The remake looks awful. The amount of sexualization of females is beyond sickening. There were raunchy scenes in the original but it wasn't every other scene. I also liked that the girls looked real in different forms, whereas this one they look so plastic, and always caked on with 20 pounds of make-up. The original was a masterpiece compared to this one. I also can't stand when they turn characters preferences, as someone who dates the same gender, it's just so pathetic. You had a great guy who was already into that and he was epic but now he's watered down to pointless because the girl who was bullied in the original movie was just turned into what she was scorned for in the first place instead of proving that they were wrong she's just a joke. Can't wait for the next remake where she's suddenly changed into bein
The new movie did remove the racism, homophobia, and pedophilic relationships, but I think including those things shows how truly fucked up high school is. These things are uncomfortable because they are a horrible reality. What I loved about the original is how much it had in common with my actual high school experience filled with mean mean people and that teachers can be predators.
@@notannie4798 yes, but this is MEAN girls. It’s the whole point of the original movie, that we all have the capability to be mean and we should take accountability to be better.
@@notannie4798 yeah I agree it’s a movie of the musical so it can do whatever it wants. And if people enjoy it then all the power to them. I just have my opinion about how I think it would be interesting if maybe there were more harsh realities of mean kids in the movie that the characters can stand up against.
Weird that they made Janis not a mean girl… Janis is arguably one of the meanest (if not the meanest) girls in the film. But it’s so insidious that the viewer doesn’t catch on until toward the end of the film or after watching the film a second time.
True! She used an innocent girl who knew nothing and manipulated her to get revenge but then played victim when she could no longer use her the way she wanted.
@@theluckienurseyes, It's clear Janis was jealous that she was excluded. It's mentioned that she choreographed the talent show dance so of course she once wanted to be a popular bitch but settled as a gothy bitch
Janis was a mean girl, yes, but she didnt have the power nor popularity anyone else had in the film to expeess that. She was mocked for being queer for nearly her whole highschool life by her own friend, and that would make me want to gain revenge too. Janis wasnt the meanest girl. It was regina, and thats the whole point of the movie. Janis finds cady who HAS that opportunity of popularity within her, realises that she can use her way to find revenge, and takes it. Thats because she KNOWS she doesnt have any other way of getting revenge, because of the circumstances of her being 'unpopular' and the rumours going about her. Unlike Janis, Cady actually has the capacity of being popular. (idk if thats the right word...) Janis so misunderstood... if i was completely being harrassed for being 'queer' for all throughout highschool i would want to gain revenge too. I know this isnt the point of ur comment, and i completely agree, they shouldve been a notch meaner. Just had to let this out, its been on my mind for awhile
The original didn’t just become a cult classic because it had funny jokes, talented performers, and quotable lines, it was also real. The cruelty and vindictiveness felt authentic to the average teenage experience. Basing it on Queen Bees and Wannabes, an actual book on female adolescent social psychology, is what helped it land for so many. I think in their hunt to avoid anything that could offend anyone they lost the best part of the movie: how well in captures just how offensive and MEAN high school girls are to one another
I agree, but I think some of the references they removed was to avoid copy-right, because they did not pay the author of queen-bees and wanna bees any royalties for the musical. This film is based on the musical so I will assume they aren't planning on paying the author any royalties either, and if you know, some of the social dynamics, animal kingdom references etc that are now being deemed as 'problematic' is actually her work, so I'm thinking they're probably avoiding it due to the musical lawsuit and royalties dispute.
Um, the racism was making a joke about Asian girls saying the n-word and it wasn't even what they actually said when translated, but they thought it would be so funny to sling a racial slur about black people around for laughs anyway. There were hardly any black people in the movie, but they still said a racial slur about black people in it for giggles. Notice they didn't do that to any other race. Why didn't they translate the Asians saying a racial slur against Asians?.....Yeah.
I'm a person of color. I never really viewed the original identification of race or ethnic based social groups in a school racists. In fact when i went to high school those literally existed. And the meaness did exist. There in fact were teachers in the news that had affairs with students. I'm sure it still happens.
I started high school ten years after the movie came out, and even then, a lot of friend groups were sort of racially segregated. It wasn't done the exact same way as Mean Girls, probably because I live in Texas and not Illinois, but we had certain friend groups that were all Asian, all black, all Hispanic, or all white. You'd see tables with kids of the same race sitting together at lunch. Some friend groups were racially diverse, but some were not.
The OG film will forever be flawless and fetch. It is bec it is grounded in reality. The issues they have in the film are real life issues we all deal with even after school. Even at work there is politics going on. It is a silly chick flick but in reality you learn life lessons from it. My most fave line is by Cady. When you get bit by a snake, you have to suck out all the poison, that’s what I had to do, suck all the poison out of my life.
Same but I went to a school where there was a lot of black people, even more than the white kids (I’m speaking as a black person here.) Most of us did stick together and so did most of the white kids, including the Hispanic kids. However it was a minority where in smaller groups it was diverse. Heck, even my friend group was pretty diverse my freshman year, then it ended up being all of us black kids together until Covid. That is what the original got right and this movie came out years before I even got to high school.
@@ningmushii i think a diverse friends group can happen when you guys have been classmates from elementary upto HS. But since in US most kids change schools, when you join new friends group most likely you will join your same race or join a group with the same interest. The whole thing should not be seen as racist bec it is what it is.
@@stanbalo I get you, I didn’t even let the thought of that being racist cross my mind because I was thinking how I and probably other people felt. To me at least, sometimes it’s more comforting to be with people of the same race as you as they might understand you and you naturally feel safer around them. Also the reason I think my friend group freshman year was diverse (although majority of us were black) was the fact that my other friends who weren’t black were friends from middle school and elementary school.
This kind of reminds me why the new Gossip Girl didn't work. The people writing for Gen Z (in this instance a Gen X'er) don't understand how they're mean or if they even have the capacity for meanness - outside of what they've experienced, mostly in the form of "cancelling someone".
@@queenbee3561 I know. I don't think I've really observed gen z enough to comment. But alpha is working it's way up to the surface, so watch out I tell ya!
Exactly. But it's funny because the people that cry about wanting change (Gen Z) and cry about wanting to delete segregation (Gen Z) are usually the same people that complain when remakes, reboots, and re-imaginings suck because producers changed what made originals good to PLEASE Gen Z
Is it just me or is the fashion in the new movie well...ugly? Every outfit from the original has a sophisticated but feminine quality whereas the new looks seem very costumey.
@@catarinasousa1905They def were! The costume designer in the movie made deliberate choices to make it look like clothes people were wearing and could wear in the 2000s. Like the Christmas Talent show outfits for example were really just tank tops with fur and skirts with red tape which theoretically the plastics could've made themselves. The newer versions of their Santa outfits and you could say with every outfit look too polished and that makes it visually lose the feeling of the world being more real. Also I know I've seen people saying that they're making these movies to cater to the new generation but it's funny cause I've seen so little of the new generation actually like the changes. Its more about what old people in Hollywood think that the new generation would like and everything gets all weird and uncanny
I hated every outfit Regina wore and she’s supposed to be like. The best dressed one. They had her in parachute pants in every scene and most of her outfits didn’t suit her body shape. I understand they were trying to make the fashion more gen z but it was so ugly. Also no one but cady ever wore heels.
The costumes in this film, unfortunately, are a pretty good reflection of Gen Z fashion. I work in school cafeterias and I see a lot of young girls every day. Clothes that we wouldn't have been caught dead in at 16 are actually pretty chic in our current Girl World. Right now, we are looking at the dorkiest, most unstylish group of teens to ever walk the planet. It's not entirely their fault. Fast fashion has devolved and metastasized to the point where everything appears looks cheap and ugly, even at the very highest level. I'm not kidding. A lot of what you see in the windows of Gucci and Chanel look like expensive versions of stuff at Kmart.
@@palomageorge clothes don’t have to look cheap, especially now when thriftting is all the rage. I feel the og put more thought into the outfits besides just trendy. Each character expressed more of their traits through their outfits. The only character in this movie with thought into their outfit is Janis, whose clothes are the only ones to not look cheap. I also think of course what really teenagers wear look cheap and not something you would wear because you’re an adult (idk it feels like you’re hating on teen girls clothes at your school even though you’re a teacher and that’s weird).
Honestly a lot of the listed 'positive' is what leads to the remake being toothless. Trying to be too PC doesn't work with Mean Girls. Getting rid of the teacher preying on college students, of the racial and homophobic prejudices... I mean, yes, it's good, but this is not reality (?). It shouldn't have been taken out of the movie, just handled differently. These things still happen nowadays, pretending they don't is stupid.
right. how can ppl know the movie is trying to say these aspects are bad if they arent in the movie? showcasing doesnt mean its being glamorized. context matters but ppl these days pretend to be so dense so they can get offended leading to dishonest PC shit
I do think they needed to update it somewhat, racism and homophobia now do not look the same they did 20 years ago and if the film wanted to protray the real, ugly high school, they shouldve taken that into consideration. But yeah, removing it entirely was definitely a mistake.
@@Anna-pe6hbbut it’s still prevalent and we don’t know they things haven’t changed in the midwestern states, it could be argued that it’s still as backward in parts of Michigan now as it was then, the Midwest is predominantly white and conservative the commentary probably hasn’t changed as much as we want to believe it has
this is a really good take. idk if you guys watched no hard feelings with jennifer lawrence but they leaned into the raunchy 2000’s comedy where i think she said something homophobic/racist/along those lines and the subsequent series of events was that she was “cancelled” by the teens (in-movie) and kicked out of the house. feel like that was a self-aware way to address how 2000s comedy would be intercepted so different today. mean girls’ decision to stray from that feels like either lazy writing or a lack of trust that the audience would relate to the material, which goes to show how disconnected the writers must have been
I think Janis being rumored to be queer but turning out to be straight was a good thing that was in the original movie. It taught how it wasn't good to make assumptions about people and their sexuality. I feel like modern writers missed the point.
Yeah; when I found out in the original movie that she wasn’t gay, I was surprised because of the common stereotypes associated with being gay It felt more unique than just making both Janice and Damian gay best friends
One of the listed positives was skipping the health teacher predating on young girls - but why? This is still a real problem, and should have been called out as it was in the original, where the teacher in question was charged in the end if i remember correctly
It's also a story thing, they investigate Ms Norberry BECAUSE the allegations against Coach Carr were correct. Without that's, it's just a rumor in a very tame gossip book about HS girls
right. i didnt have an issue with this in the first film either cuz they weren't glamorizing it. they were just showing how much dirt the burn book did or didnt have on ppl. also, it was ironic cuz the gym teacher was teaching shitty sex ed just to have him messing with him a minor
I totally agree. Excluding problematic behavior doesn't make it go away, and likely discourages dialogue that could help prevent it. It was good to see the principal condemn the actions of the gym teacher, and see how the gym teacher manipulated the girls into thinking they were special/lucky/mature. That's what child predators do, and (pre-/)teens should be aware of that manipulation.
Not making the kids mean enough contradicts the literal goal of the movie. It's sad they were too scared to push it because Fey is funniest when she's cruel (all of 30 Rock).
I think softening is a general problem of modern films and modern villains. You can be not racist, or homophobic or sexist and still *be mean* Or heck let the mean bad people be all of those things, after all they are mean and bad. Just don’t try to make ex. Sexist jokes and pass it off like “haha this is super funny, and normal and ok to say and this is a character you are supposed to like. Nothing wrong with this”
Lest be honest. This Regina could not roast anybody. Becouse how she looks. This Regina is the kind of girl that the og Regina George would tear appart with one word.😂
The movie tried so hard not to use slurs and I didn’t graduate too long ago and I remember using slurs was normal especially people who were in the “popular” crowd
It definitely was it showed how girls can get katty for male attention, homophobia, race politics and more lol. I just feel like they are framing high school as a musical wonderland and I’m pretty sure if they sat every character down and ask how their high school life was they’d all give different answers good or bad lol. That’s why a lot of these new shows and shit are failing cause they don’t wanna show shit we actually deal with.
The lunch table scene wasnt about Tina Fey being racist. It was a reference to Rosalind Wiseman's book (and basis of the movie) "Queen bees and Wannabes". In the book, she went to middle schools and high schools across America to speak to young girls about their social circles. One of the projects she asked the girls to do was to make a map of the hallways and lunchrooms based on cliques. The "Unfriendly Black Hotties", "Cool Asian Nerds", etc., came from what the girls themselves drew on those maps. READ THE SOURCE MATERIAL PEOPLE!!! 🤣
That's exactly why I'm thinking they removed those scenes, because for the musical they did not give Wiseman ANY royalties, and she's taking them to court for it. Since this movie is based on the musical, I'm guessing they aren't planning on giving her any royalties for it either, in that case they're removing elements used from her book and passing it off as being more sensitive and less 'problematic'.
I actually liked that Janice wasn’t actually queer in the original. Not bc it wasn’t ok if she was. But bc it highlighted what “ tomboys” deal with. Just bc she isn’t girly doesn’t mean she’s gay. Making her gay breaks that.
yup the original Janice was a mean girl who refused to be sex object girly and that character absolutely captured how slut and lesbo rumors are so cruel and weaponized in school.
I didn't the first one they didn't have the courage to put a lesbian character they hint all the way that she is but in the end they bailed I love also that is not a big deal
@@levadamusic they were fine making Damien gay… The entire point of the character was the idea that because Janice wasn’t your “typical “ girl that oh she must be a lesbian. Making her one takes away the lesson and just makes it oh the mean girls are nasty to a lesbian. Which isn’t deep since they were mean to everyone.
@@levadamusic I think a cooler twist would've been if regina was a closeted lesbian, and acted more similarly to the first movie, to show internalized homophobia, and had more of a character arc at the end accepting herself and being a overall better person
I’m glad someone made a video abt this. Reginas just rude without any of the charm that makes her popularity believable. Gretchen, Karen, Janis, and even cady have a lot of their mean /popular girl moments removed. They spend the whole movie looking, sad and being insulted and never actually do anything mean. Even little things like Karen saying Gretchen is annoying and Gretchen saying she can’t help it that she’s popular are gone.
i agree. literally the whole reason regina and janis are mean is because regina started that remor. but in this movie she's literally lesbian too so it doesn't really work out the way it;s supposed to.
