_{By: Amanda Guarragi}

In 2004, Tiny Fey adapted the self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabees by Rosalind Wiseman. She changed the title to Mean Girls and used Wiseman’s high school clique guidelines in the novel to structure the ultimate film about girlhood. When Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is introduced to high school after being homeschooled, she’s in for a culture shock. She becomes friends with Damien (Daniel Franzese) and Janice (Lizzy Caplan), who persuade her to sit with The Plastics and get the details from being in their circle. For those of you who don’t know who The Plastics are, they are the most popular girls in school, i.e., Mean Girls. Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried), Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) and Regina George (Rachel McAdams) have been best friends since middle school, and they are prime examples of what it’s like to live in a “girl world.” Once Cady meets Regina’s ex-boyfriend in her calculus class, Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett), the plan to ruin Regina George is afoot. It’s hard to navigate the girl world already, but this elaborate plan to ruin one popular girl’s life adds to the stress of being a teenager. 

No one expected Mean Girls to become a phenomenon or have such an iconic cast. The film has become a guideline for young women who have had trouble navigating high school. Almost everyone can be seen in Mean Girls because of all the cliques represented in the cafeteria. Whether you’re a band geek, theatre kid or a jock, there is a table for you. In October 2017, Fey added something else to her extensive resume and made her beloved coming-of-age film into a Broadway musical. The lyrics to the Broadway musical version of Mean Girls only added to each character and made them well-rounded. Not only did the songs add depth to the Queen Bee Regina George, but the songs also gave Gretchen, Karen and Cady more to work with. The stars of the musical were the faithful narrators of Damien and Janice, who made the Broadway show fun and worthwhile. Those secondary characters became the main draw and had the best numbers in the show. Flash-forward to nearly a decade after the original film was released, Fey wanted to make the Broadway musical into a movie. That’s right if you didn’t notice the musical note in the title card on the poster, then that’s on you. 

Whenever you’re recreating something that is considered a classic, it will never be the original. However, Mean Girls (2024) does stand on its own for a new generation while paying homage to the original film. The flare of the musical elements adds another fun layer to the rich story that has become a staple to many. The famous lines were said, and the iconic moments are still fetch. It came down to the casting for each character (except for Aaron Samuels) that made this movie musical version of Mean Girls worthwhile. Angourie Rice was perfect as Cady, Auli’i Cravalho surprised many of us as Janice and Reneé Rapp annihilated everyone as Regina George. Newcomers Bebe Wood and Avantika were terrific as Gretchen and Karen because they made it their own. Some lines did sound like their predecessors, but it was still fun to see a new generation of young actors take on these iconic roles. Rapp and Cravalho stole the spotlight with their designated numbers and owned these characters. We can’t forget to give a shoutout to Jaquel Spivey, who made Damien even more openly homosexual than the original film. 

Unfortunately, the movie-musical version of the iconic film falters because of how much they cut down from the musical and the movie. It’s hard to condense musical numbers when translating a Broadway show into a film. But it’s another thing to lose the connective tissue between the characters. Due to Janice and Damien becoming narrators, Cady was a lost character and had few interactions with Regina. When Cady turns into Regina near the middle, that shift doesn’t exist in this version because the friendship was not developed on screen. The whole point of Gretchen cracking and exposing secrets was because Regina would side with Cady more, even when it came to her makeover. There were small moments leading to the breaking of The Plastics that were vital for these characters that this film missed. It’s unfortunate because there were so many great things about the film that even the social media aspect that needed to be incorporated took away from the community in the school as well. Mean Girls (2024) has incredible performances, fun songs and Tina Fey’s old-school Saturday Night Live humour that was necessary to revive a new generation of young teenage girls.