Charlie the Unicorn


Charlie the Unicorn is a 2005 Flash animated comedy short film and viral video created by Jason Steele of independent film company FilmCow in Orlando, Florida. The short follows Charlie, a lethargic unicorn, who is taken by two other unicorns on an adventure to the mythical "Candy Mountain." However, as it turns out, the journey is a lie, and Charlie gets hoodwinked by the other unicorns.
Steele originally created the video as a birthday present for his mother; the video was partially credited to her and was released by her under the username "TypeQueen" on Newgrounds, where it rapidly gained popularity. The video was later uploaded onto YouTube by Geoff Swanson, where it gained large viewership and continued to increase in popularity, leading to a series of sequels and spinoffs.
The video was a viral hit, accumulating 67 million views and gaining worldwide praise. A merchandising line was later produced, as well as three sequels and a parody series titled. The first three episodes in the series were released to DVD in 2009 as part of The FilmCow Master Collection.

Plot

In a quiet meadow, Charlie, a unicorn, is resting, before he is awakened by two other unicorns. As Charlie awakes from his slumber, the other two unicorns inform him that they have found a map to the mythical "Candy Mountain," and that he must come with them on their journey. Charlie initially refuses and goes back to sleep. The blue unicorn begins to jump on Charlie, insistent that he should come, and both begin to pester him with details of the mountain, causing him to begrudgingly give in to their demands. The trio begins their journey in a forest, where the two lead Charlie to a Liopleurodon; the two unicorns converse with the Liopleurodon, who supposedly guides them on their quest with a simple roar. The trio then crosses a bridge, much to the delight of the pink and blue unicorns, who repeatedly tell him that they are on a bridge.
When the trio arrives at Candy Mountain, the letters of the CANDY sign come to life and the "Y" sings a song, closely resembling the tune of Klarinettenmuckl-Jodler, welcoming Charlie to the mountain and imploring Charlie to go into the cave. After the letters explode, Charlie reluctantly goes into the cave. The other unicorns say goodbye as Charlie is locked inside and knocked out by an unknown assailant. When he awakens in his original spot, he realizes that they have taken one of his kidneys, much to his dismay. The video then immediately ends with the credits.

Characters

Independent animator Jason Steele initially conceived Charlie the Unicorn in 2005 as a flash animation test for his mother, who enjoyed unicorn-related conversation. Steele first imagined the video's plotline when he was running around his house, chanting "La la la!" repeatedly, then quickly envisioned the majority of the plotline shortly thereafter; according to Steele, the video's conception happened "all at once; there was no editing." The video is primarily structured around surrealist humor and dark humor. Steele claims that the former was inspired by musician Logan Whitehurst, who frequently communicated with Steele via e-mail and composed the theme song for his 2003 computer-animated short film Secret Agent Bob; he describes the latter as "contrast to how bright and cheerful" the video's atmosphere is.
Steele drew Charlie the Unicorn using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Flash, and animated it in After Effects and edited in Final Cut Pro. The audio was recorded using Amadeus Pro, and the music was recorded with Logic Pro. The video also contains a musical number titled "The Candy Mountain Cave", featured during the sequence where Charlie refuses to enter the Candy Mountain Candy Cave, sung by the mountain's marquee letter "Y", who is backed by his partners "C", "A", "N", and "D". Although the blue and pink unicorns were originally chosen to sing the song, Steele was unable to use their voices to sing at a rapid pace, and resorted to using the Letter "Y" instead.

