cookie..... ProdCode= 104

EpisodeNumber= 6 Title= Charlotte Loves Kitty OriginalAirDate= October 8, 2003 Plot Summary = When everyone at school gets confused to the reason of why the school is shaking, it is revealed the Charlotte is brushing the giant kitty, and they both become friends till Vendetta puts fiend fleas over the cat..... ProdCode= 105

EpisodeNumber= 7 Title= Shrinking Charlotte OriginalAirDate= October 9, 2004 ProdCode= 106

EpisodeNumber= 8 Title= Charlotte's Birthday Bash OriginalAirDate= October 10, 2004 ProdCode= 107

EpisodeNumber= 9 Title= The Substitute Teacher OriginalAirDate= October 11, 2004 ProdCode= 108

EpisodeNumber= 10 Title= The Great Escape Part 1 OriginalAirDate= October 12, 2004 ProdCode= 109

Season 2: 2005-2006

On part one of this episode, Charlotte was eaten by the giant kitty fiend much to the delight of Vendetta. In the second part, Vendetta is eaten as well and ended up, trapped, in the giant kitty's stomach with Charlotte. Vendetta soon sets a boundary for them because of Charlotte's annoyance. Charlotte, then, plays song badly using Marvin's piano that was eaten by the kitty fiend as well. While Charlotte plays, Vendetta was trying to escape which didn't succeed. When Charlotte finishes, she leaves the giant kitty using the exit which is a door in its that leads to the outside.

To celebrate Chester A.'s birthday, Vendetta calls for an election for class president. Charlotte nominates Marion, against her own will, while Vendetta nominates Marvin to try to beat Charlotte. So Vendetta and Charlotte put up many posters telling people to vote for their candidate. At the debate, Marvin "wins" because Vendetta used her podium fiend to scare Marion away so Marvin would win. At the election, Vendetta wins by forcing everyone (except for Charlotte) to vote for Marvin and by voting many times for Marvin. Once Marvin won, Vendetta takes over class prseident by using her punching fiend to punch Marvin, thus making him unfit to be president.


Vendetta brings an invisible fiend to attack Charlotte which was killed, however, by Charlotte accidentally stabbing it with a kabob (the fiend is invisible so there isn't a gory scene). Charlotte, then, turns invisible herself drinking Vendetta's drink that turns anyone invisible. Vendetta soon gets annoyed with this since Charlotte is sneaking up on her, invisibly. To stop Charlotte, Vendetta planned to make Charlotte visible again by using fiends to spray her with a spray that makes you visible. However, she instead sprayed Carl, Charlotte's "imaginary" friend making him visible until he drinks the invisible drink making Carl invisible, again.


When Vendetta decides to skip a school day, Mr. Milk is very happy because he actually doesn't have to do what Vendetta wants him to do for a change. Soon he starts to sing a song called "What a Wonderful Wintery Day" and gets the rest of the class to sing with him. At the end of the song, Charlotte announced that Vendetta is coming and "can't wait to really make [them] sing" by making snowflake fiends to terrify them. Note:This the only web episode where the character Maggie talks and one of the three episodes when Marvin talks without starting with the word "my".

During Valentine's Day, Charlotte sends a Valentine's Day card to Vendetta and, out of irritation, she creates a big heart fiend who wants everyone's hearts. It soon grows tired and melts since it was made out of chocolate and Charlotte sings about herself, Vendetta and a chocolate lake.

Vendetta calls for a Rainy Day schedule because of the precipitation outside. She brings out a Rainy Day Activity Box because Charlotte annoys her and pleads for it unknowing of what would happen. Vendetta opens the box and out come these noise-maikng fiends which make very loud, screeching noises. Vendetta falls asleep while wearing earmuffs and dreams about these bugs that have Charlotte faces. She tries to crush them with a hammer because they say "Tee hee" (which is what Charlotte is known for syaing), however they still manage to pop back up. Vendetta then awakes to find that Charlotte gave the noise-making fiends bubblegum which stuck the fiends together in one big bubblegum ball (because they blew a bubble with the gum and pops over them causing them to stick together). Vendetta finally goes home using Mr. Milk as an umbrella.

During April Fools Day, Vendetta plots to send Charlotte into space because of Charlotte's annoying April Fools. Vendetta, however, gets tied onto the rocket that was going to be launched into space because of her colorblind fiends (when Vendetta asked her fiends to tie the blue one, they were colorblind and tied Vendetta instead). Charlotte wats to join her and they both get launched into space. However, one of her colorblind fiends, holding a string that is connected to the rocket, is tied to the string by the ankle. The Giant Kitty soon eats it which pulls the rocket down due to the string. Note:This whole episode is in Bulgarian dialogue.

