In January of 2024, the new Mean Girls movie was released to theatres, twenty years after the release of the original movie. The new Mean Girls is roughly the same as the original, however, it is combined with the Broadway version of the movie, meaning that the movie is a musical. Mean Girls is based off of the book Queen Bees and Wannabees by Rosalind Wiseman, which is a self-help book for parents of teenage girls that talks about the danger of cliques and bullying. The screenplays for both movies were written by Tina Fey. “I love the old one. I hate the new one,” said Cascade High School parent, Doug Black.
“They both have Tina Fey in them, so that means I’m a fan of both of them,” said CHS staff member, Mrs. Renner-Singer.
The new Mean Girls is more modern and had double the budget of the 2004 movie, which was eighteen million dollars. The bigger budget makes the movie more dramatic and able to use fancy, artsy camera movements that show the transitions between scenes. For example, the movie both begins and ends inside of Janis’s garage. Although, because of the inclusion of the songs in the new movie, the plot line seems more rushed, and the audience does not receive as many jokes or scenes from the original movie. Most of the jokes from the 2004 Mean Girls would not have been as positive or funny to a 2024 audience.
Three out of four of the original “Mean Girls” plus Kevin G and Damian came back to play their old roles in a collection of Walmart Black Friday commercials in 2023. The commercials showed Amanda Seyfried as Karen Smith, now as a meteorologist, Lacey Chabert as Gretchen Wieners, now a mom, Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron, now the guidance counselor at North Shore High School (the school in both movies), Rajiv Surendra as Kevin Gnapoor, now a father to Kevin Jr, and Daniel Franzese as Damian, now the drama teacher at North Shore. The commercials showed each of their points of views during Black Friday.
Paramount Pictures announced the start of production of the new movie in January of 2020, so the Walmart commercials were a smart way to get fans hyped up for the new movie. The commercials included a lot of jokes from the original movie, and it was fun to see how the characters are living in the 2020s and how they react to the new slang that teenagers use.
Both movies follow the same plot line: Cady Heron moves from Africa to a suburban area in Illinois after her mom is offered a job at the local university. Cady then has to go to high school after being home schooled by her mom her entire life. During her first week of school, she meets Janis and Damian who show her the basics of high school and become her first actual friends. Then Janis and Damian warn Cady about the “Plastics” who are the most popular and mean girls in the school. After a boy named Jason hits on Cady in front of the Plastics’ lunch table, Regina George becomes interested in Cady and starts asking her questions. After being invited to sit with them at lunch for the rest of the week, Janis takes advantage of this opportunity and tells Cady to tell her everything that the Plastics talk about.
When Cady develops a crush on Regina’s ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels, she is told that she cannot like Aaron since she is friends with Regina. However, Regina finds out about Cady’s crush and tells Cady that she will talk to Aaron for her. Except that Regina tells Aaron that she is weird and Regina gets back together with him. Cady gets upset and when she tells Janis and Damian about this, Janis comes up with a plan to take down Regina George. The steps to this plan are to make all of Regina’s fans hate her, make her lose her “hot body”, and make Aaron dump her.
When all the steps are completed, Regina finds out about what Cady did to her and she unleashes the power of the Burn Book, which is a hot pink binder that the Plastics glued in yearbook pictures of the junior girls (plus Damian) and wrote mean comments about them. Regina then takes the Burn Book to school and makes copies of the pages within. Everybody finds out about the Burn Book and dozens of fights break out. Principal Duvall makes all the girls (plus Damian) go to the gym and Ms. Norbury tells the girls that they have to treat each other with respect. Janis announces to the girls that it was she and Cady that set out to destroy Regina. Regina storms out of the gym and Cady runs after her trying to apologize.
Then the most iconic part of the movie happens: Regina yells back at Cady and then she gets hit by a bus. Regina is badly injured, and Cady gets in trouble for the Burn Book since she wrote that Ms. Norbury sells drugs. Cady goes to the mathletes tournament to find herself again and make it up to Ms. Norbury and then she sneaks off to the Spring Fling dance where she wins Spring Fling Queen. She uses this opportunity to apologize to everybody and says that everybody deserves to be queen. Everything is happy again and the Plastics go their separate ways since they are no longer bound to their clique.