I know it's going to sound bad for me to say that I don't like that Janis is a lesbian in the musical, but please listen, there's a joke in the movie where Regina actually misunderstood the word Lebanese and when she asked Janis what she was, she heard lesbian instead of Lebanese. And in my opinion it was a great joke in the movie apart from that the bullying towards Janis feel different because everything is based on something that isn't even true.
This was always my interpretation of Janis as well. I loved the Lebanese/ lesbian joke! Im queer myself, and I never saw her as a lesbian. There is nothing in the original that indicated that she was to me. Every time Kevin flirted with her in the original, she responded like a girl who doesn't know how to recieve male attention, but not because she's gay, but because everyone think she is, so no one flirts with her normally, until Kevin comes along.
Exactly what I was coming to say!!! And, even without that joke, it shows how self absorbed/bad friend Regina was that being upset for being blown off means Janis “must be in love with her”.
@@Whackadoo1 In the early 2000s Janis style would be considered as lesbian looking since she wasn’t feminine in style. Nowadays women are wearing all types of styles and sometimes you know sometimes you don’t lol.
@asia8001 For sure, her emo/ rocker style would have made her suspicious. I went to school with her girl back in high school (late 2000s) and when she dyed her hair jet black and cut it short, people started calling her gay and bi, even though she was super boy crazy. Kids were/are stupid lol
The thing is, the original Mean Girls became the sensation it became because it was, in many ways, ahead of its time. While conversations around internalized misogyny were already happening in 2004, they weren't as mainstream back then as they are now, so Mean Girls became something of a gift for teenage girls growing up around that time to re-examine their place in the High School pecking order (I was in High School when it came out and I had these conversations with some of my female friends)... plus, it was a lot of people's introduction to Tina Fey and her style of writing (this was before 30 Rock, so unless you watched SNL regularly, you may have not been familiar with Tina Fey)... This new version, outside of being a musical and updating it to current technology and sensibilities, isn't really doing ahything new with what its deeper themes, and is even doing what too much of media these days tries to do to its detriment: make everything aspirational, and therefore have less bite. Plus, I don't really think the musical is all that good (I think Heathers was a much better mean-girl-film-to-musical adaptation, though even that one is kind of hampered by a too-sappy ending)...
I guess the marketing department was aware that theatre fans will recognize Renee Rapp since she was a replacement for Regina George in the Broadway production, but that knowledge is considered to be a bit niche to a lot of people.
@@DeliciaDulceThis recent trend of stealth musicals is something I don’t understand and frankly don’t like. If Hollywood is making musicals, they should have to put their money where their mouth is and sell them as such. If they don’t think they’ll sell, then they shouldn’t make them at all. But that’s just my two cents.
The original was the inside reality of what most of us experience in high school situations or\and problems. The new version is a softer, delicate, very sensitive happy films with cute songs so people won’t get offended. It’s all BS
one of the biggest changes that makes sense is the whole janis being a lesbian rumor being changed to her burning something. in 2004 being gay was still controversial. nowadays, if you are a homophobe you're an outsider (and rightfully so). its not strange anymore. also 2024 regina seems like she would have a gay male friend in her circle that she'd demean as well (and no, i dont mean as one o the plastics but a gay friend in her social circles or like her glam squad or something lol)
the og was bullshit too. cuz no one gave a fuck about the message, people just ended up wanting to emulate and be like the main characters lol it was always bullshit and people spending their time on it should stop. myself included. like if it's so bad maybe let's just shut up about it and NOT blow it up on the internet
I despise the sanitizing of problematic content. We are all problematic in real life and the best way to grow out of it is to expose it and call out hiw ridiculous and absurd it is. This is the charm if the original. From what I am hearing this new version buries its head in the sand and thriws glitter spaghetti in your face hoping you'll be amused. Also the Walmart ad that reunited much of the OG cast proved the correct move was a sequel.
Yes, thank you! Part of the problem with this film is the are too nice. The aggressive nature of these characters shows how every high schooler can become a mean girl.
Regina was really mean in this new one tho, and she was more overt about it than in the old one. I still like the old one better but it seems like a lot of people are just saying that without actually watching the new one
@@bobsburgers8497 I agree, that's why I argue Regina was well portrayed. However, characters like Cady and her transformation into a plastic felt weaker due to the lack of contrast when interacting with her parents (Mom in this case without her Dad) and without the Lebanese joke, the context behind how a toxic rumor can hurt someone much less like a betrayal.
@@BatAmerica well Cady was also the weakest actor in this, I’m pretty sure she got the role bc she’s a nepo baby, but I hear what you’re saying. And I agree, it’s just that I went in not taking this movie too seriously and had a great time. So if you don’t care much about the message of this movie then it’ll be fun
Exactly! plus, wasn’t the whole point was that she was Lebanese & Regina misunderstood what she meant & went around saying she was Lesbian? That’s why I liked the fact that she was actually straight because she didn’t fit the “typical girl” look.
Are you talking about the original, because I'm pretty sure she was mocked. That is why she was an "unpopular mean girl," bitter and fixated on revenge. Whether or not the rumors were true, she was still ostracized based on her perceived sexuality. What is the joke?
at the end of the orginal she tells kevin g that shes lebanese, showing that when she told regina she was lebanese when they were friends, regina thought she said lesbain and started the rumor@@Usedfood004
Also because Janice questioned Regina about their friendship in middle school. Plus, in the original movie Janis ended up dating the guy from the mathletes.
I understand the joke, but I definitely don't see her being queer as the issue. The problem is that Janice was bullied for it whether it was true or not.
@@Aster_Riskit literally kills the whole joke that's the problem with her actually being queer lmao and why does alt girl always equate to being queer now. i was a total Janis in high school, didn't make me a lesbian
That's one of many readings of it. Maybe Regina wasn't lying and is just being homophobic. Maybe Regina liked Janice back but pushed her away. My favorite head cannon is that the situation is reversed. Regina liked Janice, and Janice said she wasn't comfortable going to her pool party, but Regina pulled an "actually you're not invited".
I think a lot of this could have been fixed if they left Apex Predator as a duet between Janice and Cady rather than a simple narration by Damien and Janice. In the original Broadway production, Apex Predator shows Cady becoming intoxicated by the plastics, and questioning everything Janice said about her. It also shows the plastics being outwardly mean to other girls, and shows their power. I think the song worked better in the original show.
Apex predator was one of the only good songs because it was an "argument" or "warning" between Janis and Cady. Without that, you just have two decent songs, both played by a defanged mean girl, and a bunch of trash surrounding it. How did they make such a poor decision? -.-
I saw the movie and although I liked it, I felt like Cady as the main character didn't really get the moment to shine. It felt like Janis had so much more momentum. Also I hated the song Janis sings during the gym apology. It felt icky. Janis calling everyone hypocritical but she herself being hypocritical and the one who started the awful plan but feeling self justified. But the film decided to highlight that moment. Regina getting hit by a bus and Cady their argument right before the accident also felt sidelined in favor of Janis's song/moment.
I honestly think a lot of it was to give Janice more screen time as she was the more well established actress with a better voice. Not to be ‘mean’ but Angourie Rice was kind of a bad person to play such a critical role in the movie. Didn’t have the voice to back up how big of a character she was supposed to play. None of the songs she sung were done well. They were all just meh. And I love Renee Rapp and I don’t think much of this is her fault but the mixing on a lot of the villain songs she sang was just plain bad. They Slowed down songs for some weird reason too.
The addition of social media really created a punching down feeling towards Regina. Her comeuppance felt disproportional to her actions as a result. Granted, outing someone is terrible, but praying on someone's disordered eating is also terrible, and Janis getting vindicated and not being similarly punished by the narrative kind of sucks. Sure, her 2004 counterpart didn't either, but her gym number suggested that she got what she wanted with no real consequences. That "being me" number's message did not match the situation: if anything, it treated her like a hero, which is probably the worst message that can come out of this movie
I've always seen that song as her being manipulative of the rest of the girls to get them on her side, just like the in the og movie she changes her speech last minute because she was mad and wanted to hurt Cady and Regina, and she says that she did all these mean things to Regina, and 'i can't help it that I have a huge lesbian crush on you' and gets cheered on by the girls. That scene in the movie was Janis' final manipulation act, and that's how I saw that song in the musical, but the movie musical (lol) made it all seem so honest and cool that even I forgot Janis had done bad things. Auli'i played me, I fell for it, I was with the other girls chanting for her 😂
strong agree. I couldn't put my finger on it but "i rather be me" felt so unearned. Janis was also wrong in the entire situation (clearly to a much lesser extent than Regina but still...) and then she goes singing this anthem like she wasn't also being manipulative and mean to people for her own benefit and with no apologies about it either
Janice isn’t meant to be a lesbian/queer, she’s Lebanese. The whole plot in the OG film is driven by young Regina’s misunderstanding of Janice’s background (confusing Lebanese for lesbianism) which then isolates Janice and fuels her revenge mission. This is identified at the end when Kevin G asks Janice if she’s Puerto Rican and she replies “Lebanese.” Why would you take that away?!
Nope your version is a fantasy version. Regina is very much aware of Lesbian and Lebanese. She made a rumor that Janis like girls aka lesbian. It is not as if she misheard Janis saying Lebanese as lesbian..nothing happened like this in tje movie. The addition of Lebanese at the end was just a nice word play by Tina Fey. The one who made this fake news spread is just reaching.
@@stanbalo exactly, i rewatched the original movie earlier today and there's literally nothing about regina mixing up lebanese and lesbian. don't know why people are so confidently spreading misinfo
@@froggnt8621 i understand the whole funny word play with lesbian lebanese and people making it a joke for clout but to somewhat make it like that is what really happened is just off. If you did not watch the movie and just bandwagoning then fine, but i guess most have seen the movie and still they agree with this idea. Just goes to show how people think
@@stanbaloit’s not outrightly said. More of an implication than something that actually happened. It’s subtle that’s why most people didn’t see it. Regina wasn’t exactly the brightest bulb to be fair since she believed everything Cady told her. When she gained weight Cady told her that’s how the bars work. That isn’t how things work so the genius of mean girls was that everything was subtle. They showed more than explained what was happening.
@@vanessagowora Most people don't see it because it never happens. It's not even hinted at. Just because you want that joke to be in the movie so bad doesn't make it so. It's important to realize that the only reason that Regina thinks that Janis is a lesbian is mere speculation so that when we see Regina get what she deserves at the end, we're rooting for it and not feeling bad for someone who mistakenly got 2 words confused. Think of it this way... Why start up a petition to prove someone is a lesbian if (in your mind) its already a fact? Even Karen wouldn't do something that dumb. Thanks to Stanbalo for sticking up for the truth. There's too much misinformation spread all over the internet these days, and we need to do what we can to stop it.
The og mean girls truly showed how teens thought with all the stereotyping, body shaming and homophobia it had as teens have the maturity level of well…teens! Realistically the casting of skinny hot girls being the “mean girls” is that they had all the right in highschool to judge others has they were “flawless” but this new casting ironically leaves other students tons of amo for other students to make fun of them back.
I think the original is so good! Knowing the dynamic of girl politics and shows how power corrupts and that people and women can be really mean. It’s what makes it so relatable and why every teenager can watch and identify with it.
Regina was mean ASF, I LOVED how passive aggressive she was, it felt like how bullies are irl. She did the mind games and I felt like she was genuinely mean. But I also like how NORMAL she was. Because mean girls, and especially how I imagine Regina, aren't super villains. Especially in highschool, she is fundamentally a spoiled chill person who is very good at mind games and has trust issues. I enjoyed her portrayal because bullies in school are like that from my experience.
I personally would’ve preferred if the reboot kept the racial dynamics but with more self awareness, there’s many studies and research that discuss why black and Asian kids still sit amongst each other in lunch rooms in white predominantly grade schools due to the racism they experience both overt and subtly, they could’ve explored that with some of the main characters like with Janis, Karen and Gretchen, Regina’s meanness especially towards Janis could’ve reflective through both racist and homophobic undertones and highlight white feminism tactics , Gretchen could’ve been a young girl of color where her character arc is used as a backdrop to explore how POC kids/teens in school internalize the racism they deal with in school and suffer from model minority myth/tokenism mentalities
White feminism? Wtf actually is “white feminism” even lol? And I don’t think Regina ever had any relation to “feminism” anyway? But otherwise I agree and think those are really good points
@@alexbennet4195there’s a line in both the musical and the movie adaption to the musical where cady and Regina are having a heart to heart moment and Regina said something along the lines that if she was a man she wouldn’t be cell mean but seen as something more positive, that alone gives off white feminist vibes instantly
Yes, this! I always felt the original used casual racism like Janis’s lunchroom map to show the characters’ narrow worldview; it played to that naïveté/ignorance when Karen asked Cady, “If you’re from Africa, why are you white?” Racism hasn’t ended in reality-including young people being caught in it through their own ignorance before their world expands and they learn and grow from their mistakes-so it shouldn’t be erased in storytelling set in a contemporary world, and I think the ideas you presented would be an excellent way to, as you said, keep the racial dynamics while being self-aware of them!
Mean girls worked because the girls were mean!! Sorry to break it to people but the original was funny because of the rude comments. All of this “scared to be canceled” stuff doesn’t work for remakes so let’s just make original content.
They were still mean in the new one, they called Janice a pyro-les bc she is gay and started a fire lmao. In this new one Regina is still, very much, mean
@@bobsburgers8497 really? Everyone keeps saying they were watered down. I still think we should leave the remakes alone only because it’ll never be as good or funny. The original Mean Girls was just so good. Lindsey Lohan was iconic lol
@@kennethiavail1719 people are forgetting it’s only partially a remake. What it is is the movie adaptation of the musical. Like go watch it for yourself, imo it got better as it went on. I went to see it with my bff, and it was like pure fun. Even the “bad” parts are fun, it’s one of those movies imo. People should stop taking it seriously and stop expecting it to be exactly like the original (which I love btw). Once they do that they can genuinely enjoy it. But anything that has elements of an older property is gonna get hate. Just go watch it for yourself and see what you think.
ok but Regina making fun of Janice for being lesbian was hilarious because Janice later says she's "Lebanese". Showing the dumb blondness of Regina because she heard "Lebanese" and thought "lesbian". I get why they let it out, but still pretty funny.
