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Hairspray: 2-disc Shake and Shimmy Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - New Line Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (23rd December 2007). |
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The Film
 There's a specific point when you know a director's movie crosses from independent to mainstream. When a counter-culture movie becomes a musical, such as 'Evil Dead', the works of Monty Python or, in this case, 'Hairspray', it's safe to say that movie has been accepted. John Waters' satirical comedy has now become something of a satirical musical, though more musical than satire. It still, however, keeps a bite here and there. The backdrop is the 1960s in, where else from a John Waters source, Baltimore. The vague arc of the movie has Tracy Turnblad trying to get rid of segregation. She becomes popular thanks to a local television dance show and uses her new-found fame in her quest. She wants to help her new African-American friends, who forever seem to be in detention. The movie also has John Travolta in his much talked-about fatsuit, taking the role of John Waters staple Divine, from the original movie. Mr. Travolta does a very nice job, though, and seeing him and Christopher Walken dance together is a joy. They can move and they enjoy what they're doing. Coupled with the great choreography, their number is quite entertaining. All the choreography in the movie is well done, and add to that the fact that the actors do their own singing, the movie becomes pretty impressive. Amanda Bynes is really cute and Zac Efron is really suave. The breakouts, though are Elijah Kelley and Taylor Parks. Especially the latter, who can not only dance up a storm, but has an incredible voice for such a young age. The star, Nikki Blonsky already possesses the confidence in her first role (let alone starring role) to make it in Hollywood. Let's just say that no actor here is miscast and that everybody has so much fun being in this movie. The music likewise flows seamlessly from scene to scene. There are tons of songs and none of them are corny or seem inappropriate, which sometimes happens in musicals. The 'Can't Stop the Music' number at the end keeps on going and going, yet never gets tiresome or loses energy. The movie from start to finish is a nice piece of entertainment. It's one story that's kept its freshness from transition after transition. After all the incarnations it's taken, 'Hairspray' is still great.
Video
2.35:1 widescreen, encoded with the VC-1 codec at 1080p. The video quality is as good as the audio quality. The transfer is so good, you can see the different hues of purple in James Marsden's suit when lights shine on it from different angles. This wouldn't be so impressive if the colours didn't burst off the screen like they do. The colours are extremely vivid, and the disc handles everything perfectly, with every crease, pleat and fold being detailed and clear. Through all of this, there are no compression problems whatsoever. Pixelation, noise, edge enhancement are never a problem and if you see them, you have better eyes than I do. The print is obviously free of dirt and other such annoyances, and the movie has a very slick look, never showing grain, yet still appearing very natural. Likewise, skin tons were natural and black levels were very strong. It's a great transfer, and one of the best I've seen in high-def.
Audio
The movie's only track is an English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track. It's an excellent track, to say the least. This being a musical, the songs are the most important things. The mixing here is just fantastic. In the movie, the songs start out simply, subtly. The mixing, then, starts out simply, subtly. The front speakers give the songs some nice space and clarity. Slowly, the music creeps to the back speakers, where it fills out the sound field. Truth be told, I don't have a 7.1 setup just yet, but I'd be extremely surprised if the two rear speakers don't completely envelop the music around you, thrusting you into the dance numbers. The sound is also very intelligently put, with no unnecessary music coming from the surrounds and rears. These speakers are only used to support the music, not go along with it. When there's no music, the dialogue is clear and centered, never being muffled or blocked by any other sound. The little effects are also clear, though positions and directions could be a little better. This is only a small complaint, though, in a tremendous audio track. English and Spanish subtitles are provided.
