No. 339 - Charlie the Unicorn

This morning my daughter asked me to type "Charlie the Unicorn" into YouTube. I did and then watched with her as three unicorns talked to each other in some type of low budget animated video. I saw my son recently watching this as well and asked where they heard about it. They said that their cousin showed it to them "about a year ago." They were not sure why they recently became interested in it.

I learned that Charlie the Unicorn is a Flash animated short film and viral video directed, produced, animated, and written by Jason Steele of independent film company FilmCow. Wikipedia says that the film follows the life of Charlie, a lethargic unicorn, and two other unicorns who bring him on an allegedly magical adventure to the mythical "Candy Mountain." Although Charlie is eternally skeptical throughout the majority of the trip, he is nevertheless surprised when the mountain turns out to be real once they arrive. After a musical number from the mountain's marquee letters, he is forced to enter the Candy Mountain Candy Cave, where his kidney is stolen, much to his chagrin.

Where his kidney is stolen much to his chagrin? Huh?

Time Magazine wrote in 2009 that:

Charlie the Unicorn proves that something doesn't have to make any sense at all to earn a cultlike following. The animated adventure centers on a group of unicorns venturing to Candy Mountain — "the land of sweets and joy, and joyness" — through the guide of a liopleurodon.

The video was a viral hit, accumulating 50 million views and gaining worldwide praise. A merchandising line was also produced featuring the video's characters and famed quotations, as well as two sequels, Charlie the Unicorn 2 and Charlie the Unicorn 3, released in 2008 and 2009, respectively,