I don’t think it’s dumb blondness but classic Middle School stupidity: Mistaking Lebanese for lesbian is exactly what an ignorant catty 13 year old girl would do.
Regina never got those-2 words confused. There is no scene that shows this or even hints at this. Janis tells Kevin G that she's Lebanese at the end because he only dates women of color and thought that she was Puerto Rican. There is your joke. Regina clearly states why she thinks Janis is a lesbian, and it's because she got a boyfriend in middle school, and Janis became insanely jealous. Had Regina thought that Janis told her straight out that she was a lesbian, that would've been the first words out of her mouth in her speech about Janis to Cady. But she never mentions it at all. And why? Because it never happened. The dumb blondness that you want to laugh at so bad comes from Karen, and she never got those-2 words confused either.
I think Hollywood gives my generation way too much credit for being open minded, like it’s not this fairytale where the plus sized girl or the queer student or person of color is welcomed with opened arms high school hasn’t changed much
homophobia and racism in schools is way less prevalent than it was in 2004 still. its not a fairytale but nobody in hs screamed the f slur or n word at me and i graduated in the early 2020s. y’all are mad that they weren’t being “racist” or homophobic in the new film like what???
Yea. Like yes it’s not ‘socially acceptable’ anymore but that doesn’t stop mean teenagers from being well mean teenagers. Like people in my school absolutely would make fun of people for being overweight, having darker skin, having lighter skin, and especially being lgbtq. Liek literally, people in my school still use ‘gay’ as an insult, and call trans people crazy and all types of things, and sexism is rampant. And although a lot of it is from boys, so much of it is from girls, the boys are just more open about it, girls will gossip about it. My friends do it about people who they don’t like and comment about their appearance all the time (makes me really uncomfortable actually but I don’t say it) so yea it is accurate. It’s jsut more people are realising that it’s not good anymore and I feel like you might see more people standing up to it, but they will be made fun of so.
@@askiavance3281 i mean you said it yourself, it's not a fairytale. gay/black kids usually aren't outright abused anymore but racism and homophobia totally still exist and glossing over that does nothing to draw attention to the subtle ways real 'mean girls' ostracise people they see as 'other'.
I would so rather be referred to as an Unfriendly Black Hottie than a Woke Senior in HS. The original Mean Girls was a critique of the functions of HS at the time it came out. As a minority growing up in predominantly white areas it felt very accurate to me. People were classified by what others perceived at different and that's just how it was which is why I enjoyed the original so much because it called that out.
How weird that just putting a race becomes racism right away. Racism is when one race is better compared to the other etc. Describing does not equate to racism. Cool Asians, Unfriendly black hotties.. is there a connotation that they are inferior?!?!
@@stanbalo I guess it kinda brings race into the conversation when it has nothing to do with being cool/unfriendly, it is kinda objectifying, like how often ignorant (often white) students will not see other POC as anything besides their race, like it’s not just cool kids, it’s cool Asians. But the original movie kinda pointing that out.
I like how they said the reason for the reboot is that they wanted to make it modern, but the original movie is modern??? Lol it’s probably too soon for a reboot.
its interesting how a movie 20 years old is still modern isnt it? like the main difference is the phones and social media. thats it. even the clothes are still fuckin cute
What's funny is that in 2004 20 years ago from then would have been 1984...and most people my age then would have said that 80s is old back in the 2000s. Now 2000s 20 years later is considered modern to many. That is wild. The 2000s peaked everything to the point it still feels current.
For me, I hated how they changed Mr. Duvall's line in the scene where all the girls are going crazy afyer finding burn book. In the orginal, Mr. Duvall says "Hell, NO! I didn't leave the South side for this!! In this remake, musical thing he says "I didn't go to graduate school for this." That is just not funny. The first line makes me laugh every time cause it cracks me up that Mr. Duval has probably dealt with some hard individuals, and some dangerous situations, but it's these young teenage girls who are pushing him to his limit . 🤣🤣🤣
Yes! I mean they already created the perfect script for those scenes so to do it the 2nd time, what u will come up will be 2nd best. It is the same with that Cady as in KD Lang. What is funny with KD Lang? His nephew Anfernee is way way better fit.
I find Hollywood's attempt at cashing in on my generation's sense of nostalgia ironic considering why the original Mean Girls was made in the first place.
As a big fan of Broadway version I think it’s a mix of few different problems. First one being the script. Janis and Damian being our guides and narrators in the show worked so well and it made sense. On top of that, Cady is still the main character in the Broadway version while here she’s kind a pushed to the side in favor of Regina. The second problem is casting and budget. While I enjoy Angorie Rice and Chris Briney, they were not right choices for this. Sure, in some way they are both names you would recognize faster than Auli’i and Jaquel for example, but they don’t have the likeness of the original characters, and they don’t elevate them in any way possible. Money that was spent on them should’ve gone towards less known but better vocally trained actors (yes having Aaron sing is crucial to the story) and maybe costumes. Third and final problem is music. It’s very clear they didn’t know how to write the other numbers in and for it to make sense, which is why we are left with half of the songs being cut and the ones that are left being stripped down to different and poorer mixes. The one and final thought that I had is: it’s such a shame that Hollywood keeps making the same mistakes of trying to simplify musicals for the audience because Mean Girls on Broadway was the perfect example of how you can elevate the original script with new stories, changes and still have a fun time. This I’m afraid turned out to be something between the original and the musical, the project that failed to find its voice.
I agree with everything you said! I felt to truly get a full story the movie musical should’ve been longer. It also felt as though Tina had nothing new to add for how bullying and teenage girl dynamics work in the modern age. While her thoughts were new in 2004 they also seem flat compared to now. It seems she was more worried about fix the old mistakes rather than using them as a jumping off point for further introspection.
The movie is called Mean Girls for a reason!! This new version is so watered down to cater to the sensitivities of the new generation! It should be called somewhat nice girls in the suburbs. The new Regina George is about as interesting as watching paint dry. Should have just let the original alone!! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it 💯💯 just like they should’ve left The Color Purple alone!!
This is why Mean Girls doesn’t work in the modern era because it’s a product of its time. Bullying, meanness, all of it looks different now. Sure there are still echos of prior generations, but overall the teen landscape has changed. And older generations don’t know how to capture the modern form of meanness. A brand new story needs to be created with younger directors, or at least someone who has thorough knowledge of how modern teens are
@@tarag7292 What do you mean “what?” They made an excellent musical for The Color Purple. It deserves a movie. The OP threw in a complaint about The Color Purple getting a new movie. The new movie is the musical on screen, which isn’t bad.
@@sethzarandona2325 What do you mean it's coming out? The musical version is already out in movie theaters. I saw it and didn't like it. And they didn't advertise that it was a musical, either. Musicals need to be kept in Broadway, not movie theaters.
Sarah Z did a great video about why the musical kind of doesn’t work and I encourage everyone to watch it. She does a pretty good job critiquing it and makes it clear that she isn’t talking down to people who like the musical. Which is always important when talking about any kind of entertainment.
A big reason the songs aren't furthering the plot or giving more character development is because they shortened and cut a lot of the songs that did this from the Broadway stage musical.
The major joke about Janis in the original is that she is Lebanese, Regina thought Lebanese and lesbian were the same thing, so Janis must, of course, be in love with her. That is the origin of the whole story…Janis actually being queer takes the fun out of it.
@@froggnt8621nope it’s from the movie. Of course they don’t outrightly say it but if you read under the lines you get of understand. There was never a moment in mean girls that I thought Janis was gay or attracted to girls.
I’d like to say this is one of the easier musicals to adapt to a movie since it’s basically modern day, so I knew it could be possible. The execution…..well I like some of the songs in the musical, and they add a new take to certain scenes, especially ‘world burn’. But I think no matter what when you try to do modern remakes of other projects it feels like a diet version at best. And the fact that they even remixed the songs from the musical for the movie was a disappointment. I just think it’s hard to do a fresh take of mean girls anymore. So I’m not surprised this wasn’t a hit
The fact that Mean Girls was there to portray the ''darker'' sides of high school and Teenage Girls in particular with the dark humor and iconic style was totally missed in the remake. I mean this movie was inspired by a guide for parents with high school kids, a nonfiction book. With fantasy or sci-fi movies I kind of get it that it could work to make a new version of it but in general, I really hate the trend of taking iconic movies and making remakes of them because they often miss the exact point of the movie that was made for a completely different decade
i’m all for being politically correct but sometimes they just take it too far with those clean, marvel, cgi, white lightning looking movie remakes that are not funny or memorable at all because everything has to please everyone - not every movie has to spread a political message or some kind of awareness- movies can just be fun and silly sometimes or atleast i believe that
Can't wait to hear all the folks who are gonna be like Regina George isn't a villain! She's a misunderstood icon!!! 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 already saw so much of that before the broadway version existed. The continuing wearing down of RG's bite is going to make that get even worse I fear.
She wasn't that mean. She was more so manipulative and two-faced. The people she bullied the most openly were her own friends and Janice (and it didn't seem like she said bad things to Janice's face- at least not since they were kids). We didn't see her going around attacking other students, she kept most of her hate in a book or said it amongst her friends and was secretive about the mean shit she said of other people. Most of the characters didn't find out about what she really thought of them until the climax of the movie when she printed her own burn book. The mean things she says, she doesn't say directly to people's faces. And I think a truly mean person, a true bully would tell you you were shit to your face or directly to you. Regina George would tell you that you're so cool to your face, then write how she thinks you suck in her diary. It's not nice, but it's more polite than we've seen from other mean girl characters in other movies. Besides, I think a lot of people are guilty of doing similar behavior to the people we don't like. She wasn't a trustworthy person- no doubt, and I bet her hate came more from her own insecurities than anything else (I think people for the most part liked her in the beginning at school and I think she wanted them to like her. And you don't get people to like you by being mean to them. They didn't think ill of Regina except for Janice- who was her former friend)- but we've had teen dramas and movies with much nastier mean girls- some committing literal murder. They make Regina George look a saint in comparison cause I don't remember her saying a bad word to somebody's face, unless you were her friend and I think Gretchen got the most of that.
Putting in the n-word for laughs and giggles and acting like Asians girls said it when they didn't but they translated it to that for fun was racist. They certainly didn't have the Asians saying a racial slur against Asians, only black people. Why? They had more Asians in the movie than black people, but a racist joke is made at the expense of black people anyway?
@@queenmoreau2098 Oh yeah that scene totally pissed me off. To this day people still think those viet girls said a slur even though they were just calling each other something more equivalent to the word bitch. So glad they fixed that and gave her an ACTUAL vietnamese name.
The high school cliques being segregated is so accurate though, they didn't really need to take it out, also that division is supposed to be emphasized so the ending where everyone is friends with everyone makes more sense
The one thing I was diappointed about was how they took out the "oh my god I love your bracelet where'd you get it?" line and then the callback with "that is the ugliest effing skirt I've ever seen" later in the movie. It was such a simple way to showcase how Regina will compliment you to your face and then insult you behind your back, and it would add next to no runtime
The new Color Purple hid the fact that it was a musical, too. Just be upfront. Audiences don't like feeling deceived. Anyway, I don't know another channel that loves Mean Girls more than The Take, so I sympathize with you guys 😅. This is how it feels when modern Hollywood disappoints with their adaptations. One of the usual suspects can be a lack of "edge" or "bite" because the current climate is so sensitive now. When you preach for this from tropes and attitudes that might be considered "toxic" today, this is the result, so be careful what you wish for. Mean Girls 2004 would make fun of Mean Girls 2024.
@@queenmoreau2098Because they didn't advertise it as a musical. People watch the trailers, and if they like it, they'll go see it. But the people who promoted this movie didn't mention in their trailers that it was a musical. They were being intentionally deceptive. The Take literally mentioned this. It's not the audience job to do research. It's production company's job to be honest about trailers without revealing the big plot points and the climax.
Oh my god the line Mean Girls 2004 would make fun of -mean- girls 2024 was so real. I can hear it already. “I love your outfit, it’s so cute!” “Aww, thank you” “…” “That is the ugliest effing outfit I’ve ever seen.”
No one was asking for a Mean Girls musical remake was the problem. I understand that the Broadway musical was successful, but there was no need to remake it.
@@kamsismith Well, not exactly? A remake is they changed everything and start totally fresh. And the new mean girls doesn’t even follow the OG mean girls, it s followed the musical, again, big difference.
Even if it followed the musical, it's still the same story and I still see it as a remake. There have been plenty of remakes where they followed the same story as the original but didn't do anything different with it as it’s copied and pasted.
To be honest, I am happy this movie failed!!! I remember seeing the original when I was 13-years old and it changed my life. I became an instant Lacey Chabert fan and for 20-years my friends and I always quoted the original when something was funny. Then suddenly they remake the movie and put a musical spin on something and now I feel like the old 40-year old man being like "Those damn kids!!" Which kinda explains why when they remade Willy Wonka in 2005, my parents who saw the original in 1971 thought it was stupid and creepy that Tim Burton made the new one. Now we have another one 20-years later. I was 19 then. I have a late birthday. I didnt bother to see this one and instead watched the original and laughed even harder!!!...Everything is so PC today and they dont want to hurt other peoples feelings. That's the point of MEAN GIRLS!!! They supposed to be MEAN AND NASTY AND EVIL!!!!..."Mom, can you come pick me up. Im scared!!"
You pretty much nailed my general feelings after seeing it yesterday: basically that it was good, but it lacked the bite of the original, and I don't think these versions of the characters could be as iconic to Gen Z/Alpha as the originals were to us Millennials. I appreciated more diversity in casting & the update for social media definitely made it feel more relevant to today, but if both versions were on Netflix, I'd choose the original.
I agree with you. I really enjoyed the new film and if it was the only version available to watch I would be happy to watch it but I would prefer the original.
Janis being openly queer in this movie doesn't make sense. In the old one it was just an assumption and rumor Regina made but this one it turns out to be true which defeats the whole purpose of why Janis had beefed with Regina in the first place. In the old movie, the real reason Janis had beef with Regina was because Regina told everyone she was queer when she wasn't, and making her actually queer in the new movie defeats almost the entire plot because the entire reason all these events happen is because Janis wants her 8th grade revenge
As a teen, schools different now. They watered down the offensiveness, because today, calling someone a slur or being openly racist would 100% not be accepted. The old Regina would just sit in detention all day while being side eyed by other students. And believe me, Auli’i’s Janis would def still be an outcast today, while she is not as obviously different from the OG Janis, she is still different enough to get bullied. People are more of the same today, if they kept the original vibe it would just not work.
