Mean Girls (2024) was a COWARDLY Mistake...
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- Опубліковано 12 кві 2024
- I love Mean Girls (2004) and Mean Girls: The Musical. So imagine my disappointment when Mean Girls (2024) -- the film adaptation of The Broadway version of Mean Girls -- turned out to be... well... a mistake.
Remakes are rarely good, and movie musicals are always a tricky thing to pull off, so let's dive into why the Mean Girls remakes was a bad movie and even worse musical. And let's talk about the problem with Mean Girls (2024), cause there's honestly more than one.
Written & Edited ------------ Dylan Gregory @TheWritersBlockOfficial
#meangirls #meangirlsmusical #meangirls2024 #musicaltheatre #moviemusical #lindsaylohan #theproblemwithmeangirls2024 #videoessay #movieanalysis #filmanalysis #meangirls2024 - Фільми й анімація
What Musical and/or Movie Musical is your favorite???
Shrek the musical
Cats/j
tick tick boom ❤
Heathers
heathers, hamilton & be more chill
Tina Fey invented “fetch” so that the 2004 movie didn’t use real slang that would date the film. And then the 2024 film was entirely comprised of outfits, slang, vertical videos and more that make it already feel dated. It’s a 2024 movie and it won’t carry on for future generations
such a good point!
Sad because she wrote the 2024 one too lol
@@lamented-musings8932idk how it became so different. She did the book for the musical too and no one else is credited, so I’m guessing she wrote it alone (or at least the majority of it by herself)
I always thought it came from the word ‘fetching’ and that Gretchen misremembered the word as ‘fetch’ -‘it’s slang from England’
@@amesiesasmrWell now fetch, make sense. Fetching!! Makes so much sense. (Duhh 😂)
stop 👏hiring 👏actors 👏that 👏can't 👏play 👏the 👏role
That’ll require them to stop coddling nepo babies
Stop hiring actors that cant sing to star in a musical.
I👏haven't👏seen👏the👏clapping👏emoji👏in👏a👏while
So no one told you life was gonna be this waaaaay 👏👏👏👏
Tbh I saw some clips of this flim like I feel some actors can’t even sing tbh and I’m like why hire actors that can’t sing tbh this musical is more like cringe parody flim for mean girls 😭😅
honestly, they could've just tricked regine 2024 into having an acne breakout since beauty standards nowadays are already revolving more around skin and makeup
i thought that's what they were going to do because there was a scene in the trailers where regina angrily screams about having a huge pimple. they could have used the bit where janis switches the facial cream with the foot cream and given her something greasy instead.
@@bucciaratimybeloved
That would've been so much better!
Acne isn’t something that’s ugly what?
To be fair, people still get bullied for being fat too, so it could be both. If she was both fat and acne ridden, then she would definitely lose popularity and be considered “ugly”
But also, Regina could just cover up the acne with makeup though, especially with make up we have nowadays. You can’t cover up weight gain.
"Reneé Rapp deserved to be in a better movie" is exactly how I feel about this movie as a whole
Renne Rapp was sooo much better in the stage musical, but she didn't do too bad for someone with no film experience. She definitely does! I hope she does more stuff after this.
She also deserved better costuming. As a fashion lover those outfits where not it.
@@EmeraldEire7436100% like putting regina george in shein cargo pants and outfits that aren’t flattering like cmon now
@@sk3lutand that shirt??? Why is Regina George of all people wearing tie-dye…
@@EmeraldEire7436 the shein outfits were not giving the same "im rich and ur broke" ones from the movie
That movie didn’t deserve Renee Rapp
Agreed
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial great work! Loved the video 🩷
@@Giugix9 Thank you so much! This is my longest video so far and one of the first where I've gotten to discuss musicals/musical theater so it means a lot to hear that you enjoyed it
@@TheWritersBlockOfficialyou are welcome! I subscribed! I look forward to see your next videos
Well the movie was made for her tho 😂
I hate how remakes remove 'problematic' parts that were actually criticized and added for a reason.
Homophobia still exists, especially in high school, removing that from movies doesn't make it 'progressive' , it just sweeps the reality that many minorities live under the rug.
Janis' original backstory of being bullied for being a lesbian and called a slur for it was much more relatable as a queer person than...beanie babies
You’re 100% correct.
(Although as a queer person, the beanie babies thing was funny as hell. Not nearly as good as the OG scene)
Thank you! The idea of "we can't say that! It's too mean!" that permeated the film (and musical in general honestly) shows a shocking lack of understanding on the creator's part, both of the source material and the basic concept. The Girls are Mean. They do despicable and petty things to each other and then learn the error of their ways. Thats kind of the point. Both musical adaptations are totally defanged and it's rather embarrassing.
Yeah a lot of media is afraid to narratively critique characters because that would require showing someone with that flaw. But that's how stories condemn certain things. By showing them (in a negative light). Clayton from Tarzan does bad stuff, but he also falls to his death because of his own actions. Clearly telling the audience "don't be like clayton"
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial honestly the media literacy online is downright horrid and I'm afraid it could affect products (books, movies etc) because they're afraid of nuance as a result of people not understanding context
I would bet the changes were for international markets. Changing "in love with me" to "obsessed with me" means they can leave it and easily cut out the explicitly lgbt parts. Remember: maximizing profit is more important than standing up to regimes
Why is the color grading of this movie so blue? It’s so obvious when placed next to OG Mean Girls. Everything looks washed out and sickly. Makes no sense for a teen girls musical
The original is very bright and colorful too.
@@maximusprime3459 it could also be just modern cinema using perfectly sharp camera settings, thus washing out color.
They trying the “Twilight” filter 😬 Twilight is so very hip with the kiddos
I notice this in a lot of modern media tbh
Because Hollywood thinks it is more “realistic”.
Honestly when I heard that they took out Aaron's singing parts because they really wanted the actor made me so disappointed. And taking out Cady's songs because the actor can't sing. Like this is a musical, why are you casting actors that can't sing.
Not to mention how, despite having the same writers, they don't understand what made their own movie beloved. They heavily dated the film, hid the fact it was a movie adaption of the musical and not a movie remake, and made it seem cheap since the outfits were all from Shien and the majority of the outfits looked awful.
And not to be mean but WHY did they want that actor for Aaron so bad? He's fine. But he isn't given anything to do in the movie as is and comes off as generic and easily replaceable
@@TheWritersBlockOfficialChristopher Briney was the main love interest in The Summer I Turned Pretty, so people think he’s the next Gen Z heartthrob, but that doesn’t justify putting him in a musical
@@TheWritersBlockOfficiali mean considering Christopher is pretty big because of TSITP maybe they wanted him because they knew that would draw more attention? And while he’s a great actor, I just don’t think it was a good idea to cast him 😭
@@Asteroids50idk why they’re trynna push that agenda cause chris isn’t even fine if we’re being real☠️☠️
@@realestsiennatbf i haven’t watched The Summer I turned Pretty, but he’s not my type and he’s definitely not hotter than the OG Aaron Samuels
One thing though, Janice not being gay in the original and her bullying being the result of misinformation was a really good plot point. Yes, she looked like an early 2000s gay grunge girl but that’s why it worked so well, being herself on reinforced the false narrative people had about her which made her indifferent persona and rage very understandable. She was being mocked for being something she’s not but never fell in line and even made fun of the idea near the end! It’s a good example of breaking a stereotype and reinforcing the idea that girls are complex and doesn’t fit into the molds those stereotypes put them.
