The top-billed Divine steals the show as Tracy's out-of-touch mother Edna whom Tracy brings into the 60's by giving her a beehive and changing her frumpy house frau dresses into more stylish couture.
In the meantime, Tracy's best friend, geeky Penny Pingleton, wins the heart of Seaweed, the teenage son of black music store owner and local TV hostess Motor Mouth Mabel (Ruth Brown) who vows to make the Corny Collins Show interracial. It all comes together at a showdown where the two opposites compete for Queen of the Auto Show. When Tracy gets chosen for the teenage council of a local dance show ("The Corny Collins Show"), Amber is furious, and vows revenge, especially when Tracy wins Link's heart. It didn't matter that she was chunky-pretty much everybody liked her with the exception "A" group leader Amber Von Tussle, whose snobbish parents (Sonny Bono and Deborah Harry) owned the local amusement park. It also introduced Rikki Lake to audiences as teenager Tracy Turnblad, a "Hair Hopper" who danced like Gene Kelly and had a lovable, spunky personality that attracted the handsome hero (Link Larkin). It also defused the impact of the original film, made not to please the general public, but make an important statement through comedy and music about racism, segregation and more subtly, bullying. Reviewed by mark.waltz 8 / 10 This "is" your Grandma's "Hairspray".Īnd she's busy doing "The Madison!" The Broadway musical and film version of that long-running show have overshadowed this non-PC John Waters movie that brought him into the mainstream after years of underground movies such as "Female Trouble" and "Pink Flamingos".