The original “Mean Girls“ could never be beat. The iconic lines, the attitude and the aesthetic created a cultural phenomenon and a movie that’s constantly being referenced twenty years later. A core memory of mine is watching that movie for the first time with one of my friends and being excited to get to high school after seeing it because I wanted to have the friendships the girls formed by the end of the film. It was truly iconic!
I loved the movie so much that when it was adapted for Broadway, I wanted to see it immediately. Being from New York, Broadway is accessible for me, so I saw the musical shortly after its debut with two close friends who also enjoyed the film. The costumes and vocals were truly mesmerizing — the play had upbeat music that you could truly feel as a member of the audience and vocals that gave everyone chills. So, I was quite excited to watch the musical made into a film for the anniversary.
Generally, I’m not a fan of these adaptations and remakes because I feel they lack originality and take away from the initial film, so I had some bias going into the musical remake. I personally felt that this movie was not marketed properly: people expected an adaptation of the original film, rather than the Broadway musical. I felt that Renee Rapp’s vocals were great, and I am a huge fan of her music outside of the film. But her vocals and Avantika Vandanapu’s portrayal of Karen Smith were essentially the only positives of the film. I felt that the acting didn’t provide the same attitude as the movie or the musical. The film would’ve done better if it was simply a recording of the musical, like Disney did for “Hamilton.” By attempting a musical movie, too much was going on, and I felt that the singing felt random and the acting felt forced. For instance, in the iconic Santa scene, when Regina tells Gretchen to “stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen,” the sassy demeanor and mean girl energy Regina was supposed to give felt underdone. In general, I found much of the acting to be monotone. In terms of the singing, the vocals were overall better than the acting, but because the film employed performers who are better actors than singers for a musical film, I felt that some of the vocals were lost in what could’ve been a more vocally-accurate depiction of the Broadway performance.
I also felt that “Mean Girls“ was already so great by itself that it didn’t need something else added to its franchise. I felt that many, including myself, would’ve enjoyed simply the original movie being released in theaters temporarily, as done with “The Nightmare Before Christmas” last year. Unnecessary additions, especially ones that don’t do well, can actually cause more harm to a franchise than good. For instance, the “Frozen” sequel and Broadway play did not do nearly as well as the original and usually get lost in the conversation when discussing the original film, or simply are viewed in a negative light. Unfortunately, while I believe this movie is overly hated in the media, I think it ultimately hurt the iconic “Mean Girls” franchise.