Even though the 2004 Mean Girls was supposed to bring awareness to the teenage warfare between girls, after the movie’s release, many high schools had problems with their own versions of Burn Books. Teenage girls wanted to recreate the power of Regina George and looked beyond the main purpose of the film.
“[My favorite part was when] you get to see Lindsay Lohan in the last five minutes of the movie,” said Doug Black, a diehard fan of Lohan.
Tina Fey and Tim Meadows came back for the new Mean Girls movie to play their roles as Ms. Norbury and Principal Duvall. “They both have Tina Fey in them, so that means I’m a fan of both of them,” said CHS staff member, Mrs. Renner-Singer. In the original movie, it was obvious that Principal Duvall had feelings for Ms. Norbury, and they even danced together at the Spring Fling at the end of the movie. In the 2024 adaptation, the two of them seem to have gotten together, though it is not specified if they got married or not, but the audience can assume that they do live together. When Ms. Norbury is asked to handle the Burn Book situation, she says “Fine, but you’re walking the dogs for the rest of the week.” Then Mr. Duvall says, “Thank you. I love you.” It was pleasant to see that these two characters had gotten their happy ending. It’s also fun to see a picture of Principal Duvall from the original movie on the wall in his office in the new Mean Girls. He also wears a brace on his right hand in the new movie which alludes to the original where he’s wearing a cast and tells Ms. Norbury that his carpal tunnel came back, though in the new movie, it is never said why he’s wearing the brace.
In both movies, Principal Duvall is strangely knowledgeable about the gossip surrounding Regina George and Aaron Samuels. In the 2004 Mean Girls, he talks about how he heard that they got back together at the Halloween party, but how would he know about a teen party when he was not there, and the party wasn’t broken up? The 2024 version shows him being shocked when Regina and Aaron walk into school together and he sings “Is she back with Aaron?” during the song, “Revenge Party”. It is important for principals to be aware and caring about what is happening with their students, but Principal Duvall is a little suspicious with his interest in the couple.
Lindsay Lohan also came back for the new movie; however, she does not play an older version of her character like Fey and Meadows. Lohan plays the mathletes’ judge at the competition and when Cady is stressing about solving the current problem, Lohan’s character comically says, “I don’t know your life.” Lohan’s character also alludes to the original movie when the two mathletes’ teams are tied, and she says “this has only happened once before” meaning the mathletes’ competition in the original Mean Girls. “[My favorite part was when] you get to see Lindsay Lohan in the last five minutes of the movie,” said Doug Black, a diehard fan of Lohan.
One positive note from the new Mean Girls is the casting of Reneé Rapp as Regina George, who played Regina on Broadway for ten months until the musical was shut down for Covid. She was only nineteen when she landed the role on Broadway. From Covid up until the production of the movie, she had been working on TV shows, and creating her own album, Snow Angel. Reneé even has a song on the Mean Girls’ soundtrack, “Not My Fault”, which plays during the credits of the movie. It is such a happy surprise to hear the beginning of the song start up with the 2004 Cady Heron saying her iconic line: “You know what? It’s not my fault that you’re like in love with me or something,” then Reneé starts singing about how “it’s not [her] fault”. The song has so much energy and could create a good vibe in any situation, especially when Megan Thee Stallion starts her rap section of the song. Shortly after the movie came out, Saturday Night Live had Reneé sing “Not My Fault” on the show and Tik Tok blew up with clips of her dancing during the song. The original actress for Regina George, Rachel McAdams, was the one to introduce Reneé’s performance on SNL. Reneé quickly gained an audience amongst teenagers and has developed a large fan base from both her acting in Mean Girls and her own music.
Another couple of changes in the new movie include a new diversity of races amongst the characters. Karen Smith is now Karen Shetty and Janis Ian is now Janis Imi’ike. Both these characters were white in the 2004 movie but in 2024, Karen is now Indian and Janis is Hawaiian. The 2024 Damian is black and not white like his 2004 version, but his last name was never mentioned in the original movie, so there’s no knowing if his name changed for the new movie.
One fun fact about the 2024 Mean Girls is that Janis Imi’ike is played by Auliʻi Cravalho, who is the voice of Moana. Though fans could not recognize her in the movie because of Janis’s extreme makeup looks and short hair style.