I'm a new fan (a foreign who saw mean girl a few months ago for the first time) and I can't tell you how much I loved the plot twist about her not being lesbian! Not because it's wrong being part of the LGBTQ+ community (I'm bi myself) but because it showed how people can be themselves, wear what they want and act how they want without it being caused by their sexuality. She was portrayed like a stereotypical lesbian and it turned out it was just a girl showing her personality the way she wanted. I find it liberating both from a girl and a not-hetero person pow
I’ve always held to the theory that Regina is a closeted sapphic who was developing a crush on Janice, so she projected her internalized homophobia onto Janice.
@@oswaldfriedman7116omg literally this. my fave headcanon
honestly as i lesbian i despised this plot of the og movie… sure the message of not making assumptions nice but lesbians rarely get positive media representation, so building up a character to be lesbian the whole movie but taking it away in the last five minutes to put her with a man negates any impact of the message, also it’s lead to a bunch of straight girls whining about their “representation” being taken like be so fr.
@thxu4_the_venom657 yeah I wonder if Tina Fey or an of the creatives wanted her to be lesbian but couldn't cause of the studio. Cause Janice is so clearly coded that way
Something i hate about this move is the costuming outside of the halloween scenes. Regina isn’t meant to dress trendy, she doesn’t dress like ateenager she’s meant to seem extremely fashionable, the plastics aren’t normal teenagers, they need to stand out. Instead she looks like anormal teenager following normal trends rather than BEING the trend?
There are real teenagers doing it better, some of those cloths don't really fit that well
thank god someone else took issue with the costuming because putting REGINA GEORGE in all black leather in her FIRST SCENE irked me bad
.
@@billcipherhater As sapphics my wife and I were basically barking when she came on screen. She looks gooooood. But our clothing style is ..punk xD I dont think Regina would dress in a way that would make people like us attracted to her, I think
@@CommanderLexa8541 i thought i was a gay dude before that scene, and i dont even dress punk, shes just that amazing
i'm so sick of people who hate musicals trying to make movie musicals
Fr
real so real, the only one of those that went well was sweeney todd and no one can replicate that, i'm afraid
Its like the infamous line of 343 industries when they took over Halo ''We hired people who hate Halo to make Halo''
The main problem with the Mean Girls musical is that it is not mean. What do I mean by that? Yeah some of the humor and insults of the original movie have not aged well. But at the same time, to act as if girls like Regina do not exist is dishonest. To act as though homophobia, racism and cruelty and bullying do not exist at high school is dishonest. The original movie had a very relatable warning about becoming the monster you hate, something Cady went through as she sacrificed so much for her revenge against Regina and got nothing back in return. It’s a cautionary tale of a never ending cycle of this behavior not just amongst teenage girls in the case of Cady but amongst anyone in high school who has ever been bullied.
None of that translates over to the musical because it is so determined to not offend anyone and you can’t do Mean Girls without being willing to embrace how cruel some people in high school are.
Yeah, mean girls aren't mean at all, so there's practically no lesson
Weirdly you made me think of Buffy, where the first three years had "high school is hell" as a motif
Are you referring more to the broadway musical or the movie musical? Sorry if I sound dumb, just asking
“A Cautionary Tale?”
Honestly, as a character decision I feel like Regina wouldn’t sing about herself. Her presence as a character speaks for itself, but the themes if they’re borrowing from the original movie would usually show people around her talking about her more than she ever speaks about herself (which she rarely does). If they were writing new songs, in place of “Meet the Plastics” it should’ve been a song of the students around her singing about how amazing she is rather than her having a personally sang introduction.
Yeah they cut the whole "one time Regina George punched me in the face... it was awesome!" bit which could accomplish exactly what you're saying. That's a great point
Sort of like that one bit in Heather's 'Beautiful'
this made me think - they could have made such an interesting choice with not having regina sing at all in the og musical! like setting up musical stings etc that seem like she's about to burst into song but actually, she doesn't even need to, because she's just that iconic and powerful. (/maybe she sings after her downfall e.g. kalteen bar realization/world burn)
Like the wall breaking montage parts in the original movie of other girls talking about her?
@@lainiwakura1776 Yeah.
Also why did everything in the reboot look kind of cheap? Even down to the lighting? Didn't they have the same budget as the original? I was confused as to why it was lit like a lifetime movie
It was initially planned for Paramount plus so I think thet didn't give it the same polish regardless of budget.
I see what you mean. Maybe it's got something to do with camera technology. Because human eyesight is flawed, having everything shown with crystal clarity makes things look less real to me.
The wardrobe was also from temu and shien
We didn’t even get to meet “The Plastics” in the song Meet The Plastics.
Yep, it's just "Meet Regina George"--She's the real star of the show. She's not just Queen Bee of the school--She's Queen Bee of the movie, and she's all over the radio too!
@@mylesmarkson1686 Really don’t understand why they could’ve kept Karen and Gretchen’s lines because Damien introduces “The Plastics” to Cady and references some of the lines that were removed from the song. For example; “That’s why her hair is so big, it’s full of secrets.” Funny thing is that Gretchen’s hair wasn’t even that big. I feel like we really missed out on that gossipy tone from Gretchen.
@@anisdvd Absolutely. Gretch was nowhere near as fetch!
It’s called “Mean Girls” after all. As someone who grew up in the 2000s and had older siblings, I can’t overstate how h0mophobic teenagers were back then. In order to accurate depict high school, the movie had to be politically incorrect
Exactly, teenagers say and do offensive things all the time.
seriously... it was only a few years ago when I was in high school and kids would shout random slurs down the hall and a religious student was slipping "you're going to h3ll' pamphlets in queer kid's lockers.
I went to school where the movie takes place. Even though evanston is kind of like a mini LA politically. Homophobia very much existed. I only graduated 2 years ago lol
Thank you for understanding this. Some people don't get that the whole point of the 1st movie is to show the ugly side of highschool and how shallow some hs students are. Like the whole revenge plan is making regina fat. Here, she is already fat. What's the plot? Make her pop?
Can you not see the hypocrisy in criticizing someone's shallowness and then calling Rapp fat immediately after?
I seriously don't get how she was cast as Cady, it makes no sense
100% nepotism. Her parents are in the Australian film industry and I guess they must have friends or relatives in Hollywood
@@dramaqueen465 Oh gosh that makes sense lol
Because she looks like Pam?
@@OwlBard nepo babies are everywhere 🥲
@@dramaqueen465 I mean it's not necessarily an indicator of lack of talent or ability. Ben Platt is one ( Even Hansen ) and he's a good actor and singer. But there's also too many people lacking the proper qualifications who just happen to have money and powerful people next to them. Not enough people who have to work hard from significantly less get the chances they deserve because of it. :(
I’m so sick of Hollywood removing problematic elements of a story because they don’t want to offend anyone. Life IS problematic and being candid about that fact in movies/tv is so important, not only to acknowledge that these problems EXIST but showing why/how those behaviors are harmful and what it means to be a good person, which the original Mean Girls exemplifies perfectly without being preachy.
Hollywood can't distinguish between problematic moments because the content is offensive and problematic moments because it's showing how people can be offensive so they just remove all of it and pretend like they give af either way 😂
@@marslara Tbh it's wild how terrified they were to make Regina George, the titular mean girl, actually be mean. "She can't be homophobic! That's problematic!!" Yeah, she's a bad person, she's a bully. If anyone genuinely thinks the original movie was endorsing the things Regina says or does, they are terminally lacking in media literacy.
Absolutely agree with all of this! Pretending that problems don't exist by changing the language and musicals self-censoring is not only not helping, it is gaslighting the audience.
