Hmm. I know nothing about John Waters, although I had read a little bit about the original film and knew that Divine played the mother there. (And a male character also, I believe.) It sounds from your description as though it would have a completely different feel from the 2007 version.
Hmm again. Clearly, the modern version of the film is much more lighthearted "let's make a musical! It'll be fun!" kind of thing. But the message I get from having John Travolta playing Tracy's mother is quite simply: middle aged fat women cannot be sexy. It has to be understood as comic. Possibly I'm influenced by panto, but to me, it's deliberately undercutting the surface message of the songs and the parents' relationship. As a middle aged fat woman who does all right (and incidentally can dance without bumping into things), I just found I resented it more and more as I watched.
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Hmm again. Clearly, the modern version of the film is much more lighthearted "let's make a musical! It'll be fun!" kind of thing. But the message I get from having John Travolta playing Tracy's mother is quite simply: middle aged fat women cannot be sexy. It has to be understood as comic. Possibly I'm influenced by panto, but to me, it's deliberately undercutting the surface message of the songs and the parents' relationship. As a middle aged fat woman who does all right (and incidentally can dance without bumping into things), I just found I resented it more and more as I watched.