Mean Girls is back, and it’s a musical, though you would never have guessed it based on the film’s official trailer. Well, one fan has seen to that, editing their own version which highlights the musical aspect. But it raises the question: Why didn’t Paramount do that in the first place?
In a quest to renew, reboot, and update everything, the 2004 icon that is Mean Girls has also received a shiny new facelift 20 years later. Following in the steps of the Broadway adaptation, Mean Girls 2.0 is also a musical, with Tina Fey back to write the story and Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin (who wrote the music and lyrics for the stage adaption) onboard to tweak the songs for screen.
Despite the major difference between the 2004 version and this one being that this one involves singing and dancing, the trailer wouldn’t give you that impression at all. Do they not want us to know it’s a musical? Even the music you hear in the trailer isn’t from the musical, which you think would be an obvious choice. Instead, they use Olivia Rodrigo’s “Get Him Back.”
To actually give us some decent insight into what we might expect, one fan, @ryanneparker, decided to take a spin at editing their own trailer.
The trailer features the songs “World Burn” and “Revenge Party” from the stage adaptation, with the edit matching the key beats of the song. Is it a little rough around the edges? Sure, it’s fan-made, but at least it’s honest about what theatergoers might expect from the new take on Mean Girls.
Mean Girls isn’t the only recent film to have kept its musical side under wraps during marketing, as Warner Bros. toned down the musical aspects of both The Color Purple and Wonka in their respective trailers. Perhaps studios feel that people aren’t interested in musicals, and hope that once you’ve sat down and discovered that “it’s a trap!” it’ll be too late. Wonka has gone on to be a smash hit and The Color Purple has achieved favorable results as well, which proves that maybe studios don’t need to be as ashamed of their musicals as they seem to be.
Whereas the latter two films seem to have captured the magic of musicals, Mean Girls has opened to mixed responses, with some feeling it manages to neither serve as a decent musical nor match the iconic nature of the original, while others feel it does a decent job of bringing the musical to life. No matter who you ask, many praise Reneé Rapp’s take on the classic villain, Regina George, and what would the film be without its classic queen bee.
(featured image: Paramount)
Published: Jan 17, 2024 01:20 pm