@@primrosett Its also weird cus Renee Rapp is bisexual. She couldve helped them make the homophobia feel more authentic and its a queer woman playing the role so it's also fucking funny
The problem isn't only Hollywood tho. I'm 100% sure that if they kept that political incorrect aspect of og Mean Girls people WOULD HAVE BEEN OFFENDED. It takes two to tango. EVERYONE is scared of offending people because society nowadays grew so "tolerant" that it's on the other end of the spectrum: intolerable tolerance. I hate Hollywood but I do believe that this societal shift is what makes Hollywood scared of sticking to narrative rather than appeasing audiences
Removing the weight insecurity to make the movie more modern reflects such a frustratingly common trend in media right now of removing character flaws and story beats out of fear that the audience cant tell the difference between a character flaw and that flaw being condoned by the filmmakers. 2004 Mean Girls was never glorifying disordered eating or fat shaming. It was depicting realistic insecurities that high school girls deal with. Taking that aspect out of the movie doesnt make the movie more body positive because the fat shaming and disordered eating was being portrayed as a harmful thing in the original!!
"By not including bigotry and mental issues, we solve them! Yay! Disordered eating is no more!"
It makes me think of how the avatar adaptation removed things like Sokka's sexism, which was important for him to learn that he DIDN'T know everything and opened him up to have Suki teach him a lesson in the cartoon, and then,, use Suki to prop Sokka up in a stereotypically manner..
@dx.feelgood5825 that's EXACTLY what it's like
Oh, I wonder why that is? Hmm.
i don’t understand why, if they thought disordered eating was an issue, they didn’t for example make it about skin or minor cosmetic surgery, or the struggles that come with the “instagram body” (considering how much more relevant to the current beauty standard that is) and how that’s just as bad as the original beauty standard Regina is running after. literally ANYTHING to make it relatable to actual teenage girls.
and it’s not like the bullying of actual fat kids stopped in the past twenty years…
Cutting Aaron’s singing parts and his duet w/ Cady before the third act was such a bizarre choice. Even the “trust-fall” scenes in the gym Don’t work or feel earned because we don’t have Cady’s inner-monologue or character development from the OG and the stage show. So when the camera pans or jump-cuts to her sitting in the bleacher’s, looking guilty, why should the audience care? Too many important character moments were combed over or not fleshed out enough
Exactly! That's why the changes feel so thoughtless. They remove rather than replace
Like, it feels as though the script was still in 2004, yet the actors are from 2024.
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial Also, there is no musical exposition from “plastic” Cady’s perspective. I know you don’t care for Fearless, but it’s the first number of post-plastic-Cady after knocking off Regina’s crown. Even Stop has a few speaking lines…Whose House was cut, More is Better cut…like, why did ever even fucking make this adaptation? Cady has no agency and is basically dragged along the plot beats. I really wanted to see More Is Better translated onto screen, it’s why I was excited when this adaptation was first announced. It’s my favorite number from the stage show. I was gutted when they cut it 😅🤬
@@user-qi4xd5nv7o More Is Better getting cut was actually criminal. I was genuinely so upset over that.
I can't even watch when Angry Rice sings, and I watched a snake eat a cow
Not Angry Rice lmao
No but for real though are they seriously telling us they couldn’t find a single actor that could do a better job??? You’re telling me there’s no one else qualified to play this role??? Nepotism is the only answer
LMFAOOOO
Angry Rice 💀💀
I agree! And I watched a cow eat a snake (for real, it was weird)
Hacker Regina George be like: “I’m in.”
*furious typing sounds* this firewall is top of the line... give me 60 seconds.
something something something, mainframe
Aaaaand we're in!
in my opinion, it's important that janis is not a lesbian in the 2004 version. i get why they would change that, but it was meant to send a message about stereotypes and saying stuff that's just about other people (+ that one joke about her being lebanese)
I agree. I always thought that Regina is the true lesbian and because of internal homophobia she projected everything on Janis
I thought Janis wasn’t actually a lesbian in the original, I thought it was just a rumor that Regina happened to spread 😭
@@soupstar2088i think that was the intent. or i’d like to think of it that way too since its what i initially thought as well
One thing I heard as a critique about this movie, which I agree with, is that the writers clearly couldn’t decide who they were making this for. Some of the forced references to the original were made for the people who loved the original years ago. The things that feel like it overly dates it into the early 2020’s feel like a terrible attempt to relate to current teens. However, the one group that the writers forgot to write for was the one group that they should have been focused on the most: the people who loved the stage musical. Due to this, they missed the mark for all of the demographics. [(Edit to add): I wrote this before finishing watching the video, you did make that first point at the end of your video, too.] I enjoyed it, but it had so much more potential. You hit the nail on the head by saying that the filmmakers weren’t confident in their own decisions.
Thats the thing people often don't realize. It's (at least often times) better to commit to a direction even if it's wrong then fo half heartedly in multiple. That's why I think the star wars sequels felt so weirs. Last jedi took it in a direction many didn't like, but then rise of Skywalker changed direction AGAIN meaning that the trilogy didn't go any where by the end. In mean girls, all the changes just cancwl each other out, so it doesn't stand as its own thing
i feel like this issue has been plaguing all remakes lately, theyre forgetting what made the originals so timeless
Yeah! They kept doing things like adding social media, but then keeping elements from 2004 that really make no sense in 2024. What time period is this actually in?? It was all over the place.
Early 2020’s? LOL
@@locobob yes. The idea that, because it has elements in it that will lose relevance and interest very quickly, someone could see it, knowing nothing about it, and know that it came out between 2020 and 2025 without having to check, even if it was decades in the future. It won’t hold up to time the way the original does.
Actually, Janis' song definitely would have made more sense if Gretchen sang it. Gretchen is the one that's not being herself because her entire identity has basically been being Regina's back up girl. Her getting tired of it all and realizing that this character she's become to please Regina in vain isn't worth it.
I really don't think that fat people were the butt of the joke with the kalteen bar plot line. It is clearly a satire of teenage girls' obsession with body type. Yes, in the movie, gaining weight is the most terrible thing that could happen to Regina-however this is because of who Regina is as a character and what she believes (which mimics many teenage girls), not the actual reality of gaining weight. It is not the movie saying that gaining weight is the worst thing that could happen, it is Cady punishing Regina in the way that she knows will affect Regina the most.
I agree, in the era of low waisted jeans flat butt heroine chic, gaining 10 pounds was a death sentence. It kicked you out of a coveted position that allowed you to be above judgement and scorn. Regina suddenly found herself amongst her fellow woman having to desperately slave away to finally be good enough. With enough worry and suffering she could finally reclaim the power she once held, the ease of knowing you were thin enough to be above reproach. When she lays her head down after starving all day, the dream of being thin again isn’t enough to ease the pain of knowing at this moment she hasn’t done enough. She cannot escape her own failure. She cannot escape her body. Her low blood sugar lulls her to sleep.
At least, that’s what I got from the movie. Typical teenage girl experience.
Yeah, Cade was eating those bars without any worry before
Yeah, I had to pause the video at that point. IMO it's not at all that Tina Fey thinks it's the worst thing a woman can be, it's that at the time the original movie came out, society very much did put it forward as the wrist thing you could be as a woman. The movie was aware of that. It both spoke to Regina's insecurity as an on the surface extremely confident person, and to Cady's potential as an actual mean girl.
Cady, Janice, and Damien are getting back at her, but it's not really cathartic for the viewer because it's based on shitty social standards. And Regina doesn't actually get any "less hot" but you can see how just the knowledge of weight gain eats away at her confidence.
The entire point of the scene when she's trying on the dress - the high end store she always shops at literally doesn't carry any other sizes. She's forced into this size if she wants it or not, coz the fashion is also locked behind it, and the store worker looks down on her when she wants another size.