People complaining that the original film was racist are are so full of themselves. The film mocked everyone at some point. And ultimately drove home the point that making fun of people who are different won't get you anywhere. This is why we can't have comedy films anymore, because everyone is offended by everything nowadays.
All the things about the original that “is wrong today” was also “wrong” then. We got that and it was sort of the point… don’t mean to disturb this era of ‘enlightenment’.
This is the best criticism of the new musical film I’ve seen. Still an entertaining movie with nostalgia, new and old funny moments, plus stand out performances. But the character development and bite is missing.
By cutting out racism, homophobia and pedophilia, they also cut out the uncomfortable truth about real life, which can be brutal, not sweet and colorful.
I honestly can agree with this. Although, I think you forgot to mention how they somehow made Karen dumber and not mean. Yes, in the first film she was dumb but she was also mean. You got that from the four way call and how fake she was when talking to Gretchen VS Regina. In the new one she was just super dumb and nice. She didn't understand what went on around her and she forgave Cady? There was no level of fakeness, depth, or meanness like the first. It felt like a very sad downgrade, in my opinion.
8:04 This is a problem with the new movie specifically that was included in the stage show, they cut a lot of Gretchen's arc from the musical which was one of my biggest issues. "Whats wrong with me" was supposed to be much more emphasized to get into Gretchens characterization, not to mention they just skipped Gretchen and Karens versrs in "Meet the Plastics". In the new movie they're just forgettable.
Last year's Walmart ads makes me think that they should do a sequel to the original that has the OG cast but is more about adult mean girls, the ones that we encounter in our working and professional lives. Maybe there's a new teacher/parent who just takes over the school.
Should have just titled the remake: Kinda Mean Girls... Who Quickly Learn to Better Themselves - The Musical. Are actual high schools all PC now? Cuz it was twice as harsh in real life as the ORIGINAL Mean Girls was back in the 2000s. Nothing. NO. THING. Will ever replace HEATHERS.
@dd4850 My point is, the original Mean Girls was already tame and pulling punches from it's direct inspiration, and yet real life high school in the aughts was just as unforgiving as the previous generation's films showed us it could be. And so, I'm wondering since the new Mean Girls is even more tame, does it reflect a change in real life? Or, is high school like it was for generations, just shy of the satire in Heathers?
im so sick of modern teen movies, they're so corny and i hate seeing how old people portray social media, the first one is so much more relatable and real
Oh my god, THANK YOU, somebody who understands what my big problem with this version is!!! Like, the fact that they made Janis a lesbian this time around but then proceeded to remove ALL of the homophobia from the movie?! It would’ve been a lot more impactful and we could all see just how horrible Regina is if they weren’t so afraid to show it!! It’s so ridiculous!!!
@@askiavance3281 LMAO why wouldn’t I be? Do you think homophobia is a huge problem in today’s society? If so, you should be willing to show it through your bully characters in a movie all about backstabbing and cruelty. How do you NOT want that??? Villains need to be able to be terrible people in movies again. Enough of this cowardly bs
Not surprised that it would be a sanitized take…The film is called, “Mean Girls.” Show the mean. Glad that I never gave it a chance. Other than that, the depiction of high school cliques in the previous film shouldn’t be considered racist. If anything it was a reflection of that time period. When I was in high school, there were cliques based upon ethnicities or some type of culture.
That's what I thought too. I can't speak for high schools now but when I was it was highly segregated when we ate lunch. I'm sure it's the same, but I have no point of reference to know. Mean girls was funny because it's relatable but I get the feeling they just took teens from 20 years ago and sanded down the rough edges whereas they're probably just as evil, just in a different way.
I just do not get why people thought the movie was needed, we have Mean Girls the movie and we have Mean Girls the Musical, perfect, all we needed..... Mean Girls 2024 is so NOT needed, where are all the new movie concepts and creative ideas...
Them trying to hide the fact that it was a musical only served to piss audiences off more I fear. Many people were tricked into seeing this movie under false pretenses. Like they didn't even put "the musical" in the name so that at least watchers were informed.
@@AlexeBriand2002 the logo just says… Mean Girls? And hardly any of the promotional materials and trailers showcased any songs or singing. They most definitely were hiding it babes
@@AlexeBriand2002 Yeah, great idea since people NEVER read titles or listen to the title of the movie in trailers I don't know what part of "they omitted that it was a musical" that people are not understanding.
OG Mean girls was my go-to movie when I was a kid because i was bullied not physically but socially. And from my experience, i was frenemies with those girls and I was the "karen smith" in the group blindlessy following my clique's leader because of my lack of self-esteem back then. Mean Girls gave me insights and perspective that "girl world" and adolescent girl hood and female relationships were complex, brutal, yet growing. Girl world is just a projection of our society's social and psychological expectations of femininity and young women. And in often "girl world" is just a parallel to adult social politics in the real world. There's always a "Regina" in the every life you go through. But to me, the mean girls i've encountred in my past life serves as an cautionary tale on how to NOT be a leader and how you should not live your life. And when I became "popular or well-liked" I was sure enough that I will not be those girls and be a confident, kind, well-rounded person.
The stereotypes and coach's inappropriate relationship thing was so to the t with a real high school experience though, which is part of what made the movie so real. I don't know if it was just my high school but a lot are indeed super cliquey and the football coach at our school got fired my senior year for having relationships with minors. Just reality lmao
I think the problem is that they didn’t fully commit to making it a musical like if your a fan of the musical you know they didn’t have all the songs . So some interactions were in song and some weren’t so it made it seem like the ones in song didn’t have much detail. Also a lot of the iconic funny lines weren’t there for example “Do you do something fun, let’s go to Taco Bell.
The original film is absolute perfection. I quote it daily, as do my friends and colleagues. It was actually what HS girl world is like. That’s how it actually happens.
@camocamouflage the main characters were white. There were other races, but they weren't shoved down our throats like every movie released after George Floyd.
Part of the problem is stuff they cut from the stage version. I liked the way the stage version delved more into Cady's and Gretchen's minds, but they cut most of these parts.
Totallt agree! The musicial movie was fun and cute and i laughed and enjoyed it. It makes me wanna see the stage show for sure. But i agree, they didnt seem truly mean. The original showed all the depth of truly mean girls. Girls really are covertly mean and the original shows that. Also in the remake cady didnt have a slow turn into mean..she turns mean in one small scene and its drastic. Not realistic. And they cut a lot of the songs so the story felt rushed and shortened. All in all it was still super fun
I enjoyed it! It's not gonna replace the original that is truly iconic, but it gives a sort of extended universe reimagination that is quite entertaining.
The original was weirdly more grounded in reality by having these stereotypes and uncomfortable moments tho. These are things that happen irl. Also, I feel that by downplaying some of the cursing, the scenes fail to convey the proper levels of resentment/disdain the characters are supposed to be feeling. Same with some of the other censoring the remake did. We lose a lot of great/fun storylines and character journeys bc of it.
I have a huge problem with this generations rebooting and everything, they literally take things too serious and makes everything so freaking inclusive that it loses the purpose why it was so well liked in the first place, its so cringeable.
Exactly, we are living with a generation that needs to feel represented at all times. The fact that society is pushing this narcissism is unreal. Get used to it, we live in a world where everyone is different and individual, we can relate to people that do not look like us.
Being inclusive isn’t a bad thing and representing oppressed groups isn’t a bad thing. Nobody said you can’t relate to someone who doesn’t look like you. In the real world, people look and identify in different ways and it’s high-time that media started reflecting that. The problem is that writers just aren’t as good in general as they used to be. Not that they’re inclusive. You can be inclusive and still a good writer. The fact that writing quality isn’t as good nowadays has nothing to do with being inclusive. Also. Wanting to be represented, especially when literally everyone was both straight and white for so long, is not narcissistic. Narcissism is never wanting minorities to be normalized ever.
I think a LOT of people didn't expect this to be a musical. I was working tonight at the cinema of it's release and a bunch of people were walking out 😬
I feel like the biggest issue with it is they completely missed the point of how mean GIRLS are. They made them super masculine, abrupt, none of their mean traits are subtle That is not how mean women are. The original movie captures so well how mean girls are, like how cady meets Regina and thinks she’s really a nice girl at first until she goes behind her back and gets back with aaron. then, cady has to pretend nothing is wrong around regina to get her back in other ways like very little of the fighting is face-to-face, and this new Regina came off very masculine and not soft. The whole point of a mean girl is that you’re feminine and soft on the outside and manipulative and cunning on the inside! also i’m sorry but why was this regina wearing leather jackets and acting like a lesbian 😂 she didn’t have any girly qualities or mannerisms. the entire time she was giving masc they completely missed the mark.
This was the kind of "mean" I experienced in High School even waaay back in the 00's. Never could relate to High School movies with 'cliques' and vicious rivalries. Like, that's how High School "feels" - but the reality looks exactly like this.
I guess the 80's were different. Cliques were the thing back then - even in a Latino dominant environment. There were rockers, punks, cholos/cholas, gang bangers, pot heads, athletes, cheerleaders (usually the mean girls), drama geeks, nerds/academics, ROTC, band, student politics, Fronchies (Mexican (from Mexico) mean girls), and wall flowers, like me, who didn't belong anywhere, except our own little pocket of wall flowers (until i joined the drama geeks). Our head wall flower got along with everyone, so we just basically coasted by, lol😂 I detested high school, btw.
Anything sanitized for the zoomer generation would be unfunny. The reason the original Mean Girls worked so well was because they did not hold back with the jokes.
The irony of censoring it for the Zoomer generation is if Zoomers liked the original already, doesn't that mean they would have been okay with a film just as mean as the original? 🤔 That's the contradiction of trying to appeal to "modern sensibilities" using nostalgia for an older property. It risks losing what made the younger generation like the property in the first place.
It’s not necessarily without the mean, but I think it is without the fun. Regina was so terrible but so entertaining to watch, Regina here is just a jerk.
Want more Mean Girls? Check out our full playlist of all of our Mean Girls videos! ▶ruclips.net/p/PLY8-JHLY9yDOypleHpjR211vZ1_34pnBK
Can they please stop destroying classics, stop remaking things that were well regarded in the past
The remake looks awful. The amount of sexualization of females is beyond sickening. There were raunchy scenes in the original but it wasn't every other scene. I also liked that the girls looked real in different forms, whereas this one they look so plastic, and always caked on with 20 pounds of make-up. The original was a masterpiece compared to this one. I also can't stand when they turn characters preferences, as someone who dates the same gender, it's just so pathetic. You had a great guy who was already into that and he was epic but now he's watered down to pointless because the girl who was bullied in the original movie was just turned into what she was scorned for in the first place instead of proving that they were wrong she's just a joke. Can't wait for the next remake where she's suddenly changed into bein
The remakes is horrendus. They ruined everything. The plus size Regina is by far the worst thing i ever seen.
But, it literally was a copy. They used the same lines. What do you mean ?
The new movie did remove the racism, homophobia, and pedophilic relationships, but I think including those things shows how truly fucked up high school is. These things are uncomfortable because they are a horrible reality. What I loved about the original is how much it had in common with my actual high school experience filled with mean mean people and that teachers can be predators.
It s also nice to have just a cutsy nice movie to watch. If you want to watch something fcked up about highschool, you have Euphoria for example
@@notannie4798OK, do something else then, why riff off of a movie that was about that stuff and then sterilize it?
@@notannie4798 yes, but this is MEAN girls. It’s the whole point of the original movie, that we all have the capability to be mean and we should take accountability to be better.
@@_politefrog_8892 well, it s a remake so of course it is different. And they re still mean in this new movie, Caddy included
@@notannie4798 yeah I agree it’s a movie of the musical so it can do whatever it wants. And if people enjoy it then all the power to them. I just have my opinion about how I think it would be interesting if maybe there were more harsh realities of mean kids in the movie that the characters can stand up against.
Weird that they made Janis not a mean girl… Janis is arguably one of the meanest (if not the meanest) girls in the film. But it’s so insidious that the viewer doesn’t catch on until toward the end of the film or after watching the film a second time.
True! She used an innocent girl who knew nothing and manipulated her to get revenge but then played victim when she could no longer use her the way she wanted.
@@terraguttierez2996 yep! Even in the movie, she admits she’s a mean girl who knows she’s mean and it flew over my head lol
There is a reason she and Regina were best friend right until highschool.
@@theluckienurseyes, It's clear Janis was jealous that she was excluded. It's mentioned that she choreographed the talent show dance so of course she once wanted to be a popular bitch but settled as a gothy bitch
Janis was a mean girl, yes, but she didnt have the power nor popularity anyone else had in the film to expeess that. She was mocked for being queer for nearly her whole highschool life by her own friend, and that would make me want to gain revenge too. Janis wasnt the meanest girl. It was regina, and thats the whole point of the movie. Janis finds cady who HAS that opportunity of popularity within her, realises that she can use her way to find revenge, and takes it. Thats because she KNOWS she doesnt have any other way of getting revenge, because of the circumstances of her being 'unpopular' and the rumours going about her. Unlike Janis, Cady actually has the capacity of being popular. (idk if thats the right word...) Janis so misunderstood... if i was completely being harrassed for being 'queer' for all throughout highschool i would want to gain revenge too. I know this isnt the point of ur comment, and i completely agree, they shouldve been a notch meaner. Just had to let this out, its been on my mind for awhile
The original didn’t just become a cult classic because it had funny jokes, talented performers, and quotable lines, it was also real. The cruelty and vindictiveness felt authentic to the average teenage experience. Basing it on Queen Bees and Wannabes, an actual book on female adolescent social psychology, is what helped it land for so many. I think in their hunt to avoid anything that could offend anyone they lost the best part of the movie: how well in captures just how offensive and MEAN high school girls are to one another
I agree, but I think some of the references they removed was to avoid copy-right, because they did not pay the author of queen-bees and wanna bees any royalties for the musical. This film is based on the musical so I will assume they aren't planning on paying the author any royalties either, and if you know, some of the social dynamics, animal kingdom references etc that are now being deemed as 'problematic' is actually her work, so I'm thinking they're probably avoiding it due to the musical lawsuit and royalties dispute.