Karen was played by Amanda Seyfried in the 2004 Mean Girls and had more screen time and lines than the 2024 Karen. Karen does get her own song in the 2024 movie, where she sings about all of the costumes worn by the female characters in the Halloween scene. The movie version of the song has different lyrics than the Broadway version. The lyrics “This is modern feminism talking, I expect to run the world in shoes I cannot walk in,” were changed to “This is modern feminism talking. Watch me as I run the world in shoes I cannot walk in,” for the movie. The song was popular on Tik Tok a couple of years back, so fans could sing along to the movie, but it was strange to sing along with the song and then sing the wrong lyrics.
The new Mean Girls also has Kevin G. rapping “The Mathlete Rap” during the Winter Showcase, but the new version is shorter and less comprehensive. Mr. Duvall shuts down his inappropriate song like in the original, but he says, “Kevin we talked about this,” suggesting that Mr. Duvall remembers Kevin’s rap from the original.
Fans were also excited to see Chris Briney playing Aaron Samuels. He played Conrad Fisher on the Amazon show, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and the female population struggled to decide between him and his costar, Gavin Casalegno, as the heartthrob of the summer in 2023. Briney was a good choice for casting in the new movie because of the large audience of teen girls that would go watch Mean Girls. The original Aaron Samuels was played by Johnathan Bennett who had a Justin Bieber styled haircut in the movie, which would be more attractive to a female audience in 2004. “I think it’s better honestly because I like the actors better, they’re less insufferable. The other actors were really annoying,” said Adrian Renner-Singer (12).
A small change in the new Mean Girls is Cady’s love for math. In the original, Cady is telling Damian about her class schedule and Damian is shocked that she is taking 12th grade math as a junior. Damian doesn’t like math, but when Cady says that she likes math because “it’s the same in every country” Damian believes her point of view on the subject to be beautiful. However, in the new Mean Girls, Cady likes math because of her failure with romance when she was a child. This shows the stereotype that people who are smart cannot also be romantically involved with someone. Though this is a small and unnoticeable change, it is important to show Cady’s reason for loving math.
Two of the most negative takeaways from the 2024 Mean Girls were the annoying songs that took away from the plot and the intense product placement. Ms. Mojo posted a Tik Tok a little while after the movie’s release ranking all of the songs in the movie. To no surprise, “World Burn”, sung by Regina George, took over first place in the video and “Cautionary Tale”, sung by Damian and Janis, takes last place. “World Burn” is the most powerful song in the movie and is sung when Regina finds out about what Cady had been doing to her and she decides to display the pages of the Burn Book to the whole school to prove that she still has all the power. “Cautionary Tale” is sung at the very beginning of the movie to show that Damian and Janis are the narrators and not Cady Heron like in the original. The song is cringey and over dramatizes the story that is about to be told. For example, Janis sings “where real people died” and then Damian counter-sings “no one died.” Not to mention that the musical adaptations take away from some of the iconic songs from the original movie, such as “Milkshake” by Kelis, that show a more accurate depiction of the decade. If the new Mean Girls wasn’t a musical, it would be exciting to have songs by Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, or Doja Cat in the movie. Although, Mrs. Renner-Singer seems to like the incorporation of the Broadway elements. “If I had to choose which one I wanted to watch right now, I’d probably pick the new one because of the singing and dancing. I like ‘Revenge Party’ and the dancing,” said Renner-Singer.
It’s hard to decide which version of Regina’s downfall is more effective. In the original Mean Girls, Janis puts foot cream in a facial cleanser and gives it to Cady for her to give to Regina after she gets a few pimples. Though this doesn’t make sense since Regina is unknowingly putting lotion on her face, so why would Janis and Cady expect some bad effect to happen from that? Thankfully, the 2024 Mean Girls shows Damian and Janis putting lard in a tub of face cream for Cady to give to Regina, so that element would actually work. Although, in the original Mean Girls, Janis cuts holes in Regina’s shirt while she is in gym class. In the new Mean Girls, Janis turns on the sprinkler while Regina is accepting her homecoming queen award (even though she’s a junior) on the football field. Both of these events cause the student body to copy Regina’s appearance. The original scene is more embarrassing than getting sprayed by a sprinkler. During the Halloween scene, Regina’s outfit from the original can be seen while Karen is singing.