Mean Girls (2004) is timeless for the most part the only thing that might be dated is the product placement from the 2000s but the 2024 movie musical will become dated in 5-10 years because of all the TikTok and social media references and scenes involving social media and TikTok. Mean Girls 2024 is a prime example of why some Broadway musicals shouldn’t be movies. Auliii Cravalho is the standout as Janis in my opinion along with Renee Rapp as Regina George. This should’ve been released straight to streaming on Paramount Plus and it was until it got a positive reception from the test audience and it got a theatrical release. This should’ve been called Mean Girls: The Musical but the marketing was too afraid to advertise it as a musical
I think the difficulty with social media in filmmaking is that the apps themselves will inevitably feel dated. Films should focus instead in the core human emotions that are triggered by behavior on social media.
the tiktok references are especially stupid now that its being banned. the movie will feel dated even faster now because there wont be any tiktok for future teens watching the movie to relate to
okay so like, a lot of this is my fault, but i had a HARD TIME remembering which girl was Gretchen and which girl was Karen bc like, their introduction went by very quickly and was never re-iterated, and they were both kind of coming across as nondescript and a bit spacey
Agree they never felt important like they did in the original film. I feel like you could’ve removed them from the 2024 version and it would’ve been the exact same
THEY WERE SO ALIKE IT WAS SO CONFUSING! I have a very bad facial recognition and they casted two visually very different actresses and yet it was so hard for me to remember which is which because they both dressed the same and acted the same
im glad im not the only one. I had no idea who any of them were supposed to be besides regina. which...doesnt feel like a good sign lol.
The fact that I found out that the new Willy Wonka movie was a musical through THIS VIDEO just really drives home every point you've made
Hah that's wild. Im considering doing a similar in length breakdown of Wonka because it simultaneously does a lot right but also shows what's wrong with current hollywoods misunderstanding of musicals and mishandling of properties
??? IT WAS A MUSICAL?????
HELLO WHAT ???? ITS A MUSICAL? 😭
I read this before finishing the video but is it a musical??????
I mean the original was basically a musical.
they should have just given us a pro-shot 🤷🏼
also not to be that person but aaron tveit’s last name is pronounced “tuh-vate” 😅
Agreed 1000%
Karen’s Halloween-sexy-song scene should’ve been a livestream, she ends it and just starts over, thinking she could just ,,restart“ something like that.
Janis is good in this movie but having heard Barrett Wilbert Weeds absolute powerhouse performance just brings the whole movie down an extra step
Barrett is *ON TOP*
I have nothing against Angourie Rice (girl who played Cady) but they needed to hire someone that could keep up with Renee. I’m genuinely fine with all the other castings, are they better than the original? No, but at least they played their roles well enough and some really fit the role perfectly (Renee Rapp, Avantika Vandanapu). Are they seriously saying they couldn’t find a single actor who could play the role better than Angourie? I find that impossible to believe. Angourie’s casting stinks of nepotism because what other logical explanation is there?
Listen, I don’t agree with Angourie’s casting either. But people gotta stop jumping to conclusions about nepotism. Angourie has a more extensive acting resumé than the entire cast. She has acted alongside Gaten Matarazzo, Ryan Gosling, and Russel Crowe, just to name a few. Tina saw her in a show called the Mare of Eastown, which she watched because it’s set outside of Philly (where Tina grew up). Angourie played a lesbian rocker chick in that and she actually sounded quite nice. However, her voice only works for singer-songwriter tracks and is not well-suited for theatre at all. Either Tina didn’t understand that or simply picked Angourie because she was much easier to get a hold of than Sabrina Carpenter, who actually had a stint as Cady on Broadway
Im speaking as an original mean girl fan and just an average viewers of both the original and 2024 version of mean girls, and these are just some of my unwarranted opinions, so now that my credentials is out of the way…
1. I honestly think that the outfits they put the plastics in are just so so wrong, the plastics are THE it girls, the celebrity, the highest class of the high school caste system, so why are they dressed in shein clothes? They shouldve been dripped in designers or at least in something that looks classier than the outfits from temu. That black PU leather set regina wore already looks outdated the next shot i saw her in.
2. The songs are just not catchy enough to be a pop song, but also not impactful enough as a musical number, theyre stuck in between and i just wanted them to commit in a direction and stick with it, bc idk to me the songs just doesnt hit the right spot nor does it stuck in my head on repeat…
3. To preface this, im so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so terribly sorry for saying this, but aaron shouldve been the “eye candy” of the movie, and the new musical movie actor just doesnt have the right visual for it, again im sorry for saying this, i could not imagine regina dating him.. he looks nice and he is attractive, dont get me wrong bc im sure he’s someone’s type, but yeaa… again im sorry for the one offended by this unwarranted opinion specifically😭
4. And yes to echo the fact that they misunderstood janis ian, i was kinda shook that i finished the movie with the feeling and opinion that janis is the good guy in this musical movie, bc I also saw janis as a mean girl in another font on the original movie…
The three best things for me in this movie are honestly avantika, renee, and jaquel✨ also ty for reading this lengthy essay of a comment, love yall🫰✨
Young Zach Efron could definitely play Aaron, he had that KEN energy. This actor doesn’t, I agree
Ok see I felt kind of bad for feeling like this about Aaron, but the minute I saw him... I mean, he's cute, I guess, but not on the 'ex-boyfriend of the hot rich popular girl' level. Just doesn't feel believable that Regina would want to date him.
I don't think you have anything to apologize about. I found this video interesting, but when you have to apologize for saying that X person isn't attractive to you: that is just dumb. The same body types are attractive in 2024 as in 2004. Styles change, but very little with regard to attractiveness does, because a lot of that is determined by biology. Hip to waist ratios, facial proportions, etc. I think people today are just less honest, and when they are they feel like they have to apologize. (Not to put this on you.)
Regina and the plastics should look like they are OF girls or something. Like they are dolls. That is part of the point. I get that they sort of had to work around who can sing and act. Having that extra skill there does make casting harder, and so you can't just pick the actress that has the right look.
But as far as Cady, Regina, Aaron... pretty much all of them are downrated in terms of appearance from the original and they don't really fit their characters. And sorry but not sorry to Miss Rapp, but if you are going to go for that kind of role, you take off the weight. Looking a certain way is part of your job, because you deal with a visual medium. If you don't want to be criticized for your appearance, don't become an actor. Your body is part of your wardrobe. Men change their bodies all the time for roles, why is unfair to criticize women for not doing the same?
The fact that Timothee Chalamet has had a theatre background & went to a school specifically for theatre. It's no surprise that, out of all the musicals out right now, that's the one the successed because-despite the marketing-keep the musical vibe
Oh yeah for sure. Like I have issues with Wonka, but everyone felt like they cared. Sure, I think they don't understand the magic of gene wilder as willy Wonka (which is absolutely what they were going for considering oure imagination is the finale) but the movie didn't feel cynical in the slightest.
The choice to include a major subplot that requires keegan Michael key to where a series of fat suits? Gross uncreative and problematic. But otherwise they tried
The nature of working in the performing arts is such that everyone once in a while I stumble across a think piece or video essay on something my friends or I have worked on. Very cool to come across this one in particular, you really understand the material and express your ideas well. So fetch!
Oh snap that's dope! In what way did you or your friends work on it?
it's basically destructive interference rather than constructive interference
It IS crazy that the High School Musicals are MOVIE musicals✨🤣✨ And it just NEVER stuck out in my mind that it could be either/or…like they’re not all that, but they’re “really good” in comparison.✨🤣💅🤣✨
Kenny Ortega knows how to make musicals. And also movies in general. Hocus pocus rocks
Broadway is both better and worst than Hollywood for remakes, it’s worse because there are 100 times more remakes, and it’s better because the remakes are a lot better than Hollywood remakes because they give a shit about the original
They are also better because it’s usually a new medium for the story. When Disney makes a live action remake, they don’t change the medium from animation t oh something that also suspends disbelief. Stage and film are completely different, so it’s ACTUALLY telling the story in a different way.
