Our last post *tear*

Dear Movie Gals Blog Readers,

The time has come that we must say good bye 😔 We know, we know- it is a very sad time but fear not! We have put together a little video that you can all watch! 

This is just a little parting message that we would like to share with you:

The Movie Gals Blog has been a movie review blog that was designed and developed by us- Vanii, Bella, Georgia and Micayla- and focused on a different movie over the course of 5 weeks. Each of us had a set topic (e.g. production design, acting/plot analysis, music/movie soundtrack and costumes) that we would review each movie on, each week. 

In the video above (that will totally be worth your time), you will get to see the following things:
• Us being hella cool
• Bella and Vanii going into ultimate mission mode as they scour the Macquarie Uni planes in search of the many fans of our blog
• Us girls giving you a little insight into what we each did to help create the blog that we know and love
• And once again, just us girls being awesome in general 

When it came to our actual posts, we had a strong, yet flexible structure in place – it made it clear what the movie of the week was, and when during the week we would individually update (that way they were evenly spread across the five weeks). Each of us were on top of our posts, so there was no need to stress in the slightest as the due date approached. Honestly, I don’t think any of us could have asked for a better group to work with. It all ran so smoothly from start to finish that there’s nothing to complain about.

It’s safe to say that as a collective, us four gals got along fabulously. No dead weight; no dramas. Everyone brought something to the table, Micayla with her top-notch organisational skills through putting together the blog and staying on top of the Wiki, Bella with her crazy confidence to pester random strangers and interview them on camera, Vanii with her Microsoft Paint expertise to put together a blog layout, and Georgia with her exceptional talent in editing this video. 

We'd all like to say a huge thank you to you for following us along the way, it really has been an enjoyable experience on our end as well!

Lots of love, 

Vanii, Georgia, Bella and Micayla- aka The Movie Gals xoxo

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast - cultural + costume 

Tale as old as time! One of the o.g. disney films, and my favourite princess as a child. (Ignoring the whole loving a beast thing), Beauty and the Beast was a beautiful story about looking beyond the exterior, and finding the heart of gold within. 

Costume wise, this film is hard to pin-point, as its all hand drawn by the disney artists - see Georgia's post for more info!

However, placing the knowledge that this film is animated aside, the costumes in Beauty and the Beast are some of the most re-created worldwide. The Belle princess gown is part of the original disney princess line, and the merchandise for this dress can be found in nearly every corner of the globe. The Princess gown is a vibrant yellow, with regal features such as the hoop skirt, and that all important tiny waist. Belle's town outfit was always my favourite. It was simple, elegant and screamed, "I'm going to be the princess at the end of this movie". The Beast also has those classic time specific pieces, both in tatters when he is more wild, and regal/handsome when he needs to impress Belle. 

Culturally this film has several motifs we've seen over the past 5 movie reviews. Acceptance. Integration. Beauty beyond the skin. In fact, BATB has all of these pertinent messages, all delivered so young minds are learning a valuable moral story, (again the whole loving your dog to the point of kissing him is being over-looked here). 

The Beast is loved despite his looks and temperament, Belle is accepted by the towns people as being "normal", and the castle is brought back into society again. 

This movie, always gets me to sing along, and gets me in the moos for a long disney marathon. 

well done disney!

And now, our time has come to an end! Hopefully we can still post occasionally, but for now, it's been a pleasure reviewing with you gals, and thanks to all our readers! 

Love Always, 

Bella xx 

Beauty and the Beast Production Design Review

Production design in animation is a unique art form. Disney's Beauty and the Beast, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, takes the environments the story takes place in and uses objects and architecture design in ways live action productions are not able to. Animating a film allows the production design team to create unique spaces and link them to the characters and their story arc. The sets are also in sharp focus, allowing the audience to see every detail. The Beauty and the Beast was also one of the first animated films to have a production design team, which is pretty cool! I find it interesting that maybe production design wasn't considered as important in the past for animated films, maybe, or it was just assumed that the animators would have that as part of their job description?

The animation for the time the film was made is incredible, the quality was great especially when you consider that everything was hand drawn. Knowing that the production design team would have had to coordinate with the animators in order to get the best look possible, and the one the production design team had in mind initially. Both of these teams working together for a common goal is pretty impressive, especially when you remember that this was one of the first animated films to have a production design team in the same way live action films do.


The Beauty and the Beast was also hand-animated, which requires a crazy amount of precision and focus. These teams were working together to make something they could be proud of, and I think that's pretty admirable.

Georgia x

Beauty and The Beast Music/Soundtrack Review

OH.MY.GAWD.MY.HEART.CANNOT.DEAL.WITH.THESE.FEELS!!!!!

Oh Disney, I love you so much….

Beauty and The Beast (1991) is honestly one of my most favourite Disney movies ever (coming in second place to The Little Mermaid) and it can be purely because of the soundtrack which causes me to love this movie so much.

 Although the story line is kinda weird (like a girl falls for a legitimate beast but then again he turns human in the end so I don’t know…. Anyways!) the songs and instrumentals and sound effects are magical – just like you’d expect from a Disney movie!

The soundtrack has a sort of simplicity to it that even though so much hard work went into producing such a soundtrack, the audience doesn’t get swept up into the over baring music and is able to focus on the film and its plot.

In saying that, the vocals and orchestral performances within the film are amazing and really allow the audience to be transferred into a magical, Disney world and really feel like they are living the story along with Belle and The Beast.

I have to admit that every time the track ‘Beauty and The Beast’ plays, I feel tears form in my eyes because it just reminds me of the movie and being a little girl and wanting a fairy-tale story/ending like Belle’s (what I'm assuming is Disney’s goal when creating such movies).

Even though the music portrays the fairy-tale happy ending, it also perfectly works alongside the visuals and emotional themes within the movie.

For example, the opening song of the film ‘Prologue’ flawlessly accompanies the story that is told to set up the film. When the tale turned bad, the faint piano, flute and violin melody grows more forceful and ferocious as it depicts the Prince’s turmoil as well as the use of sound effects to make the scene more lifelike.

This movie is seriously amazing and Disney will always have a special place in my heart…

Now, now amazing readers- it has come to the time where I say goodbye (omg that rhymed) so I would just like to say thank you for reading my annoying opinions on the movies that we have looked at over the last 5 weeks!

This has been really fun and I hope you guys have enjoyed the blog too :)

Ta ta for now,

Micayla