Hairspray (1988)
Comedy, Music, Romance • 1h 32m
Director: John Waters
Cast: Ricki Lake, Divine, Debbie Harry, Vitamin C, Sonny Bono, Leslie Ann Powers, Ruth Brown, Jerry Stiller, Michael St. Gerard, Clayton Prince, Mink Stole, Shawn Thompson, Ric Ocasek, Pia Zadora, Jo Ann Havrilla, Alan J. Wendl, Josh Charles, Jason Downs, Holter Graham, Dan Griffith, Regina Hammond, Bridget Kimsey, Frankie Maldon, Brooke Stacy Mills, John Orofino, Kim Webb, Debra Wirth, Dawn Hill, Cyrkle Milbourne, Doug Roberts, John Waters, Toussaint McCall, Lydia Troy, Verna Day, Kevin Joseph, Cory Tabachow, Marcy Brodsky, Donald Wheeler, Paul Zimmerman, Jennifer Johns, Brook Yeaton, Jeff Gardner, Jay Hillmer, Rhea Feikin, Coley Sohn, Susan Lowe, Rosemary Knower, Colleen Simon, Kathleen Wallace, Keith Pruitt, Al Granick, Robert Di Santo, Mollie Hall, Dorie Ellwood, Maggie Linton, Brenda Alford, Carolyn Walker, Mary Jefferson, Alfie Brown, Tipper Burton, Leo Rocca, Jim Parisi, Margo Tully, Matt Myers, Beverly Brigham, Wilbur Griffin, James Adam Tucker, David Samson, Robb Case, Joey Perillo, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mojo Gentry, Dale Guy Madison, Mark Murray-Mazwi, Christine Mason, Mmekutmfon Essien, Bill Lee Brown, Fredella Calloway, Joseph Eubanks, Angel Harper, Cornell Hills, Gorham Scott, Darrell Taylor, Peter Koper, Kevin Murray, George Stover, Buddy Deane, Michael Willis, Chuck Yeaton, Rick Anderson, Harold Anthony, Milton Clark Jr., Harold A. Cornish, Bernice Moore, June Thorne, Scheryll Anderson, Cheryl Andrews, Sonja Bonair, Sylvia Byrd-Leitner, Charlie Hawke, Rudy Jones, William Rose, Miriam Kiss, Patrick Mitchell, Jim Lyons, Frederick Strother, Christopher Golley, Mary Lou Barber, Jacole Fletcher, Brad Baker, John Carhart III, Scott Coblio, Jean Crispens, Vincent De Paul, Lisa M. DeHaven, Christopher Eaves, Lewis Erskine, Stephanie Mazzeo, Jeff Vespa, Stephen Wozniak, Elizabeth Coffey
Best audio release
Stereo: Criterion 4K Blu-ray
5.1: Warner Bros Blu-ray
UHD tiers
About the film
'Pleasantly plump' teenager Tracy Turnblad achieves her dream of becoming a regular on the Corny Collins Dance Show. Now a teen hero, she starts using her fame to speak out for the causes she believes in, most of all integration. In doing so, she earns the wrath of the show's former star, Amber Von Tussle, as well as Amber's manipulative, pro-segregation parents. The rivalry comes to a head as Amber and Tracy vie for the title of Miss Auto Show 1963.
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- National Film Registry
Year of Induction: 2022
Is this Perfect?*highly probable
Director: Jean Vigo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
France Rimini 4K Blu-ray see caps vs Artificial Eye Blu-ray
Directors: Alberto Cavalcanti & Charles Crichton & Basil Dearden & Robert Hamer
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Director: Otakar Vávra
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray see nic review
Restored: Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored: Czech PAL DVD
Preferences will vary, the restored track sounds good, but not necessarily faithful to the original elements.
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
(Indicator 4K Blu-ray, based on review)
Director: Anthony Mann
Criterion 4K Blu-ray, Universal 2008 DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2008 Universal DVD mono
The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original Laserdisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin.
The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.
Director: Basil Dearden
Excellent 4K master and encode, except for opticals grain is very fine, grading is beautifully silvery and luminous, nice HDR re-grade by Fidelity in Motion
Director: Richard Brooks
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
Director: Elaine May
Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray > MoC > Olive Films. From nicolas:
The master is good but it’s not that big an upgrade from the Olive Films disc and Vinegar Syndrome’ encode has some blocky highlights. A shame that they didn’t hire David Mackenzie here.
Cinématographe has unnecessary noise gating not present on the previous releases.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
1.85:1: Kino Lorber 4K / Capelight 4K
1.66:1: Criterion 4K but low pass filtered
Comparison between the 4Ks, Criterion on the AR choice
Other discs have unnecessary filtering and sound worse, the difference isn't substantial but audible
Director: Dennis Hopper
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Flicker Alley 4K confirmed for 2027 https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24404584&postcount=1
MoC audio is better https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=225532&page=3
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the Universal release without the filtering.
DTS:X mix on Universal 4K Blu-ray most closely approximates original surround mix
Criterion DVD and Universal 4K Blu-ray has additional features not found on the Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
WB 4K
Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)
An undeniably significant improvement from the BD yet still severely flawed. See DFIC's review.
Director: John Waters
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K is in director's preferred aspect ratio of 1.66:1.
Director: John Waters
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has poor encoding see caps but still a huge improvement over the 2014 Universal Blu-ray
Theatrical cut is on the 4K disc, but the restored Director's Cut is only on the Blu-Ray disc. Director's Cut utilizes the same 4K transfer as the theatrical cut for 86 minutes, but the 6 minutes of restored footage could only be salvaged from a standard definition source and are thus needed to be upscaled.
Director: John Waters
Criterion Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: John Waters
Criterion Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
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