@@flysmask If they didn't want to pay the author, then they had no business making the musical in the first place.
Let me just say that simply mentioning one’s race is not “racist….” 😑 ‘Unfriendly black hottie’ will forever and always be an aspirational term 💁🏽♀️
I wanted them to have a movie so bad with a great realistic script
“It’s not racist it’s diverse” (cit)
Can 'Unfriendly black hotties' be a new spinoff movie. It can take place at the same time as the original movie but from their point of view.
Um, the racism was making a joke about Asian girls saying the n-word and it wasn't even what they actually said when translated, but they thought it would be so funny to sling a racial slur about black people around for laughs anyway. There were hardly any black people in the movie, but they still said a racial slur about black people in it for giggles. Notice they didn't do that to any other race. Why didn't they translate the Asians saying a racial slur against Asians?.....Yeah.
Agreed.
I'm a person of color. I never really viewed the original identification of race or ethnic based social groups in a school racists. In fact when i went to high school those literally existed. And the meaness did exist. There in fact were teachers in the news that had affairs with students. I'm sure it still happens.
I started high school ten years after the movie came out, and even then, a lot of friend groups were sort of racially segregated. It wasn't done the exact same way as Mean Girls, probably because I live in Texas and not Illinois, but we had certain friend groups that were all Asian, all black, all Hispanic, or all white. You'd see tables with kids of the same race sitting together at lunch. Some friend groups were racially diverse, but some were not.
The OG film will forever be flawless and fetch. It is bec it is grounded in reality. The issues they have in the film are real life issues we all deal with even after school. Even at work there is politics going on. It is a silly chick flick but in reality you learn life lessons from it. My most fave line is by Cady. When you get bit by a snake, you have to suck out all the poison, that’s what I had to do, suck all the poison out of my life.
Same but I went to a school where there was a lot of black people, even more than the white kids (I’m speaking as a black person here.) Most of us did stick together and so did most of the white kids, including the Hispanic kids. However it was a minority where in smaller groups it was diverse. Heck, even my friend group was pretty diverse my freshman year, then it ended up being all of us black kids together until Covid. That is what the original got right and this movie came out years before I even got to high school.
@@ningmushii i think a diverse friends group can happen when you guys have been classmates from elementary upto HS. But since in US most kids change schools, when you join new friends group most likely you will join your same race or join a group with the same interest. The whole thing should not be seen as racist bec it is what it is.
@@stanbalo I get you, I didn’t even let the thought of that being racist cross my mind because I was thinking how I and probably other people felt. To me at least, sometimes it’s more comforting to be with people of the same race as you as they might understand you and you naturally feel safer around them. Also the reason I think my friend group freshman year was diverse (although majority of us were black) was the fact that my other friends who weren’t black were friends from middle school and elementary school.
This kind of reminds me why the new Gossip Girl didn't work. The people writing for Gen Z (in this instance a Gen X'er) don't understand how they're mean or if they even have the capacity for meanness - outside of what they've experienced, mostly in the form of "cancelling someone".
the girls from Jawbreaker would eat these girls alive
Gen Alpha is mean by framing each other and trying to segregate benches by race.
@@c.eb.1216Uh, wrong generation buddy
@@queenbee3561 I know. I don't think I've really observed gen z enough to comment. But alpha is working it's way up to the surface, so watch out I tell ya!
Exactly. But it's funny because the people that cry about wanting change (Gen Z) and cry about wanting to delete segregation (Gen Z) are usually the same people that complain when remakes, reboots, and re-imaginings suck because producers changed what made originals good to PLEASE Gen Z
Is it just me or is the fashion in the new movie well...ugly? Every outfit from the original has a sophisticated but feminine quality whereas the new looks seem very costumey.
In my opinion, in the original the characters were clothes at the time people in real life would wear too.
@@catarinasousa1905They def were! The costume designer in the movie made deliberate choices to make it look like clothes people were wearing and could wear in the 2000s. Like the Christmas Talent show outfits for example were really just tank tops with fur and skirts with red tape which theoretically the plastics could've made themselves. The newer versions of their Santa outfits and you could say with every outfit look too polished and that makes it visually lose the feeling of the world being more real.
Also I know I've seen people saying that they're making these movies to cater to the new generation but it's funny cause I've seen so little of the new generation actually like the changes. Its more about what old people in Hollywood think that the new generation would like and everything gets all weird and uncanny
I hated every outfit Regina wore and she’s supposed to be like. The best dressed one. They had her in parachute pants in every scene and most of her outfits didn’t suit her body shape. I understand they were trying to make the fashion more gen z but it was so ugly. Also no one but cady ever wore heels.
The costumes in this film, unfortunately, are a pretty good reflection of Gen Z fashion. I work in school cafeterias and I see a lot of young girls every day. Clothes that we wouldn't have been caught dead in at 16 are actually pretty chic in our current Girl World. Right now, we are looking at the dorkiest, most unstylish group of teens to ever walk the planet. It's not entirely their fault. Fast fashion has devolved and metastasized to the point where everything appears looks cheap and ugly, even at the very highest level. I'm not kidding. A lot of what you see in the windows of Gucci and Chanel look like expensive versions of stuff at Kmart.
@@palomageorge clothes don’t have to look cheap, especially now when thriftting is all the rage. I feel the og put more thought into the outfits besides just trendy. Each character expressed more of their traits through their outfits. The only character in this movie with thought into their outfit is Janis, whose clothes are the only ones to not look cheap. I also think of course what really teenagers wear look cheap and not something you would wear because you’re an adult (idk it feels like you’re hating on teen girls clothes at your school even though you’re a teacher and that’s weird).
Honestly a lot of the listed 'positive' is what leads to the remake being toothless. Trying to be too PC doesn't work with Mean Girls. Getting rid of the teacher preying on college students, of the racial and homophobic prejudices... I mean, yes, it's good, but this is not reality (?). It shouldn't have been taken out of the movie, just handled differently. These things still happen nowadays, pretending they don't is stupid.
right. how can ppl know the movie is trying to say these aspects are bad if they arent in the movie? showcasing doesnt mean its being glamorized. context matters but ppl these days pretend to be so dense so they can get offended leading to dishonest PC shit
I do think they needed to update it somewhat, racism and homophobia now do not look the same they did 20 years ago and if the film wanted to protray the real, ugly high school, they shouldve taken that into consideration. But yeah, removing it entirely was definitely a mistake.
@@Anna-pe6hbbut it’s still prevalent and we don’t know they things haven’t changed in the midwestern states, it could be argued that it’s still as backward in parts of Michigan now as it was then, the Midwest is predominantly white and conservative the commentary probably hasn’t changed as much as we want to believe it has
this is a really good take. idk if you guys watched no hard feelings with jennifer lawrence but they leaned into the raunchy 2000’s comedy where i think she said something homophobic/racist/along those lines and the subsequent series of events was that she was “cancelled” by the teens (in-movie) and kicked out of the house. feel like that was a self-aware way to address how 2000s comedy would be intercepted so different today.
mean girls’ decision to stray from that feels like either lazy writing or a lack of trust that the audience would relate to the material, which goes to show how disconnected the writers must have been
I think Janis being rumored to be queer but turning out to be straight was a good thing that was in the original movie. It taught how it wasn't good to make assumptions about people and their sexuality. I feel like modern writers missed the point.
Yeah; when I found out in the original movie that she wasn’t gay, I was surprised because of the common stereotypes associated with being gay
It felt more unique than just making both Janice and Damian gay best friends
Also the joke was always that Regina thought she was a lesbian when she was actually Lebanese lol
but it also showed that during that time, it was normal to bully people for being gay. In a modern movie set in the US, it just wouldn't make sense.
@mariosblago94 Bro I’m a queer teen in the USA, bullying people for being gay has ABSOLUTELY not gone away
@@one-onessadhalf3393 they didn’t say that. They said it was normalized; it isn’t as much now…. But as you said still a big issue
One of the listed positives was skipping the health teacher predating on young girls - but why? This is still a real problem, and should have been called out as it was in the original, where the teacher in question was charged in the end if i remember correctly
It's also a story thing, they investigate Ms Norberry BECAUSE the allegations against Coach Carr were correct. Without that's, it's just a rumor in a very tame gossip book about HS girls
right. i didnt have an issue with this in the first film either cuz they weren't glamorizing it. they were just showing how much dirt the burn book did or didnt have on ppl. also, it was ironic cuz the gym teacher was teaching shitty sex ed just to have him messing with him a minor
Because the majority of school predators are women, and good luck getting them to admit that.
I totally agree. Excluding problematic behavior doesn't make it go away, and likely discourages dialogue that could help prevent it.
It was good to see the principal condemn the actions of the gym teacher, and see how the gym teacher manipulated the girls into thinking they were special/lucky/mature. That's what child predators do, and (pre-/)teens should be aware of that manipulation.
It even happened in South Park between Ike and Ms Stevenson, thankfully for him though Cartman took his job as hall monitor very seriously.
Not making the kids mean enough contradicts the literal goal of the movie. It's sad they were too scared to push it because Fey is funniest when she's cruel (all of 30 Rock).
I think softening is a general problem of modern films and modern villains. You can be not racist, or homophobic or sexist and still *be mean*
Or heck let the mean bad people be all of those things, after all they are mean and bad. Just don’t try to make ex. Sexist jokes and pass it off like “haha this is super funny, and normal and ok to say and this is a character you are supposed to like. Nothing wrong with this”
Lest be honest. This Regina could not roast anybody. Becouse how she looks. This Regina is the kind of girl that the og Regina George would tear appart with one word.😂
The movie tried so hard not to use slurs and I didn’t graduate too long ago and I remember using slurs was normal especially people who were in the “popular” crowd
@@cristalblackstar8177 She literally looks like a badass ofc she could roast u, renee is so pretty
What made the original funny was that wasn't so politically correct. It wasn't aspirational, but it was real.
I know, a lot of the things in that movie were true wether people like it or not.
It definitely was it showed how girls can get katty for male attention, homophobia, race politics and more lol. I just feel like they are framing high school as a musical wonderland and I’m pretty sure if they sat every character down and ask how their high school life was they’d all give different answers good or bad lol. That’s why a lot of these new shows and shit are failing cause they don’t wanna show shit we actually deal with.
Precisely why all reboots of classics fail like the new gossip girl.
Just because you probably have harmful views doesn't mean people are "pc"
Just because you probably have harmful views doesn't mean people are "pc"
The lunch table scene wasnt about Tina Fey being racist. It was a reference to Rosalind Wiseman's book (and basis of the movie) "Queen bees and Wannabes". In the book, she went to middle schools and high schools across America to speak to young girls about their social circles. One of the projects she asked the girls to do was to make a map of the hallways and lunchrooms based on cliques.
The "Unfriendly Black Hotties", "Cool Asian Nerds", etc., came from what the girls themselves drew on those maps. READ THE SOURCE MATERIAL PEOPLE!!! 🤣
That's exactly why I'm thinking they removed those scenes, because for the musical they did not give Wiseman ANY royalties, and she's taking them to court for it. Since this movie is based on the musical, I'm guessing they aren't planning on giving her any royalties for it either, in that case they're removing elements used from her book and passing it off as being more sensitive and less 'problematic'.
I actually liked that Janice wasn’t actually queer in the original. Not bc it wasn’t ok if she was. But bc it highlighted what “ tomboys” deal with. Just bc she isn’t girly doesn’t mean she’s gay. Making her gay breaks that.
yup the original Janice was a mean girl who refused to be sex object girly and that character absolutely captured how slut and lesbo rumors are so cruel and weaponized in school.
AGREED
I didn't the first one they didn't have the courage to put a lesbian character they hint all the way that she is but in the end they bailed
I love also that is not a big deal
@@levadamusic they were fine making Damien gay…
The entire point of the character was the idea that because Janice wasn’t your “typical “ girl that oh she must be a lesbian. Making her one takes away the lesson and just makes it oh the mean girls are nasty to a lesbian. Which isn’t deep since they were mean to everyone.
@@levadamusic I think a cooler twist would've been if regina was a closeted lesbian, and acted more similarly to the first movie, to show internalized homophobia, and had more of a character arc at the end accepting herself and being a overall better person
I’m glad someone made a video abt this. Reginas just rude without any of the charm that makes her popularity believable. Gretchen, Karen, Janis, and even cady have a lot of their mean /popular girl moments removed. They spend the whole movie looking, sad and being insulted and never actually do anything mean. Even little things like Karen saying Gretchen is annoying and Gretchen saying she can’t help it that she’s popular are gone.
so basically its just Mean Girl singular now lol
The original is still by far the best.
True
i agree. literally the whole reason regina and janis are mean is because regina started that remor. but in this movie she's literally lesbian too so it doesn't really work out the way it;s supposed to.
They ruined Regina,The plastics,Aaron Samules,Janis and basicaly the F up the whole movie😢😢
This new movie is like the sequel to the original film; a juvenile remake
I know it's going to sound bad for me to say that I don't like that Janis is a lesbian in the musical, but please listen, there's a joke in the movie where Regina actually misunderstood the word Lebanese and when she asked Janis what she was, she heard lesbian instead of Lebanese. And in my opinion it was a great joke in the movie apart from that the bullying towards Janis feel different because everything is based on something that isn't even true.
This was always my interpretation of Janis as well. I loved the Lebanese/ lesbian joke! Im queer myself, and I never saw her as a lesbian. There is nothing in the original that indicated that she was to me.
Every time Kevin flirted with her in the original, she responded like a girl who doesn't know how to recieve male attention, but not because she's gay, but because everyone think she is, so no one flirts with her normally, until Kevin comes along.
Exactly what I was coming to say!!! And, even without that joke, it shows how self absorbed/bad friend Regina was that being upset for being blown off means Janis “must be in love with her”.
I also appreciate the underlying point of how homophobia hurts everyone, not just queer people. (Applies to every form of bigotry as well)
@@Whackadoo1 In the early 2000s Janis style would be considered as lesbian looking since she wasn’t feminine in style. Nowadays women are wearing all types of styles and sometimes you know sometimes you don’t lol.
