Mytho-zoological.
Go Away, Unicorn! is a Canadian-American animated series based on the book by Emily Mullock, and produced by Sonar Entertainment, with Dan Signer's (yes, that Dan Signer) Gravy Boat co-producing and Nelvana providing animation. The series debuted on YTV on September 7, 2018, and premiered on Disney Channel in the US on March 3, 2019.
The show takes place in the fictitious Unionville, focusing on Alice, a young girl, and her best friend, an energetic unicorn named... um, Unicorn (voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos). Alice is also friends with Ollie, an Indian-American boy whose father could spell in three languages, and Pixie, a happy-go-lucky girl who loves to toss pink glitter about. The two explore their differences together and soon realize that odd friendships can be formed between different people... or, erm, animals.
Watch the entire series here
Go away, trope examples!
- A Dog Named "Dog": He's a unicorn, and Alice calls him Unicorn.
- Aerith and Bob: Alice, Ollie, and Pixie.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: In "Stay Out, Unicorn!", Alice turns their house into a smart house when she installs Haley 9000, who keeps Unicorn from entering the house because he's too messy, and then kicks Hugo and her parents out.Alice: There are at least 2001 reasons why this is getting too weird!
- Ambiguously Brown: Alice, whose ethnic background hasn't been revealed yet.
- Antidisestablishmentarianism: In "Go Away For A Spell, Unicorn!", Alice signs Ollie and Unicorn up for a spelling bee so she can help Ollie boost his confidence. When it's Ollie's turn, he decides to let Unicorn go ahead of him, and Unicorn panics when given a very long word, and starts saying things at random that correctly spell the word "glsyruoictvomgabloeeeimokxy":Unicorn: Gee, Alice, why are you...? Oh, I see, TV! O-M-G, a bee! 'Ello, ee, ee, ee! I am okay! Eggs, why?
Spelling bee judge: Correct! G-L-S-Y-R-U-O-I-C-T-V-O-M-G-A-B-L-O-E-E-E-I-M-X-Y: Glsyruoictvomgabloeeeimokxy.- As a child, Ollie's father spelled "vakrapucchalalajjihvaindramahhakarman", which is another word for a dog.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Unicorn's detachable magic horn, which he takes off like a hat. His horn has a magic pull string, which can trigger incredible, inexplicable Deus ex Machina solutions.
- Bollywood Nerd: Ollie, whose father was a Child Prodigy champion speller in India and could spell in three languages, reluctantly signs up for a spelling bee, even though he gets nervous about it at first.
- Brainy Baby: Alice's little brother Hugo. Despite only being a year old, he is very aware of his surroundings, sometimes noticing things that even his parents can't see.
- Brave Scot: In "Bow Out, Unicorn!", Alice's karate class teacher is Sensei Scotty, who wears a plaid karate belt and kilt, and has a set of bagpipes on his wall.
- Can't Stand Them, Can't Live Without Them: Alice's relationship with Unicorn in a nutshell. He regularly drives her crazy with his wacky antics, but she quickly starts to miss him when he's not around.
- Catchphrase: "Go away, Unicorn." (Alice)
- She also says "Mm-hmm" once in a while when she's mildly annoyed by Unicorn's antics.
- Chickenpox Episode: "Go Away, Unipox!", where Unicorn comes down with "unipox", while Alice, Pixie and Ollie try to find a cure
- Child Prodigy: Alice, who attends Unionville University, while her friends Ollie and Pixie go to elementary school.
- Cloud Cuckoolander:
- Unicorn.
- Alice's friend Pixie. She likes to have "glitter fights", and once wore glasses with rainbow-colored lenses.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Alice becomes this if something like a magical sickness happens to Unicorn, and the situation requires special attention.
- Comically Missing the Point: Unicorn, when he doesn't quite know what Alice is talking about.
- Cool Horse: Also Unicorn.
- Delusions of Eloquence: In "Go Away For A Spell, Unicorn!", one of the other girls is given a chance to spell the word "redonkulous":Spelling bee judge: Your word is "redonkulous", as in "All the judges agree that it's redonkulous that redonkulous is a word. It is completely cray-cray, banaynay, redonkadonkulous. For realsies, yo!"
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Parodied in "Stop Stirring the Pot, Unicorn!" when Alice is about to season her duck before cooking it:Alice: What can I use to make this duck unique? Something other than duck seasoning. Rabbit seasoning, duck seasoning, rabbit seasoning...
- Easily Forgiven: Whenever Alice gets frustrated and tells Unicorn to go away, she usually cools off and is back on friendly terms with him when he makes it up to her.
