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Cinematic history was made April 30, 2004 with the release of the iconic film: Mean Girls. It’s well written script contains irony, humor and catchy one-liners including “that’s so fetch.” It highlighted early 2000’s fashion and accurately portrayed the high school experience, attracting an audience of all ages. Since its release, the film has grossed over $130 million worldwide and is now considered a cult classic. With its popularity, it’s no surprise that Mean Girls was adapted into a Broadway musical, produced by Lorne Michaels alongside Tina Fey, who plays Ms. Norbury in the original film, which first premiered on Broadway in 2018. The musical had over 800 successful performances until the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down in 2020.
Mean Girls (2024), based on both the Broadway musical and original film, was released in theaters Jan. 12.
The attempt to recreate the musical while simultaneously bringing in aspects from the original film failed and left viewers disappointed.
Wearing high end products and designer brands is something “it girl” Regina George is notorious for. Many viewers noticed that outfits characters wore, especially Regina’s, looked mass produced and cheap. Negative reviews on social media have begun to refer to the film as “Shein Girls.” Shein is a popular, yet controversial, website that sells trendy “fast fashion” clothing that often goes out of style within the same week it’s delivered, for very cheap prices. Clothing from this website often falls apart quickly as it is made out of low quality material. Though singer-songwriter Reneé Rapp did an exceptional job impersonating Regina George’s character, the director’s poor fashion decisions distract the audience from Rapp’s acting skills. Regina George’s character would never be caught wearing the outfits Rapp wears in the film. The film also failed to replicate another main character- Janis Ian’s style, putting her character in bright makeup and flashy pieces when the original character wore strictly black makeup and black or gray attire. The costume choices in the film threw off many true Mean Girls fans.
Producers made the attempt to “modernize” the movie, which had great potential, but was executed very poorly. The modernization of Mean Girls was seen as inaccurate and awkward for viewers to watch. During multiple occasions, the screen would display a stream of TikTok videos to appear as if someone was scrolling through the app. Each time this would occur, it felt very random as if the screen showing the movie got hacked by somebody’s For You page. The film’s usage of actual influencers in these videos makes it even more unrealistic. In reality, Megan Thee Thee Stallion would never upload videos slandering high school girls on social media; she would not even know that these girls exist. It was very clear that integrating social media was supposed to be seen as funny and relatable by younger viewers, but it just made people feel uncomfortable.
Similar to the presence of social media in the film, the songs felt out of place and those who are big fans of the Broadway musical noticed changes in the lyrics. A large portion of viewers had a lot to say about the casting of the main character, Cady Heron, played by Angourie Rice. Though Rice’s acting in the film was fine, numerous viewers complained about the actresses singing. Most of the time the main character of a musical is a good singer. Aside from Rapp’s and Auli’i Cravalho’s [who plays Janis Ian], singing in the movie was mediocre at best.
The film had many familiar references and even cameos from characters in the original film including Lindsey Lohan, who originally plays Cady Heron, but many attempts to replicate the original film were poorly carried out.
Sometimes it’s better to leave the original alone. The announcement of Mean Girls (2024) excited many, but once it was released that excitement quickly turned into disappointment.