This episode starts with Charlotte giving Vendetta a music card which is very irritating to Vendetta. To stop the noise, Grudge ate it, but when he hiccups the song plays which still annoys Vendetta. Later, Vendetta is trying to make a fiend to destroy Charlotte which explodes since a syrup wasn't added quick enough to the mixture because Grudge accidentally dropped it causing it to smash. Vendetta drives Grudge away because she thinks he is very unhelpful and she creates a new fiend to assist her named Rubella. The next day, Vendetta and Rubella arrive to find Grudge sitting in his usual spot which is now Rubella's so Grudge takes Marvin's seat. Vendetta tells Charlotte that she has a surprise for her at the pier. Her surprise was a pair of concrete shoes. Vendetta tells Charlotte to take four steps toward the ocean which made Charlotte fall offthe pier cauisng her to sink due to her concrete shoes.

Vendetta and Rubella enjoy themselves, during a Charlotte free day since she's stuck at the bottom of the ocean, by attacking the other children with her fiends. At Vendetta's house, she is happy because of the successes she had with her fiends and she considers Rubella a friend. Meanwhile, Charlotte stays alive because Buttons 2 threw a salad bowl in the ocean, making it sink, and provides Charlotte with air, once it landed on her head, because of the air bubble in the salad bowl. The next day, Rubella gives Vendetta a wound-up teddy bear as a gift of their friendship, though not aware that Vendetta hates songs and music. Rubella pulls the string in the teddy bear causing Vendetta to writhe in pain because her ears consider it painful. Grudge, tries o get the teddy bear to stop playing the music by eating it like he did with the card in part 1. Vendetta then fires Rubella for turning on her and rehires Grudge for saving her. However, Grudge hiccups as soonas he was rehired causing both the card, that was still in his stomach, and the teddy bear to activate their song thus firing him once more. Vendetta then declares she will work alone. Meanwhile, Charlotte, still at the bottom of the ocean, sings about concrete shoes and is taken by a giant squid at the end.

Charlotte returned in this episode by a friendly squid named Janet that took her in episode 19. Vendetta, waiting to destroy Charlotte this time, creates a potion that will turn anything into a fiend so she could turn Buttons into a fiend so he will attack Charlotte. The potion takes one hour to complete so Vendetta sets a timer set to one hour and sneaks over to Charlotte's house to steal Buttons while Charlotte went to Vendetta's house and took the potion to paint a giant statue of Vendetta that she made. When Vendetta returns with Buttons, nearly an hour later, she finds a note that says Charlotte has a surprise for her at school. She soon went to their school to find it being used to paint a statue with a paintbrush. Her timer then goes off signaling that the potion is complete and suddenly the giant statue, the paintbrush painting the potion, and the bucket holding the potion all turn into fiends. The statue starts moving towards Vendetta while the paintbrush and the bucket paint the school buildings causing them to turn into fiends. Grudge defends Vendetta by getting in front of the fiendish statue who is acknowledged by Vendetta who says that Grudge is maybe a good hamster. All the building fiends corner her into a cliff forcing her to junp off. Once she wakes up from passing out, she realizes she fell into the boat Charlotte made out of pine. Vendetta, Charlotte, and all the other characters aboard the ship (mentioned here) set sail hoping to find new land to live on...

While still sailing from episode 20, Vendetta complains that she is hungry for clams, however Charlotte only filled the ship with mashed potatoes and stuffing (made from onions and sage). Mr. Milk soon says "Land ho!" because he just discovered some land which is only a small piece. Vendetta wants to see if there are clams there, however she has a better idea by sending Charlotte onto the island and abandoning her. Charlotte, however thinks she's a castaway and wants to dig for treausre in the small piece of land. The "island", however, was a giant turkey's head and the giant turkey throws Charlotte which causes her to land onto the boat. Note:This episode isn't available on the Making Fiends' website. To see this episode, click on the link provided here (Episode 21).

Notable differences between online and Nicktoons Network episodes

  • Despite the fact that both versions use Adobe Flash to create animation, the television episodes are cleaner-looking. This is probably because the characters and backgrounds in the Web episodes were made of overlapping JPEG files, and that the television series has an actual budget. Also, the colors still go outside the outlines, but it seems more like a second outline than messy drawing.
  • The character Maggie (who only had two lines of dialog in the whole Web series) has been expanded on, and given a developed personality. Mort, another character, is created.
  • Charlotte's grandmother, Charlene, is introduced in the TV series.
  • Vendetta's parents, Violeta and Viktor, do appear in episode 3.
  • The town the show takes place in is given the name of Clamburg, after Vendetta's favorite food (clams).
  • Grudge, Vendetta's hamster, has a slightly fatter look in the series.
  • Charlotte's house was noticeably changed; in the web cartoon her house was grey, but it was changed to different shades of blue in the cartoon. Sometimes it shows the inside of the house on the TV version.
  • There is more music playing in the TV version.