Reception

Charlie the Unicorn has become increasingly popular since its inception. Following its posting on Newgrounds in 2005, Geoff Swanson of YouTube posted a copy of the video on the website in 2006, where it rapidly gained popularity. It reached a total of approximately 8 million views internetwide in 2007. The video climbed to forty-six million views in March 2010. It currently has 68 million views on Geoff Swanson's YouTube upload, and 35 million views on FilmCow's official YouTube upload.
Online magazine Salon described the video as "The unlikely adventure of a crotchety unicorn" and stated "We often feel like Charlie the Unicorn. Annoying, brightly colored colleagues poke at us with their curly horns as we snooze at our desk, promising far-off, sugar-coated delights. Do we muster the energy to follow them, hoping some sweet payoff will break the unbearable bleakness of our daily existence? Can they be trusted?" The series has also attracted a number of celebrities, including British television personality Alex Zane, who has openly considered himself a fan of Charlie the Unicorn, and entertainers Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn. Brian Hamlin of The Hollywood Reporter considered the video to be "incredibly dumb and annoying" yet "really funny and weird too full of unicorn joyness and music." In 2009, Time named Charlie the Unicorn number 49 in their list of "YouTube's 50 Best Videos", stating "Charlie the Unicorn proves that something doesn't have to make any sense at all to earn a cultlike following."
Merchandising lines produced by a partnership consisting of FilmCow and retailer CafePress as well as Hot Topic have been launched in response to the video's popularity; the merchandise features various quotes from the video and generally features the pink and blue unicorns, although Charlie appears occasionally, and is sold in several forms including t-shirts, pins, coffee mugs, and bandannas.

Sequels, spinoffs, and parodies

Five sequels have been released: "Charlie the Unicorn 2", "Charlie the Unicorn 3", "Charlie the Unicorn 4", "Charlie the Unicorn: The Grand Finale ", and "Charlie the Unicorn: The Grand Finale " released in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2019, and 2020 respectively. On 23 February 2016, Film Cow released a video called "Charlie the Unicorn: The Grand Finale Kickstarter" in which it was announced that there was a thirty minute finale planned. On 24 February, it was announced in a Live Stream of Charlie the Unicorn that if enough money for the finale was raised, then Aubrey Plaza would be hired to voice all of the characters. Steele released the first part of the "Grand Finale" on YouTube on October 10, 2019, expecting to follow it up with five more parts. The second part was released on June 15, 2020.
The cast of Charlie the Unicorn also appeared on May 23, 2008, in the music video for Weezer's single "Pork and Beans". The music video was directed by Mathew Cullen of the video production company Motion Theory and features many internet phenomena, including Charlie and the blue and pink unicorns. The character of Charlie first appears in a sequence parodying the G.I. Joe public service announcements starring animated versions of the band as children, where the character Gung-Ho of the G.I. Joe franchise appears as their mentor and notably has a tattoo of Charlie on his chest. All three unicorns appear at the end alongside the band and various other phenomena.
On November 22, 2008, as a feature of the YouTube Live streamed event, the cast of Charlie the Unicorn were featured in a short film directed by creator Jason Steele featuring YouTube Live colliding with real life, causing several various memes to come to life, namely Rick Astley making a comeback and the world's weather conditions being altered in favor of raining chocolate. The short sequence was promoted with a forty-three-second video depicting Charlie and the two unicorns attempting to defuse a bomb before being attacked by a large group of seagulls; the short had no connection whatsoever to the video it was promoting other than advertising purposes.
On March 1, 2009, creator Jason Steele released a video to accompany Hot Topic's Charlie the Unicorn merchandising line titled Charlie the Unicorn and the Tomb of Horrors; the video follows Charlie and the two unicorns scaling an ancient chamber inhabited by "The Weasel," a shamanist weasel who has attempted to call upon forces of evil that laid waste to the world ten thousand years prior.
The video "Charlie the Unicorn at Playlist Live" was released on the 28th of March, 2013.
Steele also produced a parody series consisting of four shorts and titled "Charlie teh Unicron". "Charlie teh Unicron" is based around "what the Charlie the Unicorn series would be like if it was written by random internet people".
Another parody, "Charlie the Yannicorn" was made in 2013. That same year, during the Detective Heart of America: The Final Freedom Kickstarter, another parody "Charlie the Unitective Heart of America" was released, featuring Heart of America as Charlie. Although not released on FilmCow's main channel, it can be found on a playlist.
Multiple livestreams featuring Charlie answering questions, telling jokes, and just generally talking to the viewers were conducted on the FilmCow YouTube channel as part of a promotion for the finale Kickstarter in early 2016. As of December 2017, only "Charlie the Unicorn's LIVE Oscars Spectacular!" - a stream which ran at the same time as the 88th Academy Awards - has been made publicly available since the original streams were conducted.
A game titled "Charlie the Unicorn Dating Simulator" and a storybook titled "Charlie the Unicorn: Lost in Dream Space" were released by Steele in 2016. According to Steele, the storybook is "an illustrated side-adventure that takes place a little while after the end of Charlie the Unicorn 2".