About

Charlie the Unicorn is an animated web series created by Jason Steele, founder of the online video company FilmCow.^[5] The series revolves around the adventures of a unicorn named Charlie and his two mischievous unicorn friends.

Origin

On November 26th, 2005, Steele uploaded an animation titled "Charlie the Unicorn"^[7] to Newgrounds^[2] under the username Typequeen^[6], where it has gathered 2,392,000 views and 3,000 comments as of February 28th, 2016. In the video, two unicorns persuade their unicorn friend Charlie to take a trip to a place called "Candy Mountain,"^[8] where he is knocked unconscious and subsequently awakens to discover his kidney has been stolen (shown below). On January 10th, 2008, Steele's production company FilmCow reuploaded the video to YouTube^[9] under the username SecretAgentBob,^[4] where it has gathered 26,503,000 views and 38,000 comments as of February 28th, 2016.

Spread

On April 14th, 2008, FilmCow uploaded a sequel titled "Charlie the Unicorn 2" to YouTube,^[12] where it has gathered 45,175,000 views and 94,000 comments as of February 28th, 2016.^[11] In the video, Charlie and friends go to deliver an amulet to the Banana King (shown below, left). On April 15th, 2008, FilmCow reuploaded the video to Newgrounds,^[13] where it has gathered 716,000 views and 2,000 comments as of February 28th, 2016. On April 6th, 2009, FilmCow uploaded a third entry in the series titled "Charlie the Unicorn 3" to YouTube,^[14] where it has gathered 30,332,000 views and 101,000 comments as of February 28th, 2016. In the video, Charlie and friends go underwater to find a snowman (shown below, right). That same day, FilmCow reuploaded the video to Newgrounds,^[15] where it has gathered 656,000 views and 3,000 comments as of February 28th, 2016.

In May 2011, a Facebook page titled "Charlie the Unicorn"^[3] was launched, which has 38,000 likes as of February 28th, 2016. Starting in August that year, an art car inspired by the animated series began appearing at the annual Burning Man festival (shown below, left). On December 28th, 2012, FilmCow uploaded a sequel titled "Charlie the Unicorn 4" to YouTube,^[16] where it has gathered 10,223,000 and 25,000 comments as of February 28th, 2016. In the video, Charlie and friends go to the moon to fight a millipede on the moon (shown below, right). This episode was not uploaded by FilmCow to Newgrounds. On September 18th, 2015, FilmCow uploaded a recap of the entire Charlie the Unicorn series titled "Charlie the Unicorn 1-4: The Series Thus Far" to Youtube,^[17] where it has gathered 501,000 views and 2,000 comments as of February 18th, 2016. This recap was not uploaded by FilmCow to Newgrounds.

On October 10th, 2019, FilmCow uploaded what was presented as the first part of the last episode of the series^[11]. The video, while continuating the shenanigans of the three unicorns, also introduced the character of Nyx along with a more grimdark lore. Several other parts were published in the following years, culminating in the release of the full 40-minutes finale in October 23th, 2021.

Kickstarter

On February 23rd, 2016, FilmCow created a Kickstarter^[1] campaign under the account Jason Steele^[18] to fund a 30-minute finale episode of the Charlie the Unicorn series including a video explaining the kickstarter (shown below). In the video, Charlie and friends and Jason Steele in person discuss the kickstarter for what he called Charlie the Unicorn: The Grand Finale. That same day, the video was reuploaded to Youtube.^[17] The kickstarter was a success, raising $209,247 which is just slightly more than four times its original goal of $50,000 as of March 24th, 2016.

The following day, Jason Steele did a livestream on YouTube for a few hours.^[19] In the livestream Jason Steele has Charlie the Unicorn fully animated and voiced answering questions live along with various random animated effects and 'words of the day' appearing throughout the livestream (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References