'Mean Girls' 20 years later: the triumph of the villains

The original

Mean Girls

film , better known internationally by its English title,

Mean Girls

, is an iconic film for millions of people around the world.

It premiered in 2004 and marked many of the women who grew up in the 1990s and 2000s. It has its own international day—October 3—and anyone who considers themselves a fan knows very well that on Wednesdays you only dress. of pink.

Fans have been given a gift, sometimes poisoned: a

remake

of the original film, which premiered on January 12 in Spain and has already grossed 92 million euros worldwide.

Of course, it has had to take into account all the cultural changes that have occurred in these two decades.

Despite being considered by many to be a typical romantic comedy, the humor in Mark Waters' 2004 film is intelligent, satirical and politically incorrect for a good cause, that of portraying the sexism, racism or homophobia prevalent at that time.

It conveys, without being cheesy or obvious, a positive message: that you have to treat people well.

“It's an old comedy that, in an era in which teen movies came out like hotcakes, stood out for its bad temper compared to the rest, which were softer,” explains Ainhoa ​​Marzol, author of the

cultural trends

newsletter

. Digital Gargoyle.

“His release in 2004 coincides with the beginnings of Facebook and Myspace, and his phrases became

proto-memes

that have accompanied those teenagers throughout their lives,” she adds.

The leading quartet of the original 'Mean Girls' (2004).

Exactly two decades later, directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Pérez Jr. have given it a facelift and reintroduced it to the public.

A titanic responsibility considering that a Broadway musical was produced from the original film and that the new version, which is a musical film, had to live up to both without leaving aside the high expectations of its followers.

The villains are now the heroines

The role of villainous woman has been redefined in these 20 years.

Lindsay Lohan played Cady Heron, a typical protagonist, shy, new to high school, naive, malleable and with good values ​​at the beginning.

Rachel McAdams played Regina George, the usual villain, selfish and self-centered.

But in 2024, the protagonist of the movie poster is no longer the good girl.

This is Regina George, played by Reneé Rapp.

She is the star of the

show.

Now the public wants to be her as the bad guy.

The same has happened with other female characters in these generational classics, such as

High School Musical

.

Her fans now deify Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale), a character with many pretensions and great aspirations conceived to be evil.

This has also happened with Gossip Girl

's antagonist

, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), who over the years has become the true icon of the series.

To a large extent, this phenomenon is driven by the empowerment of women during these two decades.

That a woman has a strong character and is ambitious is increasingly seen as something positive and inherent to the person, and not as something unpleasant.

Tina Fey and Lindsay Lohan, at the New York premiere of 'Mean Girls' on January 8. EDUARDO MUNOZ (REUTERS)

“I think this comes from a fascination with feminine power that girls have when we are teenagers.

Regina is evil but cunning, she has manipulative power and moments where she is so arrogant that she doesn't see her faults, she doesn't have a real redemption arc,” adds Marzol.

“Also,” she continues, “it has to do with the fact that Reneé Rapp, who plays Regina on screen and who has played her in the musical for years, is beginning to have a career that is taking off very well.

It is much easier to do

marketing

around her figure than around that of any other actor.”

The

remake

softens or eliminates some of the most offensive jokes

In this new film, neither the urban tribes in the cafeteria are segregated by ethnicity nor does the school's sports coach get involved with underage students.

Tina Fey, who wrote the script for the first one, has now also taken the reins to ensure that the story does not change one bit, but has introduced adjustments in terms of humor.

Some jokes from the 2004 installment, which would not have been considered morally appropriate today, have been toned down or outright omitted, despite the fact that they are one of the main attractions of the feature film.

Racist jokes or clichés, such as the “nerd Chinese” or the famous phrase of Amanda Seyfried's iconic character —

Mean Girls

was her first film —: “But if you're from Africa, why are you white?”, have been used erased, and many of Regina George's hostile expressions about her weight have also been subtly toned down.

From left, Avantika, Angourie Rice, Renee Rapp and Bebe Wood, in the new 'Mean Girls'. Jojo Whilden (AP)

But the

remake

preserves that acidic grace that characterizes the first feature film and introduces new jokes that have to do, for example, with social networks.

The “This is Damian, he is unbearably gay” thing has remained, although in a script much more respectful than the previous one with the sexual orientation of his characters.

And criticism of the educational system and the lack of sexual education in schools reappears in an even more cruel way.

“Don't make love, you can get pregnant and die,” Coach Carter's comment in a health class in the 2004 film, becomes 20 years later: “Girls are disturbed by something called hormones.”

Marzol explains that, more than a pure

remake

of the original film, Samantha Jayne and Arturo Pérez Jr. have made a film adaptation of the Broadway musical.

“That musical has had years to iron out all the rough edges and most conflictive parts,” she says.

“I think it is possible to keep those jokes or make new ones adapted while maintaining that 'thug' essence, and there are examples of it working.”

Marzol highlights the example of the

remake

of

Scott Pilgrim vs.

Edgar Wright's The World

, which recently premiered on Netflix.

“Their most conflictive parts have not been erased, but have been recognized, included and then explored and corrected through the plot itself.

They have continued to make it totally rubbish, but without falling into crude clichés that would make it 'offensive'.

On

Mean Girls

they could have easily done the same thing.”

The 2024 film was never announced as a musical

Neither the costumes, nor the cast, nor the songs have been exempt from controversy on social networks.

All of them have become an international debate, but there has been a controversy that has far surpassed the rest.

A part of the audience left the cinema halls the moment they realized that the film was, in fact, a musical, something that had been intentionally hidden in the trailers of the feature film.

“Musical trailers perform very poorly in tests with audiences.

They are not aimed at as wide an audience as a normal comedy and the big studios prefer to play it safe,” explains Marzol.

It is not the first film to raise this controversy.

The same has happened with recent productions like

Wonka

and will probably happen with the adaptation of

The Color Purple

, whose trailers hide the musical part.

Thus arises the popular debate about whether or not disguising the nature of the product is misleading advertising by Hollywood towards the viewer.

Marzol concludes: “We are at the height of

cringe

allergy , which also causes a crisis in suspension of disbelief.

"It's a bad time for movies where people start singing out of nowhere."

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