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Hairspray is a feel-good musical film which was released to DVD in November 2007. The film is a re-make of the 1988 musical film of the same name and has also been a successful musical in Broadway and the West End. It is directed by Adam Shankman and stars amongst others John Travolta, Elijah Kelley, Allison Janney, Queen Latifah, Taylor Parks, Jesse Weafer, Zac Efron, Michelle Pfeiffer and Nikki Blonsky.

The film is set in Baltimore, USA in the early 1960's at a time when racial prejudice still existed and segregation of people still occurred. The film opens with the very likeable Tracy (played by Nikki Blonsky) belting out the opening number "Good morning Baltimore". Tracy is not your usual main female character, shes not thin, blonde and pretty but she has a great love of singing but especially dancing. Her world revolves around getting home from school in time to watch her favourite dance show on television and dance along in her living room with her best friend Penny.

When the opportunity arises to audition as one of the dancers for The Corny Collins Show, Tracy can't resist and bunks off school to go to audition. Although Tracy is a great dancer she is rejected by the station manager Velma (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) partly because of Tracys size and partly because Velma has ambitions for her own daughter. However in the end Tracy gets a part in the show and meets her dream man Link Larkin (played by Zac Efron).

On the show the dance floor is segregated with the blacks on one side and the whites on the other side. They are not allowed to dance together. Tracy befriends one of these dancers and this leads her to eventually stand up for what she believes and to fight for equality. We see Tracy become famous and this thrusts her mother into the limelight. Tracys mother is called Edna and is surprisingly played very ably by John Travolta. Now I am not sure why they chose a man to play this role, the character is a large lady who is a bit shy and lacks confidence at the beginning of the film. The transformation of Travolta into Edna is quite remarkable you have to look twice to see whether it really is him!

I really enjoyed this film, it was funny, had great catchy songs that made you want to sing along, I almost had to stop myself from getting up to dance! But at the heart of it there was an important moral message too, that it is ok to be different and that you should stand up for what is right no matter what other people think. I think a film that manages to do all this deserves praise.

Running Time 112 mins
Classification - PG

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