This. 100%. I appreciate the original so much more now and at least the musical differentiates itself - another missed opportunity is how World Burn’s cinematography is.
I always thought listening to it on the soundtrack that - keeping with the animal theme, Regina would be a “zookeeper”, but now all the animals ran amuck.
That part would have been shot like a normal nature documentary and then shit slowly starts to fall apart until the end where the assembly is called and another “zookeeper” wrangles the kids.
Instead it’s…that shit with Tik Toks.
Speaking of cinematography, it was terrible in this film. Bland and digitally flat. The school was so darkly lit it was distracting. Whereas in the original where all of the colors were so vibrant and actually stood out.
And it spent too much time telling the audience rather than showing.
For the first few scenes I literally thought they casted a blonde actress to play Cady and didn't dye her hair red....
Hearing how the songs (which vary greatly in quality) have been butchered hurts me. To the point I played both versions of “stupid with love” to my boyfriend, who knows nothing about the musical/new movie and even he was like…”yeesh”
Your boyfriend talks weird.
Thank you because I feel like most people talking about this movie hate musicals, so they only harp on the FACT that there's singing at all. Love to hear a video from a person who actually has an appreciation for musicals because the fact it's a musical isn't the worst part, like c'mon.
The 2024 scene where Janice is confronting Cady about her party is the moment I gave up on that film. I was so baffled at how poorly they recreated that scene that I just lost hope it would get any better. I think I will try to finish watching it one day.
It was so bad that Damien doesn't even deserve his pink shirt back!
@@mylesmarkson1686 I thought it was so weird Damien was riding his grandma's mobility scooter instead of driving.
@@jecarlin He probably stole the pink shirt from his grandma too!
Side note can we talk about Rajiv’s parents genuinely being supportive during his rap performance??its so cute esp with the stereotype of strict traditional Indian parents it’s such a sweet dtail
I did quite enjoy that
I am so sorry, but “I’d rather be me” is a great song? Are we forgetting “acted nice when she not nice?” And “I won't twist in knots to join your game
I will say, "You make me mad"
And if you treat me bad
I'll say, "You're bad"” like there are some good moments in that song but definitely could have used another pass or two. Yeah it NEVER made sense for Janis to sing “And when they drag you down
Like they inevitably do
I will not laugh along with them and
Approve their palace coup, 'cause that's not me” like bitch, you planned the coup! That is you!
Hah fair point
Yes, thank you! I never thought Janice deserved to sing that song! In my opinion, she is the villain of the story because none of the events of mean girls would've happened if it weren't for her
I think they should have made the musical be still set in 2004 because the aesthetics and attitudes of that time were a large part of what made mean girls iconic. There is no reason why the stage musical had to be set in 2016 with those hideous costumes, or why the 2024 movie had to be set in the present with those awful fast fashion outfits. It truly sucks the life out of the movie
“Glen throw throw myself off a cliff”
It reminds me of the 2004 Phantom of the Opera movie where the cast was left to sing the songs by themselves, meanwhile Minnie Driver, who's an actual singer, was dubbed over by an opera singer. Nothing against the actors, because they're working with what they're given, but shame on the people who are making these stupid decisions
I disagree about changing the weight gain storyline. Although scrutiny about not being skinny is not nearly as intense as it was in 2004, it is certainly still an issue, especially among "mean girls." I think Regina's and the other plastic's body type were important enough to the story to be considered heavily in the casting decision. So many of the plot elements and jokes in the original were about the kalteen bars and Regina only eating carbs. It wouldn't have felt like mean girls if they had dropped that
I think it's a bit weird that they got rid of "offensive" or "outdated" jokes. Yet they have a whole entire song about teens dressing in costumes to look sexy.
They changed the 115 line because Renee was uncomfortable singing it I believe!
Which is why it's weird that the didn't update the plot accordingly
I thought that they would just change it to 215.
@mylesmarkson1686 that would make no sense. If they wanted it to mean the same but to apply to actor they shouldve used her exact actual weight. As the definition of what's skinny enough .
@@rickwrites2612 What would've made sense is had they actually cast someone who was the right size to begin with.
Mentioning the fact that movies aren't marketed as musicals is so true, i saw the wonka trailer and thought it was just a normal film and then me and my friends went to see it on opening day at our local cinema. As soon as the singing started our suspension of disbelief was completely shattered and we spent the rest of the movie making fun of it and laughing at the autotune
…no, Aaron is ugly. For NO REASON. ✨🤣👀✨ Like his and Kady’s actors are pretty, but NOT together. In the same room or otherwise. It’s super weird, but they aren’t believable as a “thing” hypothetical or otherwise. To the degree that when Regina steps in I’m jumping Kady’s ship like it’s the Titanic.✨💀✨ I wanna laugh, but my feelings.✨😭✨
@@Glitchibohe only gives heartthrob bc of his role in the stupid "the summer i turned pretty"
This actor was giving more JD from Heathers vibe (a psychopath who'd kill everyone in the school but still decent enough to get a girlfriend) and not a teen heartthrob popular guy who'd have the most popular girls fight for him.
I got hooked up on Apex Predator from the broadway musical thanks to this video... I am looping it for few days now. It feels almost criminal what they did to it in the movie. The final WILL SHE BRAID YOUR HAIR, WILL SHE EAT YOUR HEART.. its so timid and devoted of any energy.. its like deaf people were in charge.
Also making it so ONLY Janis and Damien are the ones singing destroys the song.
The way I see it, Janis is trying to use animal language to explain to Cady that getting in with the plastics will only lead to her getting her face bitten off.
In the original musical I see Cady's lines as going "I see, I have an in, I know how ANIMALS WORK, if people are so similar, this will be easy!"
Having Janis and Damien flip flop between warning and encouragement... ? It's not good.
"The filmmakers are so scared that high school kids might consider musical theater cringe, that they tried to strip away everything that made Mean Girls: The Musical work." This is exactly right! I saw the movie in the theater. My husband and I (late 30’s) were basically the only adults in the room, the rest were teenagers. They ALL audibly groaned every time a song started. I think that if the filmmakers didn’t try to appeal to the kids, the actual kids might come around and start liking the songs as the movie went on.
I love Mean Girls. I love musicals. This one should have been a home run. But I could not make it all the way through the movie. I'm too old for the tiktokification of this classic film. Like were they only targeting the gen z audience? What about us millennials who grew up with the original? Why purposefully leave us out?
Like, the modernization of Mean Girls should have been a slam dunk, but nope.
Nahhh not even im gen Z and everyone at my high school is talking about how this adaptation sucked most of us watched the “old version” whe we were younger it was made in the 2000s so it’s really not that old I have no clue who the audience was for this one
I don't mean to be rude but not everything has to be about you
You said it yourself, you grew with the original, you have with, why would this one should be for you too?
Not trying to be rude, again, I grew up with the original too, but idk, your comment sounded a bit selfish
I don't mean to be rude, but why should it be about you? You said it yourself, 2004 Mean girls was your thing? Why should this be about you too? Not everything has to be
Again, I don't mean this in a rude way, but this comment sounds a bit selfish
@@mane53017Was it really necessary to make the exact same comment twice? Also them wanting for it to not alienate an entire age demographic that hey themselves fall in still doesn’t make this adaptation any less bad.