Though both movies include the Swedish nutrition bars, Kälteen bars, that Cady gives Regina in order for her to gain weight and lose her “hot body.” In both movies, Cady’s mom uses the nutrition bars to help people in Africa gain weight, but then she tells Regina that her mom eats them to lose weight. Regina doesn’t realize the actual effects of the nutrition bars until someone else tells her about them. In the original, Regina’s boyfriend, Shane Omen, tells Regina that his coach makes him, and the wrestling team eat them to gain weight. In the new Mean Girls, Regina’s mom is the one that tells her that the nutrition bars make people gain weight and how they gave Kälteen bars to Nana Joan when they needed her to gain weight.
Bebe Wood and Avantika Vandanapu who play Gretchen Wieners and Karen Shetty in the new Mean Girls played their parts in a Secret spray deodorant commercial where Gretchen tells Karen that Regina only lets them sweat on Tuesdays after getting out of gym class. Gretchen hands Karen a Secret deodorant and tells her that it will keep her fetch for seventy-two hours. Lastly, Karen is excited and says, “A whole week,” and at the bottom of the screen, there are subtitles that clarify that seventy-two hours is not a week. In the movie, Karen sprays on the Secret deodorant while talking to Cady about how Aaron Samuels broke up with Regina. Karen tells Cady that someone told her about Shane Omen and then Karen uses the Secret Deodorant as a microphone and asks Cady if she thinks it was Santa Claus.
Not to mention that all of the makeup used in the movie are products from Elf and all of the closeup shots that include Motorola flip phones, the characters are obviously flipping them open and closed awkwardly. Audiences believe that the popular high schoolers wouldn’t have the flip phones and instead phones like iPhone 15s. Tik Tok users made fun of the obvious product placement in the movie by lip-singing to songs from the soundtrack and obnoxiously using the products from the movie.
The whole point of Mean Girls is the fall of Regina George, so it was confusing for audiences to see less of Regina’s presence within the student body. In the new movie, Regina does not interact with anyone outside of the Plastics so it doesn’t make sense that the whole school would be obsessed with her. The new movie takes away the ugly skirt scene from the original that shows how Regina talks with students outside of her clique.
Regina in the new movie also doesn’t have the three-dimensional personality that the original Regina had. In the new one, she is just mean and all powerful, but in the original, Regina actually cares about her friends and wants to hang out with them until they cancel on her or get in her way. She isn’t power hungry; she just is a normal, popular high schooler.
The original also shows more background on Karen and Gretchen, presenting what is happening when they aren’t around Regina. In the new Mean Girls, Gretchen is attached to Regina and feels bad about herself the entire movie, which is unlike the old Gretchen who wants to be as popular as Regina because she believes that she is a better person and treated unfairly by her. Plus, there is no mention of Gretchen’s father being the inventor of Toaster Strudel in the new movie, which was a big part of her character in the original movie and disappointing for fans who loved the ongoing joke from the original. However, it is fun to see Gretchen allude to the 2004 movie by telling Regina that “fetch” is slang from an old movie.
The new Karen seems to only exist for comic relief, but she is nowhere near as funny as the original Karen. We don’t get to see her use her skills to host a weather report for North Shore High School like in the 2004 movie and she never talks about her own interests or issues. Of course, the creators of the new Mean Girls had to take out Karen’s iconic line “If you’re from Africa, why are you white?” since it is culturally insensitive and creates assumptions about a whole continent that are inappropriate.
The new Mean Girls also does not have the iconic line from Cady Heron: “Um, is there alcohol in this?” when Mrs. George makes the girls’ drinks. This line is famous amongst Mean Girls fans and Tik Tok users since the scene is a sound on the app.
Although, the new movie does keep in Damian’s iconic line “She doesn’t even go here” during the Burn Book scene. Breanna Loomis’s (12) favorite part of the movie was “honestly, anything that Damian would say.” It was interesting to see that the girl he was talking about was at the school for a track meet instead of just being there for no reason like in the original. Though, it doesn’t make sense how she would be inside of the school since track meets occur outside on a track. The new Mean Girls also uses the line again during the Spring Fling scene, which arguably takes away the impact of the line. “Even though Damian is super stereotypical, I think he’s my favorite,” said Coal Fiano (10).
“It’s lacking love and care,” said Gretchen Leach (10).
