The new “Mean Girls” Movie, released Jan. 12 of this year, has faced a lot of controversy. While most say that the “classic” Mean Girls lines were well incorporated into the new musical adaptation, the changes from the original movie have been prevalent to watchers of the new version. Whether it was updated for contemporary sensitivities or to acknowledge the fact that two decades have passed since the last movie was released, the new updated version disappointed many classic fans.
Original parts of the movie, such as the bullying take place on three-place-landlines is changed to now take place solely on social media, and the more insensitive comments concerning race, ableism, and pedophilia have been noticeably removed from the plot of the new movie.
This movie, without a doubt, is more “woke” in the sense that even aspects of the original character Janis’s queer identity is not seen as a thing to hide, but to show openly.
While this year’s version of “Mean Girls” is a new rendition of what most consider the classic clique story, it was not advertised as a musical. Whether this was for the benefit of the ticket sales to not advertise it this way, or because they could not cast true musical theater people for the roles is unknown. In my opinion, they should have advertised it as a Musical in order to direct it at the audience who would receive it better. The “Mean Girls” Broadway rendition has been widely praised and performed throughout U.S. stages, and even adapted for high school.
The halfway attempt to turn the new movie in a musical of sorts was a mix between a musical and a movie that should have and could have honored the original movies charm as a non-musical or preserved the Broadway versions incredible music for every character, rather than half-heartedly casting non-singers and taking away essential songs. As the iconic bully Regina George once said, “Gretchen, stop trying to make *fetch* happen. It’s not going to happen!”, in the sense that the new adaption of the classic mean girls isn’t so… fetch.
