On January 12, 2024, the new Mean Girls movie musical was released. The original Mean Girls movie has cemented itself as a beloved staple of the 2000’s with characters such as Regina George and Cady Heron remaining iconic to this day. 

A little over a decade later, the Mean Girls Broadway musical debuted and immediately became a hit, making over $1,000,000 in only its first week. Needless to say, both fans of the movie and the musical highly anticipated the release of the 2024 musical. 

The movie has mixed reviews but as a fan of both the original 2004 movie and the Broadway soundtrack, I personally felt the movie was a disappointment.

In the new movie, Angourie Rice plays the role of Cady Heron, despite her inability to act or sing. While Rice has some acting experience, she has very little singing experience, and it shows. 

Her voice came off as completely emotionless, most notably in the song Revenge Party. In the song, Cady is supposed to be angry and dramatic, and Rice doesn’t make it sound like she is either of those things.

According to Rice, she hadn’t even auditioned for the role, she just got an email from director Tina Fey out of the blue. The reason she got this email wasn’t simply luck, but a result of being the daughter of Australian film director, Jermey Rice and actress Kate Rice.

Though Angourie Rice isn’t a good singer, it is not only her fault that the soundtrack was bad. Song lyrics and beats had been changed, and some of her co-stars weren’t the best at singing either. 

In the fan-favorite song Sexy, sung by the character Karen Smith, the beat had been altered and Avantika Vandanapu’s voice fell flat at the end of the song where she was supposed to belt. 

In the song Meet the Plastics, the film focuses almost entirely on Regina without really introducing Karen or Gretchen. The only saving grace of this film was Reneé Rapp, who had previously performed as Regina George on Broadway in 2020-21. 

Rapp initially garnered recognition for her captivating performance of the song World Burn, which went viral after her Broadway debut. Rapp is the best singer and actress in the main cast without a doubt.

Part of the reason fans of the original had high expectations for the new movie was that the screenplay was written by Tina Fey, the writer and director of the original movie. 

Unfortunately, she fell short of the high standard the original movie set. In an attempt to modernize the film, Fey included multiple scenes which centered around social media. Gossip throughout the school is spread on TikTok and real-life influencers such as Chris Olsen are shown weighing in on the drama from TikTok. 

It is obvious that Fey is trying to appeal to Gen Z through this but failed miserably. 

One of the most notable scenes in the original is Regina figuring out that Cady gave her the Kalteen Bars to make her gain weight. That scene is when everything finally comes crashing down for Cady. 

First, she lost her real friends, Janice and Damian, and now she even lost the Plastics. Cady giving Regina the Kalteen Bars is our first real glimpse at Cady becoming a mean girl herself. 

In the new film, Regina is at home when her mom reveals the truth about Kalteen Bars, making the scene very anti-climatic.

Because the majority of the main cast in the new movie were poor singers and actresses and multiple scenes were completely changed, Mean Girls (2024) was a letdown for me and other fans of the original movie and musical. 

Throughout the years, Mean Girls has never lost its popularity, and I believe they shouldn’t have attempted a remake and messed with its legacy.