The latest iteration of “Mean Girls”, released in January of this year, is a movie adaptation of the 2018 musical, which is an adaptation of the 2004 movie, which is based on the book “Queen Bees and Wannabes” by Rosalind Wiseman. It’s a simple story, but sometimes, the best ones are.

It follows Cady Heron, who moves from Africa and starts attending public high school for the first time in her life at age 16, throwing her headfirst into a world of cliques and romance and friendships and drama that she’s never dealt with before. Just like any teenager, she doesn’t deal with all of it well, and really, none of the young characters in the story are perfect to each other, either.

There is a lot of betrayals and mistakes made by everyone throughout the plot, but it comes to a head when the main mean girl of the film, Regina George, makes the “burn book” public – a book where she and her friends wrote mean rumors about all the girls in their grade, just for the fun of it. The teachers step in and lecture everyone about how they’ve got to start treating each other with more kindness, because there’s not much gain in being mean.

Though the newest movie came out over two months ago now, talking about it is certainly still relevant, especially since the Ides of March – March 15, the date of Julius Caesar’s assassination – was just last month.

This is relevant because “Mean Girls” is one of many mainstream movies that are modern retellings of Shakespearean classics. “Mean Girls”, of course being “Julius Caesar”. 1999 also saw “10 Things I Hate About You” retell “The Taming of The Shrew” and 2006 had “She’s The Man” inspired by “Twelfth Night”. There’s also the infamous musical “West Side Story”, an adaptation of “Romeo & Juliet”, and in 1993, there was “My Own Private Idaho”, loosely based on “Henry IV”.

In the same way Shakespeare is continuously adapted and retold, books, movies, and musicals are continuously being rewritten and remade for the silver screen. Some recent examples of stage musicals hitting the screen include “West Side Story”, “In The Heights”, “Dear Evan Hansen”, and now, once again “Mean Girls”.

So, how do the different versions of “Mean Girls” compare?

The original “Mean Girls” was, and to this day remains, an instant classic. Though it’s not without its flaws, it has solidified itself as an iconic part of 2000s pop culture, chock full of quotable one-liners, good humor, good acting, and a good story.

This gave its stage-to-screen remake a big legacy to live up to.

With both Tina Fey and Tim Meadows reprising their respective roles from the original film, as well as Reneé Rapp, who had previously portrayed Regina George on Broadway, and plenty of newer or lesser-known faces, the talent from the cast can be, at times, a little all over the place.

The story itself offers a good blend of nostalgia and staying true to the original, while also putting somewhat of a more modern take on the story, now set in the 2020s, rather than the 2000s.

The music is good, at times – again, often depending on who is doing the singing – overall, a little underwhelming compared to the energy that was brought to the Broadway cast recording, especially considering how toned down the background music got in the movie, and how some of the numbers in the movie are over-the-top fun, while for others, it just feels awkward to watch them sing while standing in a normal lunchroom, or school hallway, or front lawn.

Movies, especially contemporary teen flicks, are always a fun time capsule to look at the fashion trends of the decade, or even just the year that it was made.

There are some similarities fashion-wise between the two movies, like Regina’s “R” necklace and her iconic slicked back ponytail and all-black outfit during what in the musical is the song World Burn. The old movie scene has Regina deliver chaos to the school by making the burn book public, while the new movie excels at giving each character their own defining styles, nailing the uniqueness so many teenagers strive to find in high school.

Overall, while the newest version of Mean Girls isn’t the greatest movie ever, it is arguable that the original wasn’t either, but that didn’t stop it from being the huge success it ended up being. They’re both plenty enjoyable and succeed at delivering their messages on how vicious people can get, and the real hurt they can cause, while facing the trials and tribulations of being a teenager – let alone a teenage girl. 

Passion has clearly been brought to each iteration of the story by most everyone involved time and time again, and any and all versions are worth checking out for a fun couple of hours, even if just the once.