20 years later, the Plastics are back. Tina Fey’s new Mean Girls movie, based on the Broadway adaptation of the OG movie, hit theaters on January 12, and while it in no way came close to topping the original movie, the film had a few noteworthy moments. The music in the movie adds to the energy and the Gen Z cultural references make it more relatable, but they were still able to capture a lot of the iconicness of the first movie.

In many ways, this musical adaptation is very similar to the original movie, following the same plot and characters, even down to the dialogue. Both movies feature a new student, Cady Heron (Angourie Rice), who moved to North Shore High School from Africa after being homeschooled her entire life. 

She falls face-first into the drama and the school’s queen bees: The Plastics. Her new friends, Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey) convince her to try to spy on Regina George (Renee Rapp). While at first Cady is hesitant and likes Regina, after Regina kisses her crush (Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney)), Cady is on board for the revenge party. 

However, the remake differs from the original as movie producers tried to make the film more appealing to younger audiences. Any of the offensive elements of the OG movie were removed, making the film more inclusive. Producers incorporated less sexism, body-shaming, and homophobia that was present in the original; although these themes are not entirely gone. 

In an attempt to make the movie more relatable, the film changed more than just these moral dilemmas. Social media plays an important role in the movie and the popularity of the plastics, the character’s outfits fit with 2024, not 2004 trends, and the overall events of the movie match today’s trends. 

The biggest difference from the OG movie is unmistakably the music. Going into the movie, the most confusing part was whether it was supposed to be a remake, sequel, or musical adaptation. Having watched it now, it’s clear that the movie is a musical remake, but in trying to make it both a musical and a remake they made the movie more confusing, and didn’t fully succeed in either. The new movie has characters breaking out in the middle of scenes to sing and dance. 

The songs are catchy and fun, but unlike Broadway musicals, they are not used to move the plot along, but instead performed as big dance numbers. Not only were the dance numbers the biggest difference from the OG movie, but they were probably my favorite part of the film too. The songs brought a unique and lyrical element the previous movies lacked. Even though the film was a remake, at times scenes felt repetitive and too familiar to the original, so the songs gave the old movie a new energy. 

The most capturing aspect of the movie was the ever-iconic Regina George. Played by Renee Rapp, she is the very definition of a queen bee. From her outfits to her stares, she embodies Regina George in every sense. She ate. It’s hard not to be obsessed. 

All in all, the movie is funny, but it lacks the originality of the first film; the only difference is that this one was given a Gen-Z makeover. The movie isn’t quite as iconic as the original and it’s trying a little too hard to conform to the older version, but for a remake, it has some sense of uniqueness with the songs, and it’s fun to see the iconic Mean Girls adapted for our generation.