Hairspray

John Waters' scabrously funny 1988 film was whitewashed for the Broadway stage in 2002, and now—completing a weird circle—returns to the big screen as an exuberant musical. Newcomer Nikki Blonsky plays plus-size Baltimore teenager Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake in the original film), whose main ambition in life is to win a spot as a dancer on a local TV show hosted by singer Corny Collins (James Marsden). Tracy has a crush on one of the regulars, handsome Link Larkin (Zac Efron), but winning his heart takes a backseat to helping part-time host Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah) retain her once-a-week segment for R&B music and African-American dancers. Director-choreographer Adam Shankman invests the consistently bouncy and engaging musical numbers with plenty of brio, and the part of Tracy's obese mom Edna (first assayed by Waters stock-company member Divine) is again portrayed by a man in drag—in this case, a made-up John Travolta. Michelle Pfeiffer, as the villain of the piece, turns out to be a surprisingly adept chanteuse, while Christopher Walken adopts his trademark eccentric dialogue delivery as Tracy's hapless dad. Recommended. [Note: Available in either widescreen or full screen versions, or a two-disc widescreen version, DVD extras on the “2-Disc Shake & Shimmy Edition” include two audio commentaries (one with director Adam Shankman and costar Nikki Blonsky; the other with producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron), the 78-minute “making-of” documentary “You Can't Stop the Beat: The Long Journey of Hairspray,” the 40-minute “The Roots of Hairspray” on the story's origins, “Hairspray Extensions” on the dance scenes (37 min.), with a step-by-step tutorial for two of the dances (13 min.), five deleted/alternate scenes with optional commentary (10 min.), a “Jump to a Song” option, a sing-along lyric track option, and trailers. Bottom line: a whopping extras package for a fine musical.] (E. Hulse)