YMMV / Hairspray (2007)

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Corny Collins. Is he genuine about supporting integration like the others, or is he simply a media mogul who knows that he has to move with the times to survive, and is thus a cynical stab at how civil rights movements are able to make progress? Note his line 'This is the future' to Velma — he could well just be a benign version of the MC from Cabaret who plays to his audience.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Amber. While the way her mother treats her and the Humiliation Conga that she goes through while participating in the pageant makes her come off as a Jerkass Woobie (in addition to the film taking out a lot of her worst moments of antagonism from the musical), Amber can still be a jerkass, and has done her fair share of jerkass deeds with or without her mother's influence (acting rude to the other dancers she works with for the Corny Collins show, gossiping about Tracy to her other classmates due to her jealousy over Tracy being a good dancer, intentionally getting Tracy sent to detention by her teacher, and her and her mother even fat-shaming Tracy's overweight mother).
• Fanon: More than a few viewers have sensed some romantic tension and potential between James Marsden's Corny Collins and Queen Latifah's Motor Mouth Maybelle. There are even fanfics about the "Cornbelle" ship.
• Hollywood Homely: The driving point of the movie, considering that Tracy is still a very attractive young woman who just so happens to be fat (her weight seems to be treated "as is" by everyone but the villains; this has been lauded by a number of people, stating that Hairspray has one of the most positive depictions of fat girls in any form of media).
• Newer Than They Think: In the earliest classroom scene, the chalkboard shows the height of Mount Everest as 29035 feet. This figure has only been attested since a 1999 GPS measurement of the summit. Before this, the common measurement (and still the official measurement accepted by Nepal and the People's Republic of China) was 8848 meters (approximately 29029 feet).
• Questionable Casting: John Travolta's performance as Edna in the 2007 movie felt questionable to viewers who noticed that he didn't have as much experience performing in drag as previous holders of the role like Divine, Bruce Vilanch, Harvey Fierstein, and countless drag queens cast in local productions. He also needed a lot more padding.
• Tough Act to Follow: Fans of the movie couldn't resist unfavorably comparing the 2016 NBC telecast's actors to the 2007 cast, and were even miffed that it was following the Broadway show instead of including changes that the movie had made. Viewers accustomed to the 2007 movie had to be mindful that the teleplay was filmed live, and thus the actors didn't have the luxury of lipsynching to prerecorded songs. All the singing and dancing was done in real time, and sometimes you can see and hear the actors getting winded near the end of an energetic performance.

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