Extras
Are you ready for this? Here it goes. To make things easier, I've added asterisks (*) to high-def exclusive extras. Disc one starts first: The first extra you might come across is one of the pair of commentaries. The first is with director/choreographer Adam Shankman and actress Nikki Blonsky. These two have a great time in this track. It's like a couple of schoolgirls just talking about all the fun they had. They keep laughing and giggling throughout this thing, but they're also very informative. Mr. Shankman talks a lot about the choreography and points out little details in the background that everybody would miss. Miss Blonsky talks a lot about singing and dancing. They mention locations, talk about certain scenes and heap tons of praise on everybody. It never really gets annoying, though, because they always joke about whatever they're watching, and make you laugh along the way. They have tons of anecdotes and behind the scenes stories. It's a highly enjoyable track. The second commentary is with producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. These two guys enjoy talking about their movie, but unfortunately they probably enjoyed talking about it more than I enjoyed listening to them. It's not boring, but there's a lot of technical information. Being producers, they talk about how the project came about, locations, actors and things of the sort. They provide nice information for fans of the movie but most people should stick with the other commentary. Next is the only real high-def exclusive extra, the Behind the Beat picture-in-picture commentary*. This is a great addition go the disc. There's not too much information given here because that's kept for the commentaries. Instead, you see footage from rehearsals, score recording, dance rehearsals and regular on-set footage while they filmed the movie, as well as general behind the scenes footage. Actors sometimes give comments to the camera, sometimes funny, sometimes informative. The four participants from the two audio commentaries are sometimes on camera (creating a bit of overlap between the commentaries and this track), talking about why, for example, they wanted Edna to be a man and how they got John Travolta to be in the movie. The director and actress give out more anecdotal stories about filming, but everything is quite enjoyable. Some Deleted/Alternate Scenes (w/ optional director/actress commentary) are next. The scenes are fun and the extensions add some nice bits, but would only drag the movie down a bit. The cut song is nice, but a little bit superfluous. The scenes are: 'Edna Gets Arrested' (0:59), '"Welcome to the 60s" Alternate Street Segment' (0:52), 'Deleted Song - "I Can Wait"' (4:13), '"You Can't Stop the Beat" Alternate Version' (2:25) and '"Big Blond and Beautiful (Reprise)" - Velma Only Version' (1:11). The commentary doesn't really add much, as sometimes they don't even talk about the scene. The explanations for the cuts, as expected, are generally for pacing reasons. Hairspray Extensions (37:15 total) are a gaggle of featurettes that feature the different dances from various aspects. The featurettes feature film footage, rehearsal and on-set footage, showing you the dancers practicing and filming the sequences. It's fascinating to see how many people it takes to make a scene work. The dances featured are 'The Nicest Kids in Town' (4:15), '(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs' (5:18), 'Ladies' Choice' (5:18), 'Welcome to the 60's' (6:22), 'Run and Tell That' (5:49) and 'You Can't Stop the Beat' (9:51). Next is a fun little extra, Step by Step: The Dances of 'Hairspray' (12:43 total), which is a tutorial for a couple of dances. I don't think I was as successful as these guys with the dances they show. There's an Introduction (1:27) as well as quick choreography for 'Ladies' Choice' (5:23) and 'Peyton Place After Midnight' (5:35). The two choreographers go through the steps pretty quickly, so it's hard to keep up (if you actually get up and try the steps), but it's fun to try nonetheless. You can choose to view the scenes from the film as well. Finally, there's Jump to a Song. There are 21 songs to listen to, and that's not quite surprising considering the movie is one big musical number. You can choose to have the Sing-a-Long subtitles (read: karaoke). The choices are: 'Good Morning Baltimore' (5:05), 'The Nicest Kids in Town' (2:40), 'It Takes Two' (0:24), '(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs' (4:01), 'I Can Hear the Bells' (4:13), 'Ladies' Choice' (2:29), 'The Nicest Kids in Town (with Tracy)' (0:50), 'The New Girl in Town' (3:01), 'Welcome to the 60's' (6:29), 'Run and Tell That' (4:25), 'Big, Blonde and Beautiful' (5:16), 'Big, Blonde and Beautiful (Reprise)' (1:16), '(You're) Timeless to Me' (4:57), 'I Know Where I've Been' (4:14), 'Without Love' (3:53), '(It's) Hairspray' (2:26), 'You Can't Stop the Beat' (10:23), 'Come So Far (Got So Far to Go)' (3:37), 'Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now' (3:06), 'Cooties' (2:28) and 'Deleted Song - I Can Wait' (4:13). That's it for disc one. As if that weren't already enough, there's a whole other disc to watch. The first is The Roots of Hairspray documentary (39:37 total). This explains the how the movie came to be a movie musical. John Waters talks about 'The Buddy Deane Show', as do members of his fan club. It's actually pretty creepy. Then the movie is discussed, followed by the Broadway show. Mr. Waters and everybody else (cast and crew on the original movie, execs at New Line and who-have-you) have a lot of fun recalling the movie's different incarnations. They talk of Divine, and Ricki Lake tells you about her experience making the movie. It's a really nice trio of featurettes, adding up to a very nice documentary. The featurettes are: 'The Buddy Deane Show' (8:14), 'John Waters' "Hairspray"' (15:40) and '"Hairspray" on Broadway' (15:41). Next up is a huge documentary entitled You Can't Stop the Beat (78:29). This is a great documentary about the movie. Whereas the previous doc talked about the story before the movie musical, this doc concentrates on the making of the movie. Just about everything is covered, from casting to dancing to hairdos! There's tons of information about the music, the choreography and whatever else you want to know. There's also plenty of behind the scenes footage and rehearsal footage to see the grueling work these people went through. The parts of the doc are the introduction (1:38), '"Hairspray" Returns to the Screen' (9:09), 'The Cast of "Hairspray"' (17:25), 'The Music of "Hairspray"' (15:10), 'The Choreography of "Hairspray"' (12:10), 'The Costumes of "Hairspray"' (6:02), 'The Hairdos of "Hairspray"' (6:25), 'The Production Design of "Hairspray"' (4:31) and 'Reflections on "Hairspray"' (5:53). Finishing the entire set is the Theatrical Trailer (2:27). It's a great advertisement for the movie. It provides the right tone for what you're about to watch. It might give away a bit too much, but it still teases you in all the right ways.
Overall
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