@asia8001 For sure, her emo/ rocker style would have made her suspicious. I went to school with her girl back in high school (late 2000s) and when she dyed her hair jet black and cut it short, people started calling her gay and bi, even though she was super boy crazy. Kids were/are stupid lol
The thing is, the original Mean Girls became the sensation it became because it was, in many ways, ahead of its time. While conversations around internalized misogyny were already happening in 2004, they weren't as mainstream back then as they are now, so Mean Girls became something of a gift for teenage girls growing up around that time to re-examine their place in the High School pecking order (I was in High School when it came out and I had these conversations with some of my female friends)... plus, it was a lot of people's introduction to Tina Fey and her style of writing (this was before 30 Rock, so unless you watched SNL regularly, you may have not been familiar with Tina Fey)... This new version, outside of being a musical and updating it to current technology and sensibilities, isn't really doing ahything new with what its deeper themes, and is even doing what too much of media these days tries to do to its detriment: make everything aspirational, and therefore have less bite. Plus, I don't really think the musical is all that good (I think Heathers was a much better mean-girl-film-to-musical adaptation, though even that one is kind of hampered by a too-sappy ending)...
I guess the marketing department was aware that theatre fans will recognize Renee Rapp since she was a replacement for Regina George in the Broadway production, but that knowledge is considered to be a bit niche to a lot of people.
I think they knew what they were doing. They didn’t want the general public to know it was a musical, because a lot of people don’t like musicals.
I didn't know who she was but she's "24" so she's young enough but I prefer the OG Regina Taylor Louderman.
I knew her from The Sex Life of College Girls, I was super happy, but them someone told me it was a musical :(
@@DeliciaDulceThis recent trend of stealth musicals is something I don’t understand and frankly don’t like. If Hollywood is making musicals, they should have to put their money where their mouth is and sell them as such. If they don’t think they’ll sell, then they shouldn’t make them at all. But that’s just my two cents.
There’s a literal musical note in the A, how did they think we wouldn’t know it’s a musical?
The original was the inside reality of what most of us experience in high school situations or\and problems. The new version is a softer, delicate, very sensitive happy films with cute songs so people won’t get offended. It’s all BS
exactly idk why they think highschoolers and even middle schoolers are now "progressive" they have no idea how much worse its gotten.
one of the biggest changes that makes sense is the whole janis being a lesbian rumor being changed to her burning something. in 2004 being gay was still controversial. nowadays, if you are a homophobe you're an outsider (and rightfully so). its not strange anymore. also 2024 regina seems like she would have a gay male friend in her circle that she'd demean as well (and no, i dont mean as one o the plastics but a gay friend in her social circles or like her glam squad or something lol)
the og was bullshit too. cuz no one gave a fuck about the message, people just ended up wanting to emulate and be like the main characters lol it was always bullshit and people spending their time on it should stop. myself included. like if it's so bad maybe let's just shut up about it and NOT blow it up on the internet
I despise the sanitizing of problematic content. We are all problematic in real life and the best way to grow out of it is to expose it and call out hiw ridiculous and absurd it is. This is the charm if the original.
From what I am hearing this new version buries its head in the sand and thriws glitter spaghetti in your face hoping you'll be amused.
Also the Walmart ad that reunited much of the OG cast proved the correct move was a sequel.
Yes, thank you! Part of the problem with this film is the are too nice. The aggressive nature of these characters shows how every high schooler can become a mean girl.
Regina was really mean in this new one tho, and she was more overt about it than in the old one. I still like the old one better but it seems like a lot of people are just saying that without actually watching the new one
@@bobsburgers8497 I agree, that's why I argue Regina was well portrayed. However, characters like Cady and her transformation into a plastic felt weaker due to the lack of contrast when interacting with her parents (Mom in this case without her Dad) and without the Lebanese joke, the context behind how a toxic rumor can hurt someone much less like a betrayal.
@@BatAmerica well Cady was also the weakest actor in this, I’m pretty sure she got the role bc she’s a nepo baby, but I hear what you’re saying. And I agree, it’s just that I went in not taking this movie too seriously and had a great time. So if you don’t care much about the message of this movie then it’ll be fun
@@bobsburgers8497 Very true. Also, I am not discrediting anyone who can appreciate fiction that I cannot.
*sigh* Janice was NEVER queer, she wasn't mocked for it and didn't end up with a guy at the end because of homophobia or whatever. THAT'S the joke.
She even makes a quip about the guy "he's almost too gay to function" which is kind of a way of her saying she's not gay in the beginning
Exactly! plus, wasn’t the whole point was that she was Lebanese & Regina misunderstood what she meant & went around saying she was Lesbian? That’s why I liked the fact that she was actually straight because she didn’t fit the “typical girl” look.
Are you talking about the original, because I'm pretty sure she was mocked. That is why she was an "unpopular mean girl," bitter and fixated on revenge. Whether or not the rumors were true, she was still ostracized based on her perceived sexuality. What is the joke?
I'm pretty sure she was mocked for it because Regina spread the rumor about her queerness after mistaking 'Lebanese' for 'lesbian'.
at the end of the orginal she tells kevin g that shes lebanese, showing that when she told regina she was lebanese when they were friends, regina thought she said lesbain and started the rumor@@Usedfood004
janis was lebanese, regina starts a rumour that she is lesbian because she misunderstands…. to end up making her character “openly gay” was stupid
Also because Janice questioned Regina about their friendship in middle school. Plus, in the original movie Janis ended up dating the guy from the mathletes.
I understand the joke, but I definitely don't see her being queer as the issue. The problem is that Janice was bullied for it whether it was true or not.
@@Aster_Riskit literally kills the whole joke that's the problem with her actually being queer lmao and why does alt girl always equate to being queer now. i was a total Janis in high school, didn't make me a lesbian
@thewormloop6885 oh yeah, the Indian guy, right? He was freaking hilarious in with his 4 lines
That's one of many readings of it. Maybe Regina wasn't lying and is just being homophobic. Maybe Regina liked Janice back but pushed her away.
My favorite head cannon is that the situation is reversed. Regina liked Janice, and Janice said she wasn't comfortable going to her pool party, but Regina pulled an "actually you're not invited".
I think a lot of this could have been fixed if they left Apex Predator as a duet between Janice and Cady rather than a simple narration by Damien and Janice. In the original Broadway production, Apex Predator shows Cady becoming intoxicated by the plastics, and questioning everything Janice said about her. It also shows the plastics being outwardly mean to other girls, and shows their power. I think the song worked better in the original show.
Apex predator was one of the only good songs because it was an "argument" or "warning" between Janis and Cady. Without that, you just have two decent songs, both played by a defanged mean girl, and a bunch of trash surrounding it. How did they make such a poor decision? -.-
I saw the movie and although I liked it, I felt like Cady as the main character didn't really get the moment to shine. It felt like Janis had so much more momentum. Also I hated the song Janis sings during the gym apology. It felt icky. Janis calling everyone hypocritical but she herself being hypocritical and the one who started the awful plan but feeling self justified. But the film decided to highlight that moment. Regina getting hit by a bus and Cady their argument right before the accident also felt sidelined in favor of Janis's song/moment.
@@unknownalt5845thank youuuuu
This is my biggest issue with the movie. Absolutely baffling choice.
I honestly think a lot of it was to give Janice more screen time as she was the more well established actress with a better voice. Not to be ‘mean’ but Angourie Rice was kind of a bad person to play such a critical role in the movie. Didn’t have the voice to back up how big of a character she was supposed to play. None of the songs she sung were done well. They were all just meh. And I love Renee Rapp and I don’t think much of this is her fault but the mixing on a lot of the villain songs she sang was just plain bad. They Slowed down songs for some weird reason too.
"It's cool to see Mean Girls made for the modern day."
2004 WAS the modern day!
Exactly such a dumb comment
Every year was modern for a while 🤔
The addition of social media really created a punching down feeling towards Regina. Her comeuppance felt disproportional to her actions as a result.
Granted, outing someone is terrible, but praying on someone's disordered eating is also terrible, and Janis getting vindicated and not being similarly punished by the narrative kind of sucks. Sure, her 2004 counterpart didn't either, but her gym number suggested that she got what she wanted with no real consequences. That "being me" number's message did not match the situation: if anything, it treated her like a hero, which is probably the worst message that can come out of this movie
I've always seen that song as her being manipulative of the rest of the girls to get them on her side, just like the in the og movie she changes her speech last minute because she was mad and wanted to hurt Cady and Regina, and she says that she did all these mean things to Regina, and 'i can't help it that I have a huge lesbian crush on you' and gets cheered on by the girls. That scene in the movie was Janis' final manipulation act, and that's how I saw that song in the musical, but the movie musical (lol) made it all seem so honest and cool that even I forgot Janis had done bad things. Auli'i played me, I fell for it, I was with the other girls chanting for her 😂
strong agree. I couldn't put my finger on it but "i rather be me" felt so unearned. Janis was also wrong in the entire situation (clearly to a much lesser extent than Regina but still...) and then she goes singing this anthem like she wasn't also being manipulative and mean to people for her own benefit and with no apologies about it either
Janice isn’t meant to be a lesbian/queer, she’s Lebanese. The whole plot in the OG film is driven by young Regina’s misunderstanding of Janice’s background (confusing Lebanese for lesbianism) which then isolates Janice and fuels her revenge mission. This is identified at the end when Kevin G asks Janice if she’s Puerto Rican and she replies “Lebanese.” Why would you take that away?!
Nope your version is a fantasy version. Regina is very much aware of Lesbian and Lebanese. She made a rumor that Janis like girls aka lesbian. It is not as if she misheard Janis saying Lebanese as lesbian..nothing happened like this in tje movie. The addition of Lebanese at the end was just a nice word play by Tina Fey. The one who made this fake news spread is just reaching.
@@stanbalo exactly, i rewatched the original movie earlier today and there's literally nothing about regina mixing up lebanese and lesbian. don't know why people are so confidently spreading misinfo
@@froggnt8621 i understand the whole funny word play with lesbian lebanese and people making it a joke for clout but to somewhat make it like that is what really happened is just off. If you did not watch the movie and just bandwagoning then fine, but i guess most have seen the movie and still they agree with this idea. Just goes to show how people think
@@stanbaloit’s not outrightly said. More of an implication than something that actually happened. It’s subtle that’s why most people didn’t see it. Regina wasn’t exactly the brightest bulb to be fair since she believed everything Cady told her. When she gained weight Cady told her that’s how the bars work. That isn’t how things work so the genius of mean girls was that everything was subtle. They showed more than explained what was happening.
@@vanessagowora Most people don't see it because it never happens. It's not even hinted at. Just because you want that joke to be in the movie so bad doesn't make it so. It's important to realize that the only reason that Regina thinks that Janis is a lesbian is mere speculation so that when we see Regina get what she deserves at the end, we're rooting for it and not feeling bad for someone who mistakenly got 2 words confused. Think of it this way... Why start up a petition to prove someone is a lesbian if (in your mind) its already a fact? Even Karen wouldn't do something that dumb. Thanks to Stanbalo for sticking up for the truth. There's too much misinformation spread all over the internet these days, and we need to do what we can to stop it.
The og mean girls truly showed how teens thought with all the stereotyping, body shaming and homophobia it had as teens have the maturity level of well…teens! Realistically the casting of skinny hot girls being the “mean girls” is that they had all the right in highschool to judge others has they were “flawless” but this new casting ironically leaves other students tons of amo for other students to make fun of them back.
I think the original is so good! Knowing the dynamic of girl politics and shows how power corrupts and that people and women can be really mean. It’s what makes it so relatable and why every teenager can watch and identify with it.
Regina was mean ASF, I LOVED how passive aggressive she was, it felt like how bullies are irl. She did the mind games and I felt like she was genuinely mean. But I also like how NORMAL she was. Because mean girls, and especially how I imagine Regina, aren't super villains. Especially in highschool, she is fundamentally a spoiled chill person who is very good at mind games and has trust issues. I enjoyed her portrayal because bullies in school are like that from my experience.
I personally would’ve preferred if the reboot kept the racial dynamics but with more self awareness, there’s many studies and research that discuss why black and Asian kids still sit amongst each other in lunch rooms in white predominantly grade schools due to the racism they experience both overt and subtly, they could’ve explored that with some of the main characters like with Janis, Karen and Gretchen, Regina’s meanness especially towards Janis could’ve reflective through both racist and homophobic undertones and highlight white feminism tactics , Gretchen could’ve been a young girl of color where her character arc is used as a backdrop to explore how POC kids/teens in school internalize the racism they deal with in school and suffer from model minority myth/tokenism mentalities
White feminism? Wtf actually is “white feminism” even lol? And I don’t think Regina ever had any relation to “feminism” anyway? But otherwise I agree and think those are really good points
@@alexbennet4195there’s a line in both the musical and the movie adaption to the musical where cady and Regina are having a heart to heart moment and Regina said something along the lines that if she was a man she wouldn’t be cell mean but seen as something more positive, that alone gives off white feminist vibes instantly
@@Kevin-rg3yc just in the musical
Yes, this! I always felt the original used casual racism like Janis’s lunchroom map to show the characters’ narrow worldview; it played to that naïveté/ignorance when Karen asked Cady, “If you’re from Africa, why are you white?” Racism hasn’t ended in reality-including young people being caught in it through their own ignorance before their world expands and they learn and grow from their mistakes-so it shouldn’t be erased in storytelling set in a contemporary world, and I think the ideas you presented would be an excellent way to, as you said, keep the racial dynamics while being self-aware of them!
@@Kevin-rg3ycregina said in that line if she was a boy they wouldve called her reginald😭
Mean girls worked because the girls were mean!! Sorry to break it to people but the original was funny because of the rude comments. All of this “scared to be canceled” stuff doesn’t work for remakes so let’s just make original content.
They were still mean in the new one, they called Janice a pyro-les bc she is gay and started a fire lmao. In this new one Regina is still, very much, mean
@@bobsburgers8497 really? Everyone keeps saying they were watered down. I still think we should leave the remakes alone only because it’ll never be as good or funny. The original Mean Girls was just so good. Lindsey Lohan was iconic lol
@@kennethiavail1719 people are forgetting it’s only partially a remake. What it is is the movie adaptation of the musical. Like go watch it for yourself, imo it got better as it went on. I went to see it with my bff, and it was like pure fun. Even the “bad” parts are fun, it’s one of those movies imo. People should stop taking it seriously and stop expecting it to be exactly like the original (which I love btw). Once they do that they can genuinely enjoy it. But anything that has elements of an older property is gonna get hate. Just go watch it for yourself and see what you think.
