Charlie the Unicorn

Charlie the Unicorn is a popular series of animated videos created by Jason Steele. The titular character begrudgingly accompanies both a pink and a blue unnamed unicorn on adventures. The series takes place in a surreal world where the characters move quickly through dramatically different environments.

There are currently three movies and two shorts created for YouTube Live; Jason has not determined whether or not he will create more.

The Characters
The inhabitants of the series range from normal (fish) to mythological (the unicorns) to completely fanciful (the letter 'Z').
 * Charlie the Unicorn: Charlie is the protagonist of the series, and wants only to be left alone. He is in constant disbelief of what goes on around him, and skeptical of the pink and blue unicorns' adventures, which invariably leave him hurt.


 * Pink and Blue Unicorns: The Pink and Blue Unicorns antagonize Charlie into joining them on surreal adventures. They have magical abilities which allow them to float and time travel using their tongues. The Pink and Blue Unicorns often repeat themselves, and speak with non sequitur.


 * Singing Characters: Each video has a song which is sang by an unnamed character, which explodes into flames at the end of the song.

The Setting
The geography of the Charlie the Unicorn series changes frequently, but always begins in a forested meadow. Locations include underwater, outside of the Banana King's monument, and on a bridge.

Episodes

 * Charlie the Unicorn: The first episode runs nearly five minutes, and introduces the main characters. The pink and blue unicorns convince Charlie to accompany them to "Candy Mountain", to which they've found a map. They visit a magical leopluradon, cross a bridge, and come to Candy Mountain. Letters spelling "Candy Mountain" perform a song, and Charlie is coerced into entering the "Candy Mountain Cave". After getting knocked out and waking up back in the meadow, he notices that his kidney has been stolen.


 * Charlie the Unicorn 2: The second episode runs six minutes. Pink and Blue unicorns interrupt Charlie while he's watching TV in the meadow, and get pulled into a "vortex" which opens in Charlie's back. They emerge with an amulet and convince Charlie to accompany them to deliver the amulet to the Banana King. They visit a giant letter 'Z', ride the "choo-choo shoe" and arrive at the Banana King monument where an animal performs a song imploring Charlie to put a banana in his ear. Charlie, convinced he is the banana king, hovers with the amulet in front of the monument, only to fall to the ground. Charlie wakes up back where he was watching TV and realizes that the Pink and Blue Unicorns robbed him.


 * Charlie the Unicorn 3: The third episode runs nearly six minutes. Charlie is visited by the Pink and Blue unicorns who have emerged from the future. He is forced to join them on an adventure to finish a snowman. The three travel to an identical-appearing future, where Pink and Blue implore Charlie to "be sneaky" and avoid a variety creatures, none of which are apparent to Charlie. They ride a large Duck shaped boat underwater, pass a floating door and various sea creatures, and Charlie is again forced to listen to a song. This time, a horned sea creature sings about the various undersea animals "loving you". A shrimp raps the names of the various sea creatures. Finally, Charlie comes to the snowman only to be knocked out by sleeping gas.He later wakes up to discover that his horn is missing. He looks up and sees the snowman with his horn for a nose and his kidney in the snowman as well.

Reception
On YouTube, the primary outlet for the series, with over 40 million views, Charlie the Unicorn part one has become the 28th most viewed video of all time, the fifteenth most favorited, and the fourth most favorited in the comedy category. The other videos in the series have remained similarly popular in YouTube rankings. The Grammy-winning rock band, Weezer, included Charlie the Unicorn in their video for Pork and Beans, along with other popular Internet memes and viral videos. Popular internet magazine Salon.com also covered the video. . In addition, popular retail outlet Hot Topic currently sells a line of Charlie the Unicorn based clothing