The original Mean Girls was released in 2004 and a new movie by the same name, based on the broadway musical Mean Girls, was released earlier this year (2024). I watched both of these movies for the first time recently and I personally prefer Mean Girls (2024) over Mean Girls (2004).
Mean Girls (2024) is a musical and I think that allowed it to include imagery/express stories that weren’t present in the original movie. An example of this is how many of the times that Regina George sings, everyone else on screen stops moving. This helps to illustrate the hold that Regina has on everyone in the school and how popular she really is. There was also a song, titled “What’s Wrong with Me?”, sung by Gretchen Wieners after Regina just yelled at her. In the song, written by Jeffrey Richmond and Nell Benjamin, Gretchen sings, “You keep me guessing / Mama called me beautiful / Don’t believe her anymore.” Gretchen being able to just burst into song allows viewers an insight into her feelings, towards Regina and in general, that they previously weren’t able to get.
The new movie’s use of social media was also another reason I preferred it. When the original Mean Girls came out in 2004 social media was not what it is today and the inclusion of social media helped to show how the story would be different, while also being kind of fun. After Cady, Regina, Gretchen and Karen perform at the Winter Talent show, and their performance is less than satisfactory, the embarrassing video blows up on social media. The visual of it blowing up on social media included a segment where several famous social media influencers responded to it and commented on it. This was not only a fun little tidbit but also showed how wide scale Regina, and then Cady’s, popularity is. In the original movie, Regina and Cady’s popularity was limited to their school. In the new movie though, that popularity is spread throughout the entire internet because of the use of social media.
Another reason I prefer the newer version of Mean Girls is the use of Damian and Janis in more narrator type of roles. I think this allowed them to be present in the story more, which I thought was good because I really liked their characters. It also allowed for fun scenes where they gave background information or foreshadowing.
While both the older version and newer version of Mean Girls are good, given the choice I would choose to watch the newer version over the older.
