Makeover Montage

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    "We'll have you washed and dried
    primped and polished till you glow with pride.
    Trust my recipe for Instant Bride.
    You'll bring honor to us all!"

    —Disney's Mulan

    A.K.A. Torture Session Montage.

    A girl with frizzy hair, pimples, braces and Nerd Glasses is plunked into a chair (maybe even tied down for good measure) in front of a mirror by well-meaning friends and attacked with a flurry of curling irons, combs, hair gel, blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, lipstick, nail polish, and all manner of powders and waxes. Put her under a bright spotlight, like at a Jack Bauer Interrogation, for good measure. Just remember, before you're done, The Glasses Gotta Go. She never exhibits any allergic reactions from the multitude of substances that are put on her, and never stands up for herself, if she doesn't want to have a make over in the first place.

    Voila, She's All Grown Up! Often hypocritically paired with Be Yourself, as the glamorous version the person has never been before is their true self all along, really!

    No real life examples, please; Real Life does not have montages.

    Examples of Makeover Montage include:

    Anime and Manga

    • A rather dark version of this occurs in Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, in which the kidnapped alien band are given a fully automated makeover to make them appear human: their skin is painted, their hair is dyed, their memories are replaced, and they are all fitted with mind control devices.

    Film

    • The Princess Diaries with Anne Hathaway.
    • Sandra Bullock undergoes one for Miss Congeniality. Waxing was involved.
    • Occurs in Memoirs of a Geisha, in both the book and film version.
    • Occurs over a course of a few scenes in Mean Girls with Cady.
    • Andy, played by Anne Hathaway, in The Devil Wears Prada
    • Alyson Hannigan in Date Movie.
    • Another rather creepy variant appears in Mirror Mask, though whether the use of the Carpenters song "Close To You" pushes it into Narm territory is debatable.
    • Rare and elusive all-male version in Encino Man, in which a caveman is miraculously transformed into a goofy 80s teenager by the two guys who found him. Complete with towel turban and bath beads (which, admittedly, the caveman ate).
    • Parodied in Not Another Teen Movie, in which the makeover strictly consists of removing Janie's glasses and letting her hair out of its ponytail.
    • Happens multiple times in a row in the 2007 St Trinian's movie.
    • Fern gets a new look and a new name in Jaw Breaker to keep her silent about Liz's murder.
    • Baby doesn't exactly get a make-over but her clothes get skimpier and sexier as her dance lessons progress.

    Live-Action TV

    • Every makeover show ever made has a version of this.
    • That's So Raven has a rare example of Raven doing this for a guy.
    • Queer Eye For The Straight Guy
    • The How I Met Your Mother episode "Game Night" has one for the creation of Barney.
    • Suggested by Abed in Community episode Physical Education when the group wants to get him to impress a girl.
    • Parodied in the iCarly episode iKiss, where they have a parody of typical teenage girl movie, including a makeover-scene. Considering the main audience of the show, this move was pretty ballsy.

    Theater

    • The song "Rainbow High" in The Musical Evita is essentially one of these.

    Video Games

    Web Comics

    • Deliberately avoided in Gunnerkrigg Court, when the girls go to get haircuts in Chapter 15. The comic skips straight to the finished haircut and Red's reaction, with the narrator mentioning in passing that the skipped scene "would have been a very amusing haircut montage."
    • Eerie Cuties during the "slumber party" had Layla and other girls try a surprise makeover session for Brooke temporarily girl-ified Ace. Of course, this being EC, everything was turned upside down several more times in process, and in the end Layla got her makeover first anyway (in part because the resident succubus heeded her "make girls pretty" instinct and could not wait), Ace didn't exactly complain at the result, and they forgot about Brooke altogether.

    Web Originals

    Western Animation

    • Hey Arnold!: Helga does this to herself because she's sick of people forgetting she's a girl. The episode ends with her realizing why she always avoids this girly stuff—it's stupid.
    • Over the Hedge has the other animals do this to Stella the Skunk.
    • Parodied in the penultimate episode of Clone High, in which several characters undergo this, to the accompaniment of a song consisting only of the word "makeover" repeated seven times as seen here.

    Cleopatra: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
    Cleopatra/Joanne of Arc: Makeover!/Suicide!

    • The Simpsons parodies "Rainbow High" in its 'Evita Episode'
    • Magnificently spoofed in South Park: an episode spoofing Queer Eye for the Straight Guy features two makeover montages—the first one is pulled out of Queer Eye, and the second happens after The Reveal that the guys from Queer Eye are actually crab people. The boys must be made over into crab people as well and Hilarity Ensues.
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