Damian also alludes to an Ariana Grande music video in the movie when he yells “thank you next” during the Plastics’ performance at the Winter Talent Show. The song “Thank U, Next” has a music video that recreates 2000s movies including Mean Girls movie where Ariana Grande embodies Regina George. The music video includes people telling rumors about Ariana Grande, a copy of the Burn Book, and Kris Jenner filming Grande and her friends performing the Plastics’ performance at the talent show.
Coal Fiano loves the original Mean Girls so much that he does not want to see the new version. “The old one has a special place in my heart due to the fact that I read the book [version] a lot, so the new one doesn’t appeal to me that much,” said Fiano. Most Cascade High School students don’t even bother to go see the new version. “The original is a classic and nothing can change the nostalgia,” said Grace Redman (11). The commercials and trailers for the new Mean Girls didn’t show that the movie was a musical, so fans were surprised when the movie began with the song “Cautionary Tale”. Most audiences didn’t like the musical aspect of the movie and thus the mediocre reputation of the 2024 Mean Girls was made.
People who love the original Mean Girls don’t realize how many unacceptable words are actually in the movie. About eighty percent of those words come from Regina George herself, but the fanbase around the character is blinded by the iconic and powerful aura that is Regina. Though it is shocking to see Asian characters in the original using words that are wildly offensive in any era. It’s refreshing to know that the 2024 Mean Girls took out all of those words. There still are swear words that keep the movie at a PG-13 rating.
The new Mean Girls references names of cliques that would actually be seen in a normal high school. The original movie separates cliques by race and hobbies, whereas the new one separates the cliques just by hobbies, such as band and drama. High school students tend to spend more time with people who share their interests.
The 2024 Mean Girls shows a better depiction of how Cady went from being homeschooled with no friends to becoming a clone of Regina George. This is a good example of psychology where Cady is being taught to be mean and self-centered, because she is hanging out with the Plastics who are mean and self-centered. Cady’s mom notices the change in her daughter and says that she isn’t the same as when they were in Africa.
Jenna Fisher, known for her role as Pam Beesly on The Office, does an amazing job playing Cady Heron’s mother. The 2024 Mean Girls took out both Regina’s and Cady’s fathers, so the moms had more presence in the movie. The new Mrs. Heron is a more reasonable and patient parent unlike the original who took away Cady’s dinner before she could finish when she finds out about the Burn Book. Fisher’s role appropriately grounds Cady but also assures her that everything is going to be okay when she has to go back to school. The 2004 version of Cady’s parents included a strict mother and a tame father. Cady’s dad is more like the 2024 mom; he trusts Cady and knows that she is capable of doing the right thing. Whereas the 2004 mom just gets frustrated with Cady and has trouble taking authority against the dad. Fisher’s hair color is also closer to Cady Heron’s iconic red, the 2004 Mrs. Heron had dark brown hair that was almost black, so the casting for the new Mean Girls got actors who could actually be related to their co-stars.
The new Mean Girls also adds on to Cady Heron’s knowledge of zoology, which is what her parent(s) specialize in. When she’s talking with Janis and Damian about Regina, she explains how she’s the apex predator and that Karen and Gretchen are her followers. A whole song called “Apex Predator” breaks out describing how Regina George is at the top of the food chain. “Just like how it was performed in the movie, probably ‘Apex Predator’ is the best [song],” said Breanna Loomis. A couple of minutes later into the movie when Mrs. George offers her guacamole and chips, Mrs. George asks her if it’s okay for her to eat or if she’s vegan (which makes no sense since there is no animal products in guacamole) and Cady tells her that she’s an omnivore.
In a cringey scene during the song “Revenge Party”, Cady sings about how “I can’t even watch when she touches his hair, and I watched a snake eat a cow.” These lyrics and the odd camera angle used to film the scene have been wildly made fun of on Tik Tok. People who went to go see Mean Girls in the theatre and sat in the first row got a very disturbing angle of Cady’s face during the song that made her chin more prominent than the rest of her face.