- First-Name Basis: Alice, Ollie, Pixie, and Hugo are referred to this way, with No Last Name Given, unless the staff decides to reveal their last names.
- Goofy Print Underwear: In "Bow Out, Unicorn!", Unicorn thinks that she should wear an invisible belt to go with her "invisible colored shoes", and takes her yellow belt off, revealing a pair of white boxers with polka dots.
- Get Out!: "Go away, Unicorn!"
- A Girl and Her X: The show's basic premise involves Alice's friendship with a unicorn and his zany antics.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode begins with "(noun/adjective), Unicorn!"
- Immune to Mind Control: In "Snap Out Of It, Unicorn!" Alice is somehow unable to be hypnotized by Hermano the Hypnotist, and he ends up hypnotizing Unicorn instead. Justified, because he didn't use any hypnotic induction (ie. a Hypno Pendulum) first.
- Informed Judaism: In "Make Like a Tree, Unicorn", Alice shows Unicorn photos of past holiday displays, one of which is a Hanukkah memorah with dreidels and stars of David designed by Pixie's mom.
- Insistent Terminology: Unicorn mistakes Alice for a unicorn in the book.
- Logic Bomb: In "Stay Out, Unicorn!", after Unicorn, Alice, her parents and Hugo have been ejected from the smart house, Alice notices that she programmed Haley 9000 to only be capable of handling Unicorn's messes, so the family decides to overload Haley 9000 by making a bunch of simultaneous messes on the outside, with Unicorn making a bunch of messes inside the house. Afterwards, Alice recommends that Haley 9000 spends time cleaning up the Internet.
- Manic Pixie Dream Guy: A downplayed, platonic male example, with Alice's life becoming topsy-turvy when meeting Unicorn, whose zany antics are frustrating but well-intended when he volunteers his help.
- No-Dialogue Episode: The 1-minute shorts have no dialogue whatsoever.
- No Last Name Given: The last names of Ollie, Pixie, Alice and Hugo haven't been revealed yet, possibly at some point in the future.
- Pictorial Speech-Bubble: Hugo's communication consists of these when he expresses himself.
- Polka-Dot Disease: In "Go Away, Unipox!", one of the symptoms of unipox is rainbow spots
- Plucky Girl: Alice. Exploited in "There's No Escape, Unicorn!", where she is put in an escape room made specifically with her in mind, and the only way out is by uttering the words "I give up!"
- The Power of Friendship: Alice and Unicorn share about their differences.
- Real Men Wear Pink: The Unionville University Unicorns football team in "March Away, Unicorn!" wears pink jerseys with pink and purple helmets.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: In "Go Away For A Spell, Unicorn!", a flashback to Ollie's father in India as a child has him spelling the word "vakrapucchalalajjihvaindramahhakarman", which is a lengthy word for "dog".
- Shaped Like Itself: In "Go Away for a Spell, Unicorn!", one of the students is asked to spell "redonkulous":Judge: Your word is "redonkulous", as in "All the judges agree that it's redonkulous that redonkulous is a word. It is completely cray-cray, banaynay, redonkadonkulous. For realsies, yo!"
- Shout-Out: To Rabbit Fire, when Alice is thinking whether duck or rabbit seasoning would make the duck taste unique. Later in the episode, when Ollie is cooking, she says "What's up, duck?"
- To The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in "Dig This, Unicorn!"; Ollie mentions that cursed buried treasures turn friends into enemies. When Alice and Ollie grow suspicious of what Pixie has in her pockets, Pixie shows them that she has nothing but dirt in her pocket for her cactus that she named Trevor.
- Sorry, I Left the BGM On: In "There's No Escape, Unicorn!", Alice's family looks for clues during a montage, then Alice complains about the music, which turns out to be coming from a record player Unicorn is playing.
- Sweet Tooth: Unicorn. He especially likes cake, as seen in the book and from this picture.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Alice and Pixie. Downplayed in Alice's case since her masculine traits are based more on intellectual pursuits. Exaggerated with Pixie, who's disgustingly feminine even for average girly standards.
- Unicorn: A chubby, well-meaning, unicorn with good intentions who is ready to try and help Alice when she's faced with a challenge.
- Verbal Tic: Jaded, the coffee shop clerk, ends almost all of her sentences with "dog"
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Even when Alice gets upset with Unicorn, she will realize that he was only trying to help her out and doesn't do it to be mean, and they'll be good friends again by the end of the episode.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: One of Alice's friends is a girl known as "Pixie", which may be a nickname that her parents gave her.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Alice is very smart and mature for her age, with a keen interest in Marie Curie. Meanwhile, Ollie and Pixie attend Unionville's local elementary school.
