On Jan. 12, the new “Mean Girls” (2024) released as a reboot to the classic original. The film features Reneé Rapp as Regina George, Avantika Vandanapu as Karen Shetty, Bebe Wood as Gretchen Wieners and Angourie Rice as Cady Heron, with Tina Fey and Tim Meadows brought back to play their original roles. The reboot uses the original Broadway soundtrack inventively to retell the timeless story.

After living her whole life in Africa, the film’s protagonist Cady Heron arrives at her new school in the United States. Without any friends, Heron becomes shy in her unfamiliar school. That changes once she’s introduced to Janis and Damian in her homeroom class. The Plastics are a trio of girls named Regina, Gretchen and Karen. Janis tells Cady stories about how Janis bullied her in middle school. When Cady begins to receive attention from the Plastics, Janis suggests that Cady should take advantage of the opportunity and get the ultimate revenge. Cady becomes friends with Regina in order to learn her secrets and expose her for who she is. Cady becomes one of the Plastics, and actually ends up enjoying being popular. Cady’s personality is altered as her grades drop and she begins to focus on getting the attention of Aaron Samuels, a boy in her class and Regina’s ex boyfriend. However, Regina gets back with Aaron, which just furthers Cady’s drive to take Regina down.

The new “Mean Girls” retains a lot of the same iconic scenes, but is still independent. “Mean Girls” (2024)  incorporates more modern aspects into the movie, such as social media and current popular makeup brands being advertised throughout. The musical performances were unexpected because while the songs were the same, the actors performed it differently; but they did not compare closely to the Broadway version. However, this is obviously a different adaptation of the original, so it is interesting to see how different actors interpret the roles and lines differently. Each actor has a different way to characterize their role. While some lines and scenes are the same, there might be a different tone that the actors would portray it in in the reboot. 

Overall, the movie is definitely fun to watch and spot the similarities and differences between the original and the Broadway version and this new version. The movie is definitely worth watching, especially if you are a fan of the original movie or the Broadway musical.