One of the weirdest changes in the new Mean Girls is that Regina’s mom takes out the Burn Book and shows it to the girls instead of Karen finding the book on the shelf. In a simple state, Regina’s mom is the whole reason that the Burn Book was brought back into the attention of the Plastics. The 2004 Mean Girls had the Plastics be entirely at fault for the Burn Book, so it is extremely strange that Regina’s mom contributes to the beginning of the biggest conflict in the movie. Regina’s mom in the 2004 version was only portrayed as a non-strict mom who didn’t have control over her daughters Regina and Kylie. It’s uncomforting to see the new Mrs. George try so hard to be one of the Plastics and contribute to gossiping and bullying instead of actually parenting Regina (she doesn’t have a sister in the new version). It’s disturbing when Mrs. George is asking Cady if she’s seen any cute boys at school and she says, “You know I always say this school district has the highest taxes but the hottest boys.” Mrs. George doesn’t do a decent job at parenting Regina, especially when Regina is running on the treadmill and Mrs. George comes in to tell her that she shouldn’t worry so much about her body and that “real beauty comes from the face.”
Another weird change is the fact that Damian and Janis are the narrators in the new Mean Girls and not Cady. This alteration takes away from the main point of view of the story. Since the whole plot of the movie surrounds Regina and Cady, it would make sense for Cady to be the narrator like in the original movie. Creators might have wanted to give Janis more screen time to show her story when audiences don’t get that information in the original Mean Girls, viewers only get to hear Regina’s side of the story when she and Janis were friends in middle school. In the new movie, viewers get to hear both sides of the story.
Although, the original Janis has a more realistic form of high school drama with Regina George. In the 2004 Mean Girls, Janis hates Regina, because she wasn’t invited to her birthday party. However, in the 2024 Mean Girls, Janis and Regina were playing spin the bottle and Regina tried to make her boyfriend, Kyle, jealous by kissing Janis. When Regina named a stuffed animal after Janis, Janis lit the stuffed animal on fire with a Bunsen burner during science class and Regina’s backpack caught on fire as well. The new movie makes Janis look crazier and out of control, whereas the original Janis was just upset with the fear of missing out (FOMO).
Plus, the new Regina says that Janis is only good at art because she had to do art therapy after she started the fire and got kicked out of school for the rest of the year. Though, it is more realistic for Janis to just like art because she likes art like in the original.
This element also applies to the endings of both movies. In the original, the Plastics split up after the Spring Fling when they discover their individual interests. An important part of the original is when Regina George uses her anger to play field hockey after her bus accident. Then Gretchen and Karen are no longer her helpless followers. This information is not shown in the new Mean Girls since the movie ends during the Spring Fling dance. Because the original Mean Girls was adapted from a self-help book, it is important to show the solutions to each of the characters’ struggles and audiences did not get to see this part in the new movie.
The new Mean Girls also takes away from the main message in the original movie. After going through all of the drama between Regina and the Plastics, Cady finally is able to come to the conclusion: “Calling someone else fat won’t make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George's life definitely didn't make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you.” It’s extremely important, especially for teenage girls, that setting out to ruin somebody else’s life won’t make theirs any better. Teenage girls need to understand how staying true and kind to yourself in others is the right path to happiness.
The 2024 movie doesn’t take up on this idea. The new Mean Girls seems to solely rely on the reputation of the original movie and recreate the most famous jokes and scenes. “I love the old one. I hate the new one,” said Cascade High School parent, Doug Black. As much as we love Mean Girls, it’s important to remember the whole point of the movie: to show how dangerous hurting others can be. “I’m sure high school now a days is not like Mean Girls,” said Black. The 2024 Mean Girls doesn’t show the reality of what it is like to be bullied or to be a bully. The movie is more focused on the humor of the 2004 version and entertaining the audience with flashy dance scenes. “I liked Damian and Regina, but other than that, I think that the original Broadway cast and the original cast for the original Mean Girls movie were better,” said Breanna Loomis.
The verdict for both Mean Girls movies is that Cascade High School staff and students believe that the original Mean Girls is more fetch. “I was disappointed, because I thought it was going to be a sequel to the original,” said Doug Black. The main reason being that the new movie is a musical and doesn’t hit the audience the same way the original one did. The 2024 Mean Girls is not as realistic as the old one and doesn’t accurately depict what it is like to be a teenage girl. It also completely takes away the main idea of what it is like to be involved in teen girl drama. Mean Girls is a classic to our generation, but maybe some classics shouldn’t be remade. “It’s lacking love and care,” said Gretchen Leach (10). If you want to watch Mean Girls, both versions are available on Paramount Plus and the original is currently free on Pluto TV.