@@bobsburgers8497 I hate musicals but I am glad you enjoyed it!
@@kennethiavail1719 then why were you talking like you’ve seen it lmao😭
ok but Regina making fun of Janice for being lesbian was hilarious because Janice later says she's "Lebanese". Showing the dumb blondness of Regina because she heard "Lebanese" and thought "lesbian". I get why they let it out, but still pretty funny.
I don’t think it’s dumb blondness but classic Middle School stupidity: Mistaking Lebanese for lesbian is exactly what an ignorant catty 13 year old girl would do.
Regina never got those-2 words confused. There is no scene that shows this or even hints at this. Janis tells Kevin G that she's Lebanese at the end because he only dates women of color and thought that she was Puerto Rican. There is your joke. Regina clearly states why she thinks Janis is a lesbian, and it's because she got a boyfriend in middle school, and Janis became insanely jealous. Had Regina thought that Janis told her straight out that she was a lesbian, that would've been the first words out of her mouth in her speech about Janis to Cady. But she never mentions it at all. And why? Because it never happened. The dumb blondness that you want to laugh at so bad comes from Karen, and she never got those-2 words confused either.
I think Hollywood gives my generation way too much credit for being open minded, like it’s not this fairytale where the plus sized girl or the queer student or person of color is welcomed with opened arms high school hasn’t changed much
homophobia and racism in schools is way less prevalent than it was in 2004 still. its not a fairytale but nobody in hs screamed the f slur or n word at me and i graduated in the early 2020s. y’all are mad that they weren’t being “racist” or homophobic in the new film like what???
Yea. Like yes it’s not ‘socially acceptable’ anymore but that doesn’t stop mean teenagers from being well mean teenagers. Like people in my school absolutely would make fun of people for being overweight, having darker skin, having lighter skin, and especially being lgbtq. Liek literally, people in my school still use ‘gay’ as an insult, and call trans people crazy and all types of things, and sexism is rampant. And although a lot of it is from boys, so much of it is from girls, the boys are just more open about it, girls will gossip about it. My friends do it about people who they don’t like and comment about their appearance all the time (makes me really uncomfortable actually but I don’t say it) so yea it is accurate. It’s jsut more people are realising that it’s not good anymore and I feel like you might see more people standing up to it, but they will be made fun of so.
@@askiavance3281 i mean you said it yourself, it's not a fairytale. gay/black kids usually aren't outright abused anymore but racism and homophobia totally still exist and glossing over that does nothing to draw attention to the subtle ways real 'mean girls' ostracise people they see as 'other'.
I would so rather be referred to as an Unfriendly Black Hottie than a Woke Senior in HS. The original Mean Girls was a critique of the functions of HS at the time it came out. As a minority growing up in predominantly white areas it felt very accurate to me. People were classified by what others perceived at different and that's just how it was which is why I enjoyed the original so much because it called that out.
How weird that just putting a race becomes racism right away. Racism is when one race is better compared to the other etc. Describing does not equate to racism. Cool Asians, Unfriendly black hotties.. is there a connotation that they are inferior?!?!
omg the new movie doesn’t talk abt race, its so bad! like wtf are yall getting at
@@stanbalo I guess it kinda brings race into the conversation when it has nothing to do with being cool/unfriendly, it is kinda objectifying, like how often ignorant (often white) students will not see other POC as anything besides their race, like it’s not just cool kids, it’s cool Asians. But the original movie kinda pointing that out.
I like how they said the reason for the reboot is that they wanted to make it modern, but the original movie is modern??? Lol it’s probably too soon for a reboot.
its interesting how a movie 20 years old is still modern isnt it? like the main difference is the phones and social media. thats it. even the clothes are still fuckin cute
Whenever they say they want to make something more modern that just means they want to make it lame
whenever the word “modern” is used in context to a movie, run.
What's funny is that in 2004 20 years ago from then would have been 1984...and most people my age then would have said that 80s is old back in the 2000s. Now 2000s 20 years later is considered modern to many. That is wild. The 2000s peaked everything to the point it still feels current.
@@anastasia.noelle cringe
For me, I hated how they changed Mr. Duvall's line in the scene where all the girls are going crazy afyer finding burn book. In the orginal, Mr. Duvall says "Hell, NO! I didn't leave the South side for this!!
In this remake, musical thing he says "I didn't go to graduate school for this."
That is just not funny. The first line makes me laugh every time cause it cracks me up that Mr. Duval has probably dealt with some hard individuals, and some dangerous situations, but it's these young teenage girls who are pushing him to his limit . 🤣🤣🤣
Yes! I mean they already created the perfect script for those scenes so to do it the 2nd time, what u will come up will be 2nd best. It is the same with that Cady as in KD Lang. What is funny with KD Lang? His nephew Anfernee is way way better fit.
I find Hollywood's attempt at cashing in on my generation's sense of nostalgia ironic considering why the original Mean Girls was made in the first place.
Glenn Coco needs his own character
kinda disappointed he didnt get a full face close up in the new movie lol
Exactly! They took the conflict out! Nobody watches stories to see everyone getting along!
As a big fan of Broadway version I think it’s a mix of few different problems.
First one being the script. Janis and Damian being our guides and narrators in the show worked so well and it made sense. On top of that, Cady is still the main character in the Broadway version while here she’s kind a pushed to the side in favor of Regina.
The second problem is casting and budget. While I enjoy Angorie Rice and Chris Briney, they were not right choices for this. Sure, in some way they are both names you would recognize faster than Auli’i and Jaquel for example, but they don’t have the likeness of the original characters, and they don’t elevate them in any way possible. Money that was spent on them should’ve gone towards less known but better vocally trained actors (yes having Aaron sing is crucial to the story) and maybe costumes.
Third and final problem is music. It’s very clear they didn’t know how to write the other numbers in and for it to make sense, which is why we are left with half of the songs being cut and the ones that are left being stripped down to different and poorer mixes.
The one and final thought that I had is: it’s such a shame that Hollywood keeps making the same mistakes of trying to simplify musicals for the audience because Mean Girls on Broadway was the perfect example of how you can elevate the original script with new stories, changes and still have a fun time. This I’m afraid turned out to be something between the original and the musical, the project that failed to find its voice.
The new mix of Stupid With Love sucks so bad
I agree with everything you said! I felt to truly get a full story the movie musical should’ve been longer. It also felt as though Tina had nothing new to add for how bullying and teenage girl dynamics work in the modern age. While her thoughts were new in 2004 they also seem flat compared to now. It seems she was more worried about fix the old mistakes rather than using them as a jumping off point for further introspection.
Took the words right out of my mouth, as another fan of the stage show I agree with this 100%
The movie is called Mean Girls for a reason!! This new version is so watered down to cater to the sensitivities of the new generation! It should be called somewhat nice girls in the suburbs. The new Regina George is about as interesting as watching paint dry. Should have just let the original alone!! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it 💯💯 just like they should’ve left The Color Purple alone!!
This is why Mean Girls doesn’t work in the modern era because it’s a product of its time. Bullying, meanness, all of it looks different now. Sure there are still echos of prior generations, but overall the teen landscape has changed. And older generations don’t know how to capture the modern form of meanness. A brand new story needs to be created with younger directors, or at least someone who has thorough knowledge of how modern teens are
The Color Purple is actually a very good musical and deserves a movie version. Not sure why we’re complaining about that.
@@sethzarandona2325 What? 🤨
@@tarag7292 What do you mean “what?” They made an excellent musical for The Color Purple. It deserves a movie. The OP threw in a complaint about The Color Purple getting a new movie. The new movie is the musical on screen, which isn’t bad.
@@sethzarandona2325 What do you mean it's coming out? The musical version is already out in movie theaters. I saw it and didn't like it. And they didn't advertise that it was a musical, either.
Musicals need to be kept in Broadway, not movie theaters.
Sarah Z did a great video about why the musical kind of doesn’t work and I encourage everyone to watch it. She does a pretty good job critiquing it and makes it clear that she isn’t talking down to people who like the musical. Which is always important when talking about any kind of entertainment.
A big reason the songs aren't furthering the plot or giving more character development is because they shortened and cut a lot of the songs that did this from the Broadway stage musical.
The major joke about Janis in the original is that she is Lebanese, Regina thought Lebanese and lesbian were the same thing, so Janis must, of course, be in love with her. That is the origin of the whole story…Janis actually being queer takes the fun out of it.
i don't think that's from the original movie, i'm pretty sure that's a new joke from the musical?
@@froggnt8621nope it’s from the movie. Of course they don’t outrightly say it but if you read under the lines you get of understand. There was never a moment in mean girls that I thought Janis was gay or attracted to girls.
@@vanessagowora you read between the lines that Regina mistook Lebanese for Lesbian?
@@froggnt8621 most people did because a lot of people remember that.
not that deep
I’d like to say this is one of the easier musicals to adapt to a movie since it’s basically modern day, so I knew it could be possible. The execution…..well I like some of the songs in the musical, and they add a new take to certain scenes, especially ‘world burn’. But I think no matter what when you try to do modern remakes of other projects it feels like a diet version at best. And the fact that they even remixed the songs from the musical for the movie was a disappointment. I just think it’s hard to do a fresh take of mean girls anymore. So I’m not surprised this wasn’t a hit
The fact that Mean Girls was there to portray the ''darker'' sides of high school and Teenage Girls in particular with the dark humor and iconic style was totally missed in the remake. I mean this movie was inspired by a guide for parents with high school kids, a nonfiction book. With fantasy or sci-fi movies I kind of get it that it could work to make a new version of it but in general, I really hate the trend of taking iconic movies and making remakes of them because they often miss the exact point of the movie that was made for a completely different decade
i’m all for being politically correct but sometimes they just take it too far with those clean, marvel, cgi, white lightning looking movie remakes that are not funny or memorable at all because everything has to please everyone - not every movie has to spread a political message or some kind of awareness- movies can just be fun and silly sometimes or atleast i believe that
Can't wait to hear all the folks who are gonna be like Regina George isn't a villain! She's a misunderstood icon!!! 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 already saw so much of that before the broadway version existed. The continuing wearing down of RG's bite is going to make that get even worse I fear.
anyone with half a brain knows she’s an antagonist
She wasn't that mean. She was more so manipulative and two-faced. The people she bullied the most openly were her own friends and Janice (and it didn't seem like she said bad things to Janice's face- at least not since they were kids). We didn't see her going around attacking other students, she kept most of her hate in a book or said it amongst her friends and was secretive about the mean shit she said of other people. Most of the characters didn't find out about what she really thought of them until the climax of the movie when she printed her own burn book. The mean things she says, she doesn't say directly to people's faces. And I think a truly mean person, a true bully would tell you you were shit to your face or directly to you. Regina George would tell you that you're so cool to your face, then write how she thinks you suck in her diary. It's not nice, but it's more polite than we've seen from other mean girl characters in other movies. Besides, I think a lot of people are guilty of doing similar behavior to the people we don't like. She wasn't a trustworthy person- no doubt, and I bet her hate came more from her own insecurities than anything else (I think people for the most part liked her in the beginning at school and I think she wanted them to like her. And you don't get people to like you by being mean to them. They didn't think ill of Regina except for Janice- who was her former friend)- but we've had teen dramas and movies with much nastier mean girls- some committing literal murder. They make Regina George look a saint in comparison cause I don't remember her saying a bad word to somebody's face, unless you were her friend and I think Gretchen got the most of that.
No one...literally NO ONE... claimed the original was "racist". Seriously. 🙄
Putting in the n-word for laughs and giggles and acting like Asians girls said it when they didn't but they translated it to that for fun was racist. They certainly didn't have the Asians saying a racial slur against Asians, only black people. Why? They had more Asians in the movie than black people, but a racist joke is made at the expense of black people anyway?
@@queenmoreau2098it’s a joke
@@queenmoreau2098 Oh yeah that scene totally pissed me off. To this day people still think those viet girls said a slur even though they were just calling each other something more equivalent to the word bitch. So glad they fixed that and gave her an ACTUAL vietnamese name.
Exactly!!!
@@user-cp1lj3bn3bIs “viet” just short for Vietnamese though? ://
The high school cliques being segregated is so accurate though, they didn't really need to take it out, also that division is supposed to be emphasized so the ending where everyone is friends with everyone makes more sense
The one thing I was diappointed about was how they took out the "oh my god I love your bracelet where'd you get it?" line and then the callback with "that is the ugliest effing skirt I've ever seen" later in the movie. It was such a simple way to showcase how Regina will compliment you to your face and then insult you behind your back, and it would add next to no runtime
The new Color Purple hid the fact that it was a musical, too. Just be upfront. Audiences don't like feeling deceived.
Anyway, I don't know another channel that loves Mean Girls more than The Take, so I sympathize with you guys 😅. This is how it feels when modern Hollywood disappoints with their adaptations. One of the usual suspects can be a lack of "edge" or "bite" because the current climate is so sensitive now. When you preach for this from tropes and attitudes that might be considered "toxic" today, this is the result, so be careful what you wish for.
Mean Girls 2004 would make fun of Mean Girls 2024.
I don't know how anybody got that far- like to the theater and sat down- and still didn't know it was a musical at that point. But okay.
@@queenmoreau2098Because they didn't advertise it as a musical. People watch the trailers, and if they like it, they'll go see it. But the people who promoted this movie didn't mention in their trailers that it was a musical. They were being intentionally deceptive. The Take literally mentioned this.
It's not the audience job to do research. It's production company's job to be honest about trailers without revealing the big plot points and the climax.
Oh my god the line Mean Girls 2004 would make fun of -mean- girls 2024 was so real. I can hear it already. “I love your outfit, it’s so cute!”
“Aww, thank you”
“…”
“That is the ugliest effing outfit I’ve ever seen.”
The Color Purple literally casted singers and was mentioned it being a screen version of the broadway show.
No one was asking for a Mean Girls musical remake was the problem. I understand that the Broadway musical was successful, but there was no need to remake it.
It’s not a remake, it’s just a movie version of the musical, big difference
It's still a remake with the same story but with musical numbers.