So, the biggest things is that you need to look at where we would've been seeing Mean Girls and its jokes. "Oh, the joke was he was Indian and laughing" "the joke about going to another store was because she was too fat and fat is funny". Even if that was the film's intent, those of us in the core demographic weren't seeing it that way? In those examples, it was that he was a bad rapper and he was rapping about math. Being Indian REALLY wasn't in there for viewers. In the case of the store and sizes, it was a large joke about how those elitist stores catered to such small sizes, and how women who shopped there would elevate themselves above others. It was less about Regina becoming lol fat, and more Regina gaining weight was her worst nightmare. And yeah, she clearly had some eating issues, but the fact that she refers to eating at Taco Bell (or 'I can't eat Taco Bell due to this specific diet' not 'I never eat it') shows she's not hyper disordered, she just manages her diet more like girls did, just in a satirical way.
That's why the 'those who eat their feelings' and 'those who don't eat their feelings' joke is a footnote and separated from Regina and the Plastics in presentation.
It's astonishing how you guys are so convinced it was a hellscape of phobias in the early 2000s. You just assume because your teachers, who were most definitely bullied and not for the reasons they'd tell you, said it was, you don't actually try to learn about that period of time, and assume the jokes you see are also in the worst faith.
It's not like it's super egregious, and I appreciate that you feel that if they did something the previous way, all things should be. I don't even object to updating humor in the movie. But the thing is that it's very insulting that you guys insist the viewers of these things thought that way. The older millennials--those of us who were teenagers at that time--didn't as a broad, general rule.
"But Shane Dawson and other racist content creators prove otherwise." We weren't the primary demo at that point. We had, like, jobs already. That would be younger millennials and, you guessed it, older Gen Z. So try not to reflect what you THINK viewers took from a joke if you were too young to be in that demographic. That's for all generations and all eras. Trust me.
Grechen is a Heather Duke, not a Heather McNamara. The movie explicitly has her compare Regina to Caesar and herself to Brutus. It's good to have a closer look at what being parked squarely under Regina's thumb does to Grechen's psyche, but you can't make her meek.
Edit: By the by, Heathers would be a great movie -> musical -> whatever the fuck the 2018 show was to examine. Because it takes that thing where part of the story is updated and parts of it aren't, leading to a massive mismatch in the script and takes it all the way to 11. And I will never stop comparing Mean Girls to Heathers.
2:50 are there… people who are surprised to find out wicked is a musical? Huh?
Are you blissfully unaware of the existence of the horrendous Mean Girls 2?
He mentions it in passing several times when talking about Mean Girls being rebooted every 10 years or so.
My head cannon is that it doesn’t exist 💀
There’s no Mean Girls 2 in Ba Sing Se
@madebyCharlene lol
😮 I had successfully blocked it from memory before reading these comments.
Great video! I remember when I heard there was a new "Mean Girls" movie coming out and I was like: really? is this necessary?
I don't get why they made it into a musical either. It just doesn't work and takes out a lot of the humor.
I think they were just making the actual musical into a movie but didn't really want it to be too much of a musical which is ridiculous.
Yeah studios need to realize that "maybe we shouldnt..." is a valid option.
The musical is great
@@aj_san3788I think it’s better that it wasn’t much of a musical it would be too musical like and the música would seem exaggerated
The fact that people were saying that the actress who played Regina on Broadway and in the new movie was "fat" is ridiculous. Have these people never seen an actual fat person before? Lizzo, Jorge Garcia, the "fluffy" guy, Jack Black...they're at least in the category of being over a healthy weight and therefore could be described as fat. That girl...I know you mentioned her name but I forgot lol...she looks to be at a healthy body weight, not overweight and certainly not fat. It would still be wrong to harp on about it if she was actually overweight, but to go after someone who isn't fat for being fat is not only disgusting but ridiculous. No wonder so many people have body issues when the media is telling them that someone who is of a healthy weight needs to lose weight.
That's what I'm saying!! When people have a healthy body weight everyone takes it as fat. They do *NOT* know what fat is.
I have a very special relationship with the Mean Girls movie. When I was in my (Christian)high school, everyone loved Mean Girls. We would be always quoting it and saying which charters everyone was. We even got to watch the movie for the last week of my senior year. And the only reason we got to is because there was one cool teacher who knew how much the graduating class that year loved it and since most of us were 18, broke a big rule and let us watch it. Best part is no one snitched so she didn’t get fired for showing us that her non Christian movie.
That’s beautiful
That reference to the Wicked trailler at the end cut deep... I love Wicked and have been looking forward to the film adaptation, though while I'm not actually familiar with the actress playing Elphaba, my first thought upon viewing the trailer was "ummm there's no way that was the best version of her hitting such an _iconic_ part of the musical... Why would they include that?" It makes me nervous 🫣
Yeah like if she sang rhat live I would be like "nit perfect but doesn't bother me" but in a film version? Seems odd and her throat sounds super constructed to hit that note
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial yeah, it's just so weird to me. It's not the easiest song to sing and that final run can come out pretty rough sometimes, especially if your throat gets dry or you find yourself out of breath. I definitely can't always do it and even the Broadway performers have trouble sometimes, but that's when singing live, so it's understandable. There's really no excuse for it to sound like that when sung in a film... I wonder if it was maybe just a strange stylistic choice or altered for the trailer to make it sound like she's actually yelling instead of singing (the whole "let's hide that this is a musical" thing), but that's even weirder to me, because I'm pretty sure everyone knows that Wicked is a musical... Idk. None of it makes sense, but I really want to be optimistic.
Was NOT expecting a Bunheads reference. Just had to buy to rewatch after they removed it from Hulu.
i haven’t watched it since it was airing on tv. Maybe i should rewatch bunheads too lol
No one ever expects a bunhead reference. This is why I must make one.
@@Asteroids50 it was more recycled GG material than I had remembered, but I love Sutton on Younger, so Bunheads is a fun watch.
Bunheads fans unite
I believe they did an interview type promotional video and the actor for aaron kinda confirmed that they they didnt make him sing so it was already planned to not make him sing since they hired him without him even singing on the audition.
I’d highly recommend Chisom’s video on the costumes. She went over how trash the new outfits were and compared them to the characters’ outfits in the OG film.
The biggest takeaway was that they made The Plastics wear Shein and Cider in the new film. What wealthy, egotistical, megalomaniacal mean girl would go anywhere near those sites? To The Plastics, it’d be the equivalent of shopping for clothes at Walmart.
With how obsessed the filmmakers were about TikTok, you’d assume they’d also get modern, trendy fashion right.
I left a similar comment about that under Chisom's videos (I went on a spree last night and watched all her videos about Mean Girls). The costume designers should have put the characters in good timeless outfits and these outfits would have become trendy, but instead they put them in the latest (at the time) tiktok microtrend which probably stopped being trendy before the shooting was done. The original outfits from 2004 were not only timeless and trendy, but they looked good even when these particular pieces weren't trendy because they were well coordinated, the colors and outfits had meaning and fit the characters well, enhancing the plot, and were well tailored, making especially the plastics look more expensive. Putting Renee Rapp in Shein looks so bad on her and I think she is incredibly hot but the outfits are working against her.
this video has just made me fall in love with broadway gretchen weiners
Good
It feels like they chose the actor for Cady based on wanting her to match the mom, Jenna Fischer.
But they barely used Jenna Fischer
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial It was odd they wrote out Cady's dad for whatever reason.
Okay so as an ADHDer with hyperfixations galore who went to the film set when it was filming, OH BOY DO I HAVE STUFF TO SAY ABOUT THIS MOVIE:
I would like to stress, EVEN AS SOMEONE WHO LIKES THIS MOVIE, THEY MADE SOME DUMB DECISIONS.
