Good Times Montage

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Come on sugar, let the good times roll

A sequence in which it is shown that, while time is passing, our characters are enjoying themselves and having fun with each other. Opposite of the Sad Times Montage.

This is sometimes used as the very last scene of a Clip Show series finale.

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

Examples of Good Times Montage include:


Anime and Manga


Film -- Animated

  • The opening sequence of Shrek 2.
  • A Goofy Movie: Goofy and Max share one after the former eases up and latter lightens up.
  • In The Incredibles, after Bob Parr defeats the first Omnidroid and finds himself with a lot of money and no need to work a job, a montage shows him spending quality time with his family and living the good life, interspersed with scenes of him exercising to get back in shape. It's set to a rousing swing tune, named "Life's Incredible Again" on the soundtrack album.
  • Up has one of these showing the course of Carl and Ellie's marriage. It gradually transforms into a Sad Times Montage, as we see Ellie's miscarriage and her eventual illness and death.
  • Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has one after the FLDSMDFR gets going, with the town being renovated and people requesting (and receiving) various foods. It is played with, though, as one shot shows Brent watching worriedly as the old Baby Brent Sardines billboard is covered with a new ad for Flint Lockwood Napkins.
  • In Prince of Egypt when Moses is welcomed into the Midian tribe and becomes a member of their community, even marrying Tzipporah.
  • Treasure Planet: Jim's time aboard the RLS Legacy where he slowly begins to mature from a sullen youth into a responsible adult and develops a father-son relationship with John Silver.


Film -- Live Action

  • The Royal Tenenbaums - Royal takes Chas's kids around town set to "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" by Paul Simon.
  • The remake of Dawn of the Dead, in which the survivors start enjoying themselves at long last, while Richard Cheese's remake of Down with the Sickness plays in the background.
  • The Quiet Earth: Crossed with Shopping Montage as Zac enjoys everything that the abandoned world has to offer: for example, playing "trains" with real trains while dressed in the most expensive suit he could steal and saluting mannequin passengers with a Cuban cigar.
  • Trainspotting features a montage in which Renton, Spud and Sickboy start using heroin again, set to the fantastically sleazy Nightclubbing by Iggy Pop. Also during this montage, Tommy becomes an addict, Sickboy rambles on about Bond Girls, Renton gives a long list of all the drugs they took, and all of them commit various crimes to fund their habit- including strolling nonchalantly into a nursing home and stealing a TV. The "Good Times" end when Allison's baby daughter dies of neglect.
There's another montage when Renton moves to London and gets a job as a property letting agent, in which he enjoys the trickery of real estate, earning money and actually saving it, and remaining in contact with his girlfriend.
  • Ghostbusters presents one of these when the ghostbusting business is doing well.
  • Chasing Amy has a scene like this, showing the growing friendship between Holden and Alyssa. It even has cake!
  • The midpoint of Scarface has one of these set to the tune of "Push it to the Limit" after Tony has taken over the Miami drug trade.
  • In Plunkett and Macleane the film shows a string of successful heists and robberys being pulled off by the titular pair in an awesome montage. All while their notoriety rises.
  • In Scotland, PA, interspersed with the scenes of business booming at MacBeth's restaurant, there are scenes of the MacBeths enjoying the wealth from the business.
  • Brilliantly parodied in Wet Hot American Summer when the counselors go into town and within about an hour progress from innocent teen fun to living in a crack house and shooting themselves up with heroin.
  • Used in Ferris Bueller's Day Off to show Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane having fun in various Chicago institutions.
  • The Naked Gun contains a montage of Frank and Jane frolicking happily through various settings (including a showing of Platoon!). She promptly hangs a lampshade, saying "I can't believe we managed all this in one afternoon!"

Live Action TV

  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Late in the series finale, there appears such a montage involving Chief O'Brien and Dr. Bashir.
  • The Torchwood episode "Ghost Machine" has a alien device that recreates Rhys and Gwen's past happy moments.
  • Supernatural's fifth season finale used one composed of various clips from the series, as Sam remembered all the time he and Dean spent together. This is ultimately what enables him to overpower Lucifer and seal him back in the pit.
  • Eastbound and Down has one of these whenever Kenny does coke with Clegg.
  • Misfits brings out one of these when the team are given the job of sorting donated clothes. Naturally, they use this opportunity to bugger around as much as possible, either flinging themselves into the pile of clothing, pushing each other into it, exchanging jokes, or just trying on the clothes.
    • The Christmas special also features this when the Misfits decide to sell their mainly Useless Superpowers, and enjoy much happier lives because of it: Alisha, no longer hampered by her lust-inducing touch, enjoys genuinely intimate sex with Simon; Nathan cosies up with Marnie; Kelly joyfully tosses her council-worker's uniform in the bin; Curtis and Nikki gloat over the tickets they've bought with the money. However, the montage takes a very dark turn when the False Jesus is seen in the Power Dealer's office, grinning as he hands over a huge stack of his followers' money in exchange for Alisha's power... which is immediately put to the worst possible use.
  • The series finale of Regenesis ends on one of these, possibly combined with Really Dead Montage. Guess we'll never know for sure, since it was the end of the series.


Comics

  • Done in one Sunday Calvin and Hobbes strip, which consisted of a montage of the titular duo engaging in various summer fun activities.


Video Games

  • Fate/stay night: Subverted oh-so-very-much in a climactic moment near the end of the Heaven's Feel route of the visual novel. Music plays and we get a montage of happy moments between Saber and Shirou just after he's killed her to free her from the corruption of being Saber Alter on the way to stopping Angra Mainyu. God damn it, Nasu.
  • Scarface the World Is Yours has a scene over the opening credits of Tony driving through Miami set to peppy music that comes across as an "It's Great To Be Alive" montage.
  • Tropico 3 has El Presidente partying with the people of his/her country, if you complete a mission successfully. Definitely shows off the glamour of the Caribbean.


Web Animation

  • Jeff and Donkey Kong have one during episode 6 of Bowser's Kingdom, but Donkey Kong keeps asking Jeff to eat bananas, annoying Jeff greatly.


Webcomics


Western Animation

  • Subverted in The Emperors New School when Malina tries to have a Good Times Montage (she even lampshades it, see the quote above) with Doyle the Manatee, he just cannot be bothered to partake most of the activities she tries.
  • In Arthur, when DW and Binky think they're dying, they do things together like rake leaves, carve pumpkins, and get in a Snowball Fight. When it ends, DW say "It's amazing all the things you can do in one day".
  • SpongeBob SquarePants

"F is for frolicking through all the flowers, U is for ukulele... N is for nose picking, sharing gum, and sand licking here with my best buddy!"
"F is for fire that burns down the whole town, U is for uranium... bombs, N is for no survivors..."