@@kamsismith Well, not exactly? A remake is they changed everything and start totally fresh. And the new mean girls doesn’t even follow the OG mean girls, it s followed the musical, again, big difference.
Even if it followed the musical, it's still the same story and I still see it as a remake. There have been plenty of remakes where they followed the same story as the original but didn't do anything different with it as it’s copied and pasted.
@@kamsismithExactly. Same title, same characters, same storyline. It's a remake. A remake can also include making an original movie into a musical.
To be honest, I am happy this movie failed!!! I remember seeing the original when I was 13-years old and it changed my life. I became an instant Lacey Chabert fan and for 20-years my friends and I always quoted the original when something was funny. Then suddenly they remake the movie and put a musical spin on something and now I feel like the old 40-year old man being like "Those damn kids!!" Which kinda explains why when they remade Willy Wonka in 2005, my parents who saw the original in 1971 thought it was stupid and creepy that Tim Burton made the new one. Now we have another one 20-years later. I was 19 then. I have a late birthday. I didnt bother to see this one and instead watched the original and laughed even harder!!!...Everything is so PC today and they dont want to hurt other peoples feelings. That's the point of MEAN GIRLS!!! They supposed to be MEAN AND NASTY AND EVIL!!!!..."Mom, can you come pick me up. Im scared!!"
You pretty much nailed my general feelings after seeing it yesterday: basically that it was good, but it lacked the bite of the original, and I don't think these versions of the characters could be as iconic to Gen Z/Alpha as the originals were to us Millennials. I appreciated more diversity in casting & the update for social media definitely made it feel more relevant to today, but if both versions were on Netflix, I'd choose the original.
I agree with you. I really enjoyed the new film and if it was the only version available to watch I would be happy to watch it but I would prefer the original.
Janis being openly queer in this movie doesn't make sense. In the old one it was just an assumption and rumor Regina made but this one it turns out to be true which defeats the whole purpose of why Janis had beefed with Regina in the first place. In the old movie, the real reason Janis had beef with Regina was because Regina told everyone she was queer when she wasn't, and making her actually queer in the new movie defeats almost the entire plot because the entire reason all these events happen is because Janis wants her 8th grade revenge
As a teen, schools different now. They watered down the offensiveness, because today, calling someone a slur or being openly racist would 100% not be accepted. The old Regina would just sit in detention all day while being side eyed by other students. And believe me, Auli’i’s Janis would def still be an outcast today, while she is not as obviously different from the OG Janis, she is still different enough to get bullied. People are more of the same today, if they kept the original vibe it would just not work.
People complaining that the original film was racist are are so full of themselves. The film mocked everyone at some point. And ultimately drove home the point that making fun of people who are different won't get you anywhere. This is why we can't have comedy films anymore, because everyone is offended by everything nowadays.
All the things about the original that “is wrong today” was also “wrong” then. We got that and it was sort of the point… don’t mean to disturb this era of ‘enlightenment’.
This is the best criticism of the new musical film I’ve seen.
Still an entertaining movie with nostalgia, new and old funny moments, plus stand out performances. But the character development and bite is missing.
By cutting out racism, homophobia and pedophilia, they also cut out the uncomfortable truth about real life, which can be brutal, not sweet and colorful.
I honestly can agree with this. Although, I think you forgot to mention how they somehow made Karen dumber and not mean. Yes, in the first film she was dumb but she was also mean. You got that from the four way call and how fake she was when talking to Gretchen VS Regina. In the new one she was just super dumb and nice. She didn't understand what went on around her and she forgave Cady? There was no level of fakeness, depth, or meanness like the first. It felt like a very sad downgrade, in my opinion.
8:04 This is a problem with the new movie specifically that was included in the stage show, they cut a lot of Gretchen's arc from the musical which was one of my biggest issues. "Whats wrong with me" was supposed to be much more emphasized to get into Gretchens characterization, not to mention they just skipped Gretchen and Karens versrs in "Meet the Plastics". In the new movie they're just forgettable.
Hiding that it was a musical might backfire and now that people now it's a musical they won't go see it.
It’s just they are afraid show what made the story so iconic, the reality of how ruthless teenagers can be towards each other
Last year's Walmart ads makes me think that they should do a sequel to the original that has the OG cast but is more about adult mean girls, the ones that we encounter in our working and professional lives. Maybe there's a new teacher/parent who just takes over the school.
I wish the Walmart ads were the actual movie
I still just can't get over how frumpy they made Regina. Like the Queen Bee would really be wearing tacky, 2000's inspired outfits from Temu.
fr like realistically she’d be wearing lulu or smth 😭
This just goes out to show how much harsher everything was for us 90s babies… they wouldn’t last a day in our shoes
Should have just titled the remake: Kinda Mean Girls... Who Quickly Learn to Better Themselves - The Musical.
Are actual high schools all PC now? Cuz it was twice as harsh in real life as the ORIGINAL Mean Girls was back in the 2000s.
Nothing. NO. THING. Will ever replace HEATHERS.
What does heathers have to do it?
Please hush before someone gets the bright idea to ruin that movie too!!!
@@queenbee3561 ask Tina Fey, she knows.
@dd4850 My point is, the original Mean Girls was already tame and pulling punches from it's direct inspiration, and yet real life high school in the aughts was just as unforgiving as the previous generation's films showed us it could be.
And so, I'm wondering since the new Mean Girls is even more tame, does it reflect a change in real life? Or, is high school like it was for generations, just shy of the satire in Heathers?
im so sick of modern teen movies, they're so corny and i hate seeing how old people portray social media, the first one is so much more relatable and real
Oh my god, THANK YOU, somebody who understands what my big problem with this version is!!! Like, the fact that they made Janis a lesbian this time around but then proceeded to remove ALL of the homophobia from the movie?! It would’ve been a lot more impactful and we could all see just how horrible Regina is if they weren’t so afraid to show it!! It’s so ridiculous!!!
the fact that y’all are upset the new movie isn’t homophobic is actually insane
@@askiavance3281 LMAO why wouldn’t I be? Do you think homophobia is a huge problem in today’s society? If so, you should be willing to show it through your bully characters in a movie all about backstabbing and cruelty. How do you NOT want that???
Villains need to be able to be terrible people in movies again. Enough of this cowardly bs
Not surprised that it would be a sanitized take…The film is called, “Mean Girls.” Show the mean. Glad that I never gave it a chance.
Other than that, the depiction of high school cliques in the previous film shouldn’t be considered racist. If anything it was a reflection of that time period. When I was in high school, there were cliques based upon ethnicities or some type of culture.
That's what I thought too. I can't speak for high schools now but when I was it was highly segregated when we ate lunch. I'm sure it's the same, but I have no point of reference to know.
Mean girls was funny because it's relatable but I get the feeling they just took teens from 20 years ago and sanded down the rough edges whereas they're probably just as evil, just in a different way.
Yes, but what about high schools today? Are _they_ like that?
@Markunator Maybe to a slightly lesser extent than in your day, but largely, still yes
I just do not get why people thought the movie was needed, we have Mean Girls the movie and we have Mean Girls the Musical, perfect, all we needed..... Mean Girls 2024 is so NOT needed, where are all the new movie concepts and creative ideas...
The irony of this video critiquing the movie trying to play it safe
Them trying to hide the fact that it was a musical only served to piss audiences off more I fear. Many people were tricked into seeing this movie under false pretenses. Like they didn't even put "the musical" in the name so that at least watchers were informed.
just read the logo… they weren’t exactly hiding it
@@AlexeBriand2002 the logo just says… Mean Girls? And hardly any of the promotional materials and trailers showcased any songs or singing. They most definitely were hiding it babes
@@AlexeBriand2002 Yeah, great idea since people NEVER read titles or listen to the title of the movie in trailers
I don't know what part of "they omitted that it was a musical" that people are not understanding.
OG Mean girls was my go-to movie when I was a kid because i was bullied not physically but socially. And from my experience, i was frenemies with those girls and I was the "karen smith" in the group blindlessy following my clique's leader because of my lack of self-esteem back then. Mean Girls gave me insights and perspective that "girl world" and adolescent girl hood and female relationships were complex, brutal, yet growing. Girl world is just a projection of our society's social and psychological expectations of femininity and young women. And in often "girl world" is just a parallel to adult social politics in the real world. There's always a "Regina" in the every life you go through. But to me, the mean girls i've encountred in my past life serves as an cautionary tale on how to NOT be a leader and how you should not live your life. And when I became "popular or well-liked" I was sure enough that I will not be those girls and be a confident, kind, well-rounded person.
They also dropped Caddy's nature documentary perspective and inner thoughts halfway through which really made her less compelling.
The stereotypes and coach's inappropriate relationship thing was so to the t with a real high school experience though, which is part of what made the movie so real. I don't know if it was just my high school but a lot are indeed super cliquey and the football coach at our school got fired my senior year for having relationships with minors. Just reality lmao
Kinda funny how the new film’s wardrobe looks more Y2K than the fashion in the original 2004 film.
Yet another already perfect film getting an inferior remake nobody asked for.
I think the problem is that they didn’t fully commit to making it a musical like if your a fan of the musical you know they didn’t have all the songs . So some interactions were in song and some weren’t so it made it seem like the ones in song didn’t have much detail. Also a lot of the iconic funny lines weren’t there for example “Do you do something fun, let’s go to Taco Bell.
The original film is absolute perfection. I quote it daily, as do my friends and colleagues. It was actually what HS girl world is like. That’s how it actually happens.
Good movies are so rare nowadays i get excited when Netflix uploads a 2004 one
back when people didn't give a fuck about your feelings and had an all white cast without a thought about it. Ah the good ol days.
@camocamouflage the main characters were white. There were other races, but they weren't shoved down our throats like every movie released after George Floyd.
@camocamouflage lmaoo
Part of the problem is stuff they cut from the stage version. I liked the way the stage version delved more into Cady's and Gretchen's minds, but they cut most of these parts.
Totallt agree!
The musicial movie was fun and cute and i laughed and enjoyed it. It makes me wanna see the stage show for sure.
But i agree, they didnt seem truly mean. The original showed all the depth of truly mean girls. Girls really are covertly mean and the original shows that. Also in the remake cady didnt have a slow turn into mean..she turns mean in one small scene and its drastic. Not realistic. And they cut a lot of the songs so the story felt rushed and shortened.
All in all it was still super fun
Hollywood keeps forgetting that protagonists can make mistakes. If a character cant make mistakes, then there is no character arc/growth.
I enjoyed it! It's not gonna replace the original that is truly iconic, but it gives a sort of extended universe reimagination that is quite entertaining.
I agree! Perfect take.
exactly! its not as great as the original, but i still found it entertaining and fun.
The original was weirdly more grounded in reality by having these stereotypes and uncomfortable moments tho. These are things that happen irl.
Also, I feel that by downplaying some of the cursing, the scenes fail to convey the proper levels of resentment/disdain the characters are supposed to be feeling. Same with some of the other censoring the remake did. We lose a lot of great/fun storylines and character journeys bc of it.
I have a huge problem with this generations rebooting and everything, they literally take things too serious and makes everything so freaking inclusive that it loses the purpose why it was so well liked in the first place, its so cringeable.
Exactly, we are living with a generation that needs to feel represented at all times. The fact that society is pushing this narcissism is unreal. Get used to it, we live in a world where everyone is different and individual, we can relate to people that do not look like us.
Being inclusive isn’t a bad thing and representing oppressed groups isn’t a bad thing.
Nobody said you can’t relate to someone who doesn’t look like you. In the real world, people look and identify in different ways and it’s high-time that media started reflecting that.
The problem is that writers just aren’t as good in general as they used to be. Not that they’re inclusive. You can be inclusive and still a good writer. The fact that writing quality isn’t as good nowadays has nothing to do with being inclusive.
Also. Wanting to be represented, especially when literally everyone was both straight and white for so long, is not narcissistic. Narcissism is never wanting minorities to be normalized ever.
Why would it being “more inclusive” make it less well-liked? What does “more inclusive” even mean to you?
I think a LOT of people didn't expect this to be a musical. I was working tonight at the cinema of it's release and a bunch of people were walking out 😬
I feel like the biggest issue with it is they completely missed the point of how mean GIRLS are.
They made them super masculine, abrupt, none of their mean traits are subtle
That is not how mean women are. The original movie captures so well how mean girls are, like how cady meets Regina and thinks she’s really a nice girl at first until she goes behind her back and gets back with aaron. then, cady has to pretend nothing is wrong around regina to get her back in other ways
like very little of the fighting is face-to-face, and this new Regina came off very masculine and not soft. The whole point of a mean girl is that you’re feminine and soft on the outside and manipulative and cunning on the inside! also i’m sorry but why was this regina wearing leather jackets and acting like a lesbian 😂 she didn’t have any girly qualities or mannerisms. the entire time she was giving masc
they completely missed the mark.
This was the kind of "mean" I experienced in High School even waaay back in the 00's. Never could relate to High School movies with 'cliques' and vicious rivalries. Like, that's how High School "feels" - but the reality looks exactly like this.
I guess the 80's were different. Cliques were the thing back then - even in a Latino dominant environment.
There were rockers, punks, cholos/cholas, gang bangers, pot heads, athletes, cheerleaders (usually the mean girls), drama geeks, nerds/academics, ROTC, band, student politics, Fronchies (Mexican (from Mexico) mean girls), and wall flowers, like me, who didn't belong anywhere, except our own little pocket of wall flowers (until i joined the drama geeks). Our head wall flower got along with everyone, so we just basically coasted by, lol😂
I detested high school, btw.
The problem with this new version is that it would be nothing without the original. This version just doesn't stand on its own.
Anything sanitized for the zoomer generation would be unfunny. The reason the original Mean Girls worked so well was because they did not hold back with the jokes.
The irony of censoring it for the Zoomer generation is if Zoomers liked the original already, doesn't that mean they would have been okay with a film just as mean as the original? 🤔 That's the contradiction of trying to appeal to "modern sensibilities" using nostalgia for an older property. It risks losing what made the younger generation like the property in the first place.
It’s not necessarily without the mean, but I think it is without the fun. Regina was so terrible but so entertaining to watch, Regina here is just a jerk.
Janis isn't a lesbian in the original, that's part of the joke. Regina mistakes "Lebanese" for "lesbian."
That never happened. Regina never mistakes those words, not even close. Way to spread a false rumor, Alb!