Okay first? The school? It was MUCH BIGGER than the movie showed. There were entire areas they could have used that would have actually been cool. So, for reference, there are four places from the movie prominently featured: the front, the gym, the hallways, and the cafeteria. I went to 3 out of the 4, and almost every time, the building had cool areas that weren't in shot in the movie! Like literally they have a full hallway they NEVER use that's slightly wider than the other that shows up behind World Burn for a sec but WHO CARES ABT THAT
Second: The cafeteria scenes. Oh boy the cafeteria scenes 😭 Okay so in the actual, physical building, the lunch room expanded slightly further into the hallway and it looked... interesting, kinda underdone and weird bc the tables would technically spread into the hallway, but like also authentic and made the room look bigger... but, NOT ACCORDING TO MEAN GIRLS 2024. They made it look sooo much smaller when it really felt just kinda obtuse walking through. Like not even do ANYTHING or put a rug down and extend the cafeteria or something like that! So yeah that was weird.
Last: I actually got to meet Renee Rapp there as well (before she was cool too ☺) and she was so nice and really kind in a way that surprised me. I actually met her on accident bc she was coming into the school as we were leaving on a random sidewalk. When me and my bestie were talking to her, rather than being like narcissistic or rude or anything, she was actually nice and asked us if we saw certain parts of the set yet. She absolutely deserves the world, she was so genuine and authentic that when you talked to her, it felt like you stepped into an interview. She actually asked me questions about a class I was taking she deserves the world.
Overall, I felt like the vibe on set among the extras (being there one day ofc) was really fun. Like it was February but we went the day they filmed the part of Revenge Party with the Christmas bell costumes, the girls in the hallway fawning over Regina and the pastel hallway scene, so all the people from these big scenes were in the tents at the time. And while a few of them got to interact with some of the celebs, most of them didn't and were choreo or just background so it kinda felt equalizing.
The problem, all this to say, ultimately came down to certain decisions made by the studio. They had all the pieces for a great movie, but they fumbled so hard 😭 I mean y'all had RENEE RAPP in your movie how does this movie go wrong??
The set annoyed me so much as well (saying this as a viewer, I didn't work on the project). Not only did the new film not take place at the mall (because apparently malls don't exist now), but the characters are either in school or in their houses and it gets boring and repetitive. Plus, the school did look small, I guess that's because of the lower number of locations compared to the 2004 version. In the original film it's like there's more locations and more space, making it look like an actual believable school, and in the 2024 version the school looked like the smallest school ever (i am forever disappointed in the scene where Aaron caught Regina cheating on him and the fact that there wasn't a run and chase montage over Blondie's One Way Or Another)
I think the biggest issue is that Hollywood is focused on pandering instead of trying to make good movies.
Yeah
I tried to watch it and just stopped and gave up about 25mins in.
it’s absolutely terrible
Its just not something that really needs to be adapted as a musical.
Tina Fey must be going through some serious cognitive decline.
😂 I saw the trailer and immediately knew it would suck so bad. Mean girls movie (2004) > mean girls musical > mean girls musical/ movie (2024) > mean girls 2. You can’t beat the original, it’s a timeless classic.
I felt really bad for Avantika as karen cause its clear she was doing her ebst to match the Broadway version and even killed sexy karens one solo song. But instead of rewarding her with an actual good story for karen they cut her so much to the point the only thing i remember is her being borderline mentally disabled and having a catchy song. What made the original karen so memorable was not just her dumbness but her sweetness and empathy. she may not have been smart but she showed genuine love for her friends, this was not at all reflected in the 2024 version.
Exactly! I really think the actress could have shined (shone??? Idk) if they didn't reduce her narrative
I have seen the musical in person myself. I genuinely feel like the musical itself was done PERFECTLY, and is top tier. But the adjustments they made and the songs they cut that added vital heart to the story just ruin the movie.
Like my biggest one is how the whole point for Janice is to show that even though she dressed the way she did and got made fun of for being “gay”, at the end you see that she does indeed like men, and her clothes don’t tell you what kind of people she’s into. In the musical movie they remove it and make her gay, first of all defeating the whole message, but also, as a gay person, them removing it to avoid being problematic is honestly even worse. Homophobia is a thing that happens in schools. The movie is about mean people making fun of others. INCLUDE IT.
Edit: this has nothing to do with Janice’s actor!! In fact, I feel she was an AMAZING redesign and update for the semi “scene” 2000’s Janice. Absolutely nailed the part. It’s not her, it’s the writing.
They ruined Jannice character by not making her Lebanese!
They probably did that because people don't seem to understand that one can be Lebanese and lesbian at the same time.
@@mylesmarkson1686 That was the joke
@@mylesmarkson1686 That was the joke
@@mane53017 Oh yeah? Where was that in the movie? Janis does mention that she's Lebanese at the end, but that's only because Kevin G thought she was Puerto Rican. There was never any confusion about lesbian and Lebanese throughout the entire film.
its sad when an adaptation doesnt seem to understand the core elements of what made its source material so successful. and it feels like it happens over and over and over again...
also, its truly baffling to be adapting a theater musical into a musical film and have a main actor whos absolutely dog shit at singing and dancing. like, besides acting those are the two main things you should need to be able to do to star in a musical.
the original is me and my mom’s favorite movie. we watch it constantly and can quote the whole thing at each other (we also both like the musical). we saw the 2024 version and left the theater saying “that was AWFUL!” such a disappointment:(
Does Hollywood know how to make good musicals? Or should they leave it to Broadway? Why????
At this point leave it to Broadway. Too many directors in Hollywood don’t understand how musicals work or feel like they’re above their material. “Oh my gosh, are we singing?” is like if an action director had the star say “Whoa did we just jump out of an exploding helicopter? That’s so lame, what is this?” Unless it was a parody, you’d find it insulting for the creator to just act like they’re too cool for the conventions of your genre.
I so agree. As a non-musical movie the original was ten times better -but they didn’t transform it in a separate thing, a really good musical
I think the movie for CHICAGO did such a great job! It's rare though.
Speaking as a Gen Z person that grew up with Millennial Influences:
Did they ask a "cool hipp youngster" what they grew up with and love? Like basic research.
Your line of:" it's like they were scared that younger generations think musicals are cringe"
I grew up with Musicals. I love Musicals. The numbers on good musical movies tell you that we love musicals.
Hazbin Hotel is on a fucking Trend Train and not loosing steam anytime soon, ah yes and did I mention that (without the pilot) they have 2 musical numbers per episode?!
They slap btw big recommendation.
Anyways. My generation loves music. We connect with it, just like generations before us.
I know I can't speak for everyone but the only "cringe" musicals are the ones that do it wrong.
Cats (the movie version) also didn't understand how the source material worked, the movie is horrible. But I bought the original Cat stage Filming (the one you can buy on UA-cam) because I think it's sooo good and a prime example of what a musical is.
The UA-cam channel "Sideways" explains it better than me.
So yeah... Hollywood can make good musicals, if they do their fucking Research and understand what they are doing.
They are too scared to piss off small groups of people that don't have the same opinion, they want to be liked by everyone. This destroys them.
@@sleeples7852 “They want to be liked by everyone. This destroys them.” *Drops a mic for you.*
OMG, I watched this movie last night, and the things you said about Janis was _exactly_ the same thing I said after watching it! I was so glad that they admitted to her being a lesbian, but _hated_ how they removed the "Me and Regina George _know_ we're mean...."_ and Cady's _"It's not my fault you're in love with me or something!"_
There were quite a few other things that bothered me. (Like, they axed the most iconic quotes!)
