So, why do people hate it so much? I think one of its biggest downfalls was casting. To be clear, Reneé Rapp, who reprised her 2019 Broadway role as Regina George, is exempt from this and was one of the few saving graces of the film.
While the acting was not the best, overall; the singing and dancing, and its timing, was terrible. Many individuals also believed that the casting of Reneé Rapp as Regina George was well thought out with her singing abilities and experience in the acting field, but I disagree.
Sharp, funny and strongest when it stands on its own two perfectly manicured feet, this snappy musical successfully updates the original Mean Girls template for a fresh audience. Content collapsed. The scene-stealing standout is Avantika, playing sweet-natured Plastic dimwit Karen.
This portrayal of teenage girls presents a problematic form of feminism that consists of cacophonous fighting and competition against each other in a way that goes against the overall interests of women.
How is the new Mean Girls compared to the original?
In the first Mean Girls, Cady Heron lives with both of her parents. However, in the remake, Cady has only her mom. Although a minute detail, this change makes all the difference as it moves away from traditional ideals of families and showcases modern families, like the single mother household.
The new film is not a simple remake, but rather, an adaptation of the 2018 Broadway musical. Though both are from comedian Tina Fey, 2024's tuneful, Gen Z rendition of the millennial classic promises, at least in promotional materials, that it “isn't your mother's Mean Girls.” (Mother?! That math doesn't add up.)
Regina is frequently regarded as one of the best villains in teen movie history. In 2019, she was named by The Independent as the "meanest high school film character of all time".
In the new Mean Girls, Janis is openly gay and goes to the Spring Fling with a girl. Janis being openly gay in this film certainly wasn't as taboo as it was only twenty years ago. It was refreshing to see LGBTQIA+ characters such as Janis and Damian be treated more normally.
The original “Mean Girls” has a level of nostalgia that would be extremely difficult to recreate or top. Some of the most memorable lines were cut out of the remake, such as Gretchen's despairing monologue about Brutus and Caesar and Regina's mom's attempts at fitting in with the girls.
Later at the party, Gretchen tells Regina about Cady's crush on Aaron to get her approval. Spitefully, Regina decides to flirt with and manipulate Aaron until he agrees to get back together with her ("Someone Gets Hurt"). Cady sees Aaron kissing Regina and is devastated.
Mean Girls is a pastiche, not a parody. Where parodies makes fun of the subjects they imitate as a means to undermine the original, pastiches make fun with imitation in ways that leave the original unquestioned.
Therefore this movie isn't suitable for children aged under 12 years and is best suited to teenagers and adults. The main messages from Mean Girls are that it's more important to be true to yourself than to try to fit into a group or conform to expectations that aren't right for you.
The movie musical version of Mean Girls—written, like the 2004 movie that spawned it, by Tina Fey, and directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. —is so overworked and garish that it exists on a plane of its own. Everything that made the original picture so sly, funny, and affecting is gone.
The acting isn't all that good, and while it was nice to see some Disney stars taking on more mature and realistic roles, the film didn't feel at all believable, as the entire drama of high school felt way too over- the-top. There isn't much reason for this film to exist, except cash-in on the "Mean Girls" name.
Parents need to know that Mean Girls is a 2004 comedy centered on Cady (Lindsay Lohan), a new girl in a high school dominated by a clique of popular girls. Mature humor includes crude jokes, sexual references, mentions of venereal disease, underage drinking, and comic violence.
Far too often, the lip syncing is off. We know they are obviously not singing while filming, but it's not fun to constantly be reminded of this fact. The stand-out singers are Rapp, who played Regina on Broadway, and Cravalho, the voice of Moana.
Perhaps, ultimately, the popularity of such antiheroes is the ways in which they allow us to confront our own inner-monsters. Regina reminds us that whether hyped up on hormones, struggling to find a sense of self, or just for survival, we've all been a mean girl too.
The original Mean Girls is surgically sharp in its insightfulness. It gets right to the heart of toxic friendships, power struggles, alienation, the push and pull of female friendships, the heartbreaks and joys and absurdities of all of it.
For decades, Jessica Jackson had a secret: Her high-school social life was an inspiration for the hit film “Mean Girls.” Photographs by Paramount/courtesy of Everett Collection and courtesy of subjects.
kind but naïve. Though Cady has a good heart, she has a tendency to succumb to peer pressure. After years of homeschooling, she just wants to be liked by her peers. Her innocence is her downfall, and she lets the “mean girls” take advantage of her naïveté and desperate desire to fit in.
Regina, Karen, Gretchen and Cady are handed drinks by Regina's mom. Cady, seemingly concerned, asks if there's alcohol in it and is told that there isn't. Regina's mom subtly condones underage drinking, replying that, if the girls choose to drink alcohol, she would rather they do it in the house than somewhere else.
Karen seems to be the kindest of the Plastics; she's rarely seen insulting people or belittling others as Gretchen and Regina often do, and she seems to play the part of the "quiet little mouse" who doesn't outwardly contribute much to Regina's dominating meanness in public.
Regina does some awful things in the movie, but she turns to protein bars in an attempt to control her body out of desperation. Her so-called friends manipulate her vulnerabilities for their own gain. This pushes her to disordered eating.
Janis Ian, also referred to as Janis Sarkisian or Janis ʻImiʻike in the musical versions, is a character from the Mean Girls franchise. She is portrayed by Lizzy Caplan in the original 2004 film, Barrett Wilbert Weed in its Broadway musical version and by Auliʻi Cravalho in the musical film.