Trivia

  • Every page has a hidden message near the top, which can be seen by being highlighted.
  • Nearly every secondary character's first name starts with the letter 'M', believed to be because of her previous work, Muffin Films.
  • In the original home page, behind the bush in the bottom-left corner of the main menu is a small red cat (or a piece of candy corn during Halloween).
  • In the original home page, the bush in the bottom-right corner of the main menu can be clicked on.
  • Aglaia Mortcheva is from Bulgaria.
  • A 'vendetta' is "a bitter, destructive feud" (definition from Dictionary.com).
  • Occasionally simple, gruesome drawings can be seen in the background with a small message written with them. They appear to be alphabet-teaching posters, but feature such inspiring thoughts as "A is for alimony", "C is for communism," and "D is for Dictator".
  • A picture of muffins can be seen in the back of the classroom, a reference to Muffin Films.
  • Most of the textures used to make walls, the sky, grass, etc. are .jpeg files overlapping one another.
  • All of the human characters besides Malachi and Marvin wear what looks like dresses or muumuus.
  • Most of the time, when Vendetta reads magazines, they are entitled "Spite","Mean", or "Grrr..." In episode eleven inside the cat's stomach, the magazine is entitled "Mad Cat" and has a picture of the giant cat's face.

The 2005 April Fool's Day episode

All episodes are in English with the exception of episode 17, which was recorded in Bulgarian. When first released, the episode was entirely in Bulgarian, and received many complaints in the guestbook. After a couple of days, subtitles were slapped on. The subtitles feature translations that are laughably substandard (Marvin can be seen crying "ice cream of mine!" instead of the expected "my ice cream!") when they are not completely superfluous (as for translated clock ticks and screams). Episode 17's hidden text (viewed by highlighting at the top) says "Den da shegata!", which is Bulgarian for "April Fool's".

The 2006, 2008, and 2009 April Fool's Day episodes

In the days leading up to April Fool's Day in 2006, a message was posted on the front page saying that a fiend was to be temporarily placed in charge of the site. On April Fool's Day, the main menu had a bite taken out of it, and the fiend was there to explain that he got hungry and ate some episodes, but fixed them. As a result, six episodes were replaced with alternate versions, each featuring a major mistake.

  • Episode 4: All dialogue is in Mandarin.
  • Episode 6: All dialogue is spoken by a computerized speech simulator.
  • Episode 11: All characters have beards.
  • Episode 18: All characters are muffins (another nod to Muffin Films)
  • Episode 19: (Please help Wikipedia by plaing a link to "Making Fiends' April Fool's Day episode 19".) The background changes to notable places/statues from around the world (for example, the Eiffel Tower was shown in one scene).
  • Episode 20:The episode ends with Vendetta moving to Florida and never seeing Charlotte again.

The pranks did not reappear in 2007, but returned in 2008 and 2009.

Alternate DVD Versions

On the DVDs, there are alternate versions of each episode. Season 1 episodes are all the same but can be watched in different languages or commentary. The ones above are the same.

  • 1. Audio Commentary with Charlotte and Vendetta
  • 2. Audio Commentary with Marion
  • 3. All dialogue is spoken in French. Translation by Aglaia Mortcheva.
  • 4. All dialogue is spoken in Mandarin.
  • 5. All dialogue is spoken in Japanese (Except theme song). Translation by Junichi Ishimura.
  • 6. All dialogue is spoken by a computerized speech simulator
  • 7. Audio Commentary with Vendetta and Grudge
  • 8. Pig Latin Subtitles
  • 9. Audio Commentary with Mr. Milk
  • 10. Narrated by Big Bunny
  • 11. All characters have beards
  • 12. Patriotic Version. Stars in the background. Also Mr. Milk is dressed as the Statue of Liberty
  • 13. Extra Invisible!
  • 14. Fancy Dress Version. Girls wear dresses, guys wear suits. Scissor fiend, flowers, birds etc. wear ties.
  • 15. Super Pretty Version!
  • 16. Snowy Version! Instead of raining, it snows. Whenever someone says "rain" a low-toned computerized speech simulator says "snow" over it.
  • 17. You can watch it with or without subtitles
  • 18. All characters are muffins
  • 19. The setting in the background has pictures from France
  • 20. Alternate ending with Vendetta moving to Florida and never seeing Charlotte again.

Episode 20

In this episode most of the main characters escape being devoured by fiends by boarding a giant boat. Those who are not seen on the escape boat are;

  • Charlotte's family, who are briefly mentioned in episode 4
  • Rubella
  • Many of Vendetta's fiends, including:
  • Vendetta's parents as mentioned on nick.com

The giant cat is not on the boat for obvious reasons, but is seen wading away. Buttons 2 is very hard to spot, but he is seen at the very top of the sailboat.

Marvin

Marvin usually starts his sentences with "my." There are three exceptions - the April Fool's episode (above), A Wonderful Wintery Day where he sings the second line of the song, and Charlotte's Birthday where he, along with the other kids, sings Happy Birthday to Charlotte. Episode 17is the only one he doesn't say "my" and said "Ice cream of mine!" in Bulgarian (see above).

Holiday Specials

Vendetta's explanation of the rules: Help me to hit Charlotte with pumpkins, 30 times. Do not be fooled by her stupid disguises!

Charlotte's explanation of the rules: Vendetta said she'd give me lots of pumpkins, I can't wait! Help her by clicking on me with your mouse whenever I appear. Ooh! And I'm gonna dress up in costumes, because that's fun!

References

  1. ^ a b Internet Archive Wayback Machine

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