But the treatment of Janis was a complete and total travesty.
The thing about the rumour that Janice is a lesbian was that it was WRONG. It was a lie that Regina made up, showing another level of mean girl in her. (not that there is anything wrong with being gay. But noone wants to have lies told about them.)
So having Regina exploit that fact that Janice is actually a lesbian is actually not that bad. Telling the truth about someone is not as bad as telling a lie. (even though outing someone who is not ready to be out is abhorrent as well)
Agreed -- that's why the line about Janice being in love with Cady is such a slap in the face: she should know better, she does know better, and yet she's falling in line with Regina's propaganda.
Thank you for this great video! I didn’t know there was a Mean Girls musical until the 2024 movie remake. I’ve only seen the original Mean Girls movie. Thank you for showing the broadway and it’s history and all the talent people who made it successful.
My pleasure!
I think something to at least touch on is the success of the workshop production of Heathers in 2009. I definitely think it influenced the decision to make Mean Girls a Broadway musical. They even cast Veronica Sawyer's actress, Barrett Wilbert Weed, as Janice.
"Too Broadway to function" that earned a sub ngl 😂
Haha thanks
Well put. I do like the glitching effect though, it draws a parallel to physically breaking a system just like she has broken these social circles
The mean girls musical came out when I was a freshman in high school. I love the original movie, and I was a huge theater kid, having just gotten into broadway the year prior. And I really liked it when it came out! In retrospect, I don’t love the musical as much as I used to, but I still enjoy a lot of the songs (meet the plastics, sexy, stupid with love, world burn, even I’d rather be me is super nostalgic for me). But the movie felt so genuinely bad to watch. My favorite parts of some songs were toned down or cut (the whole point of meet the plastics is to meet the plastics, not just Regina, and the overlapping of all of the singing is one of my favorite musical tropes. And one of my favorite lines is the “calcu-lust” one because it displays Cady’s awkward excitement, but it was so dull and boring in the movie. It’s a fun line, why make it so lame?) and it all felt so soulless. Which sucks- I like movie musicals. Sweeney Todd was what got me into broadway. But so many of the ones that have been coming out have been so ashamed of being musicals, which is so sad to see. Music as a storytelling method has been around for about as long as humans have, and I hate that less people are experiencing good musicals just because execs think people will think they’re “cringe” and most of the few that do get made are subpar.
“This movie is actually rad as heck” is what I’ve been seeing a lot of about the 2017 power rangers. It was really good and I wish it got a sequel.
One day I'll do a deep dive on that movie. It holds such a special place in my heart because - as a huge power rangers fan as a kid - the movie makes the story FEEL as serious as you thought it was as a kid. Especially with season like light speed rescue, time force, and wild force
I LOVE the power rangers movie. Its so fun.
As you should :)
Auli'i sounds like she's singing the stage versions, but the music producer is just denying her of a proper backing track. Put her vocals on the stage show's instrumentals and it would sound right.
Great point
All of these reboots are ruining everything we loved
i loved damien in this movie .. janice was good too.. but i felt the same about Cady she is the main focus of the movie and this new girl was BLAND af
1) I think its really crazy that the made Janis in this film like...more directly schemy/mean than in the musical but have her sing "Id Rather be me"
2) I think it's also really odd that they cut out so many songs. Like, the character development for most of the characters is literally gone from the songs being cut out. Like they cut out Fearless. And I will admit I dont listen to that song very much but it kinda develops the plastics whole serving as a transitional song. But shre, they don't need the transitional song. But they also cut out More is Better which develops Cady and Aaron. I think you're right in the terms of "I'd rather be me" could've been given to Gretchen. They literally had the chance to show a more developed version of her or take her even further than the music and instead they reduced her down to basically nothing. Not even the movie Gretchen. It makes me really upset because shes genuinely my favorite part of the musical. Also I suspect they cut out "It Roars" for a bit of the ignorance? In the lyrics? Idk. But im mad they cut that too.
3) I think its also weird that they would cast people who cannot sing to be stars in a musical film. Maybe if it's one or two characters and they don't really matter much but you can't half a$$ a musical film. Go all in or dont make one. Having the MAIN CHARACTER and her lead romantic interests unable to sing at a theater level is so disappointing. Especially Aaron. Because the actual stage musical continued to have the problem of having a guy on stage who cannot sing. While *yes* he only has short singing parts, his parts do create a bit of depth and are noticable when missing. I just thought they'd keep them for this film. But instead the actually made Aaron the human equivalent of a Styrofoam cupcake: Pretty but nothing of substance. He's got no personality.
THANK YOU I was actually JUST in my high schools version of Mean Girls and I played Cady and even though this is about the movie, it carries a ton of the same problems the musical had as well as then adding more. The musical itself is… bad. It’s really bad. It actively destroyed a good portion of the characters and their development and the movie musical takes it a step even further somehow. Plus then casting Angourie Rice when she clearly cannot carry Cady vocally is so baffling to me. You know it’s a sad day when a high schooler can sing better than the lead in a movie musical. She was actually one of my inspirations though for Revenge Party as I went 110% every performance so I wouldn’t sound bored and off key. Not to mention how much I hated Stupid With Love in this movie. The musical is pretty bad and it’s esp shown in the songs but honestly, I like it. Is it cringey? Yes. But is it fun? YES. And that’s thanks to how energetic the songs can get. With the movie… we don’t get that. And it’s horrible.
Yup, yup, yup. Musical is bad, but fun, while this movie adaptation is bland, keeping poor decisions from its predecessors while making new mistakes. Disappointing, all around.
There shouldn’t be a musical version to begin with. Musicals really suck to sit through to begin with and then you take a beloved movie and ruin it? We don’t need High School musical mean girls edition. We just needed an up to date mean girls. A sequel. Musicals belong on stage. Not in a movie theater to bore us to oblivion. The songs also really freaking sucked. Kids don’t just break out into song so the unrealistic mess needed to not happen.
@@Justsomebodyelse235
Why are you complaining to us and not to Tina Fey?
@@Justsomebodyelse235 don’t think their intention was necessarily to ruin it. You say high schoolers don’t usually break into song but it’s literally a musical you have to suspend your disbelief for a reason. And yeah. The songs suck, they’re badly written but they’re there bc it’s a musical? Did we need it, no not really but I don’t think they were intentionally making it bad
Can you please tell me where you got the footage for the stage musical? I've been trying to find one with the full original cast for so long!
I think he got clips of a show with either full original broadway cast or mainly original broadway cast, where Renee raps already replaced the original actress. Both of these options are on youtube as slime tutorials, look up 'mean girls slime tutorial' and further details are in the titel. The one with full original cast was uploaded about a month ago.
Love the videos, man. Keep it up!!!
Thank you so much! That means a lot
As a plus size person it is so baffling to me that someone can look at this gorgeous girl and think she looks even a little bit fat? I am a big lover of body neutrality so whether or not she is or isn't has no bearing on her desirability, worth, or ability to play a character ... but it's still so crazy people thought THIS GIRL was fat??? I am legit confused. She doesn't even seem mid-sized to me??
who are you talking about?
@vivianchancellor7126 my bad, I'm talking about Renée Rapp
If you have to adapt the song to fit someone's vocal range or one of the cast members REFUSES to sing despite it being a musical, those people should not be cast.
The fact Renee Rapp signed onto movie after Broadway basically descided to cover up her body in the role reflects really well on her and really badly on everyone else. She should not have had to go through that!! Why do people still feel comfortable targeting peoples bodies and why was Broadway so willing to bend over backwards to support their twisted viewpoint??
Also, can they please stop hiring actors for musicals who *CAN'T SING!* 😮💨
EXACTLY!!!