ZAC EFRON AND NIKKI BLONSKY

With the bigscreen version of the Broadway musical version of John Waters’ 1988 movie “Hairspray,” opening this weekend in cinemas, the question is not how many cases of Ultra Clutch did the filmmakers need to style all the beehive ’do’s, but does John Travolta fill Divine’s big shoes as Edna Turnblad? While the former “Grease” and “ Saturday Night Fever” star can still get his groove on — Travolta is great whenever his Edna is shimmying up a storm — his speaking voice is still a bit too affected. If Travolta’s turn, like his fat suit, tends to be a bit of a distraction, it is a mostly welcome diversion in this otherwise fabulous film.

Director-choreographer Adam Shankman creates a joyous musical out of the John Waters original with help from screenwriter Leslie Dixon and witty, clever lyricists Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. The high-energy songs are sung to the rafters and they alternate with some beautiful ballads. Even when the music concerns issues such as racial integration, the songs seem lighter than aerosol. Furthermore, this version of “Hairspray” forgoes the deliciously, deliberately tacky style of the original film in favor of big, bright, beautiful colorful outfits that razzle-dazzle.

The story, for anyone who has not seen the fi lm or the subsequent Broadway show, is set in 1962 Baltimore, where Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky) gets a spot performing on “The Corny Collins Show,” an “American Bandstand”-like daytime TV dance program. While there is one show a month set aside for “Negro Day,” station manager Velma Van Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer) wants to make sure everything is to her immoral standards, which means no “Negro Day” and that heavyset gals like Tracy are taboo on TV. Things come to a head as Tracy tries to integrate the station and help “people who are different,” such as “Negro Day” host Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah), her son Seaweed (Elijah Kelley) and her daughter Little Inez (Taylor Parks).

It’s a simple message, and as such, the film uses simple songs — all very much made in the musical styles of the era — to carry the thin plot along. This allows for a series of entertaining set pieces such as Tracy learning rhythm and blue at her school detention hall or Edna getting a makeover when she accepts her daughter’s role as a trailblazer. The film is infectious when the characters are being themselves and having fun, and it is hard not to watch the performers without wearing a big smile.

The young performers are terrific. Blonsky is a dynamo, belting out the film’s opening number like a pro and holding her own against Travolta. Her love interest, Linc Larkin (Zac Efron from “High School Musical”) winks his way through his dreamboat part and Elijah Kelley has some show-stopping moves during his big number “Run and Tell That” that upstages the adults.

That said, it is nice to see the singing and dancing by the stars, and these scenes keep “Hairspray” hopping. Pfeiffer, returning to the screen after a five-year absence, reminds viewers how well she performed on a piano in “The Fabulous Baker Boys” and may have them forget her role in “Grease 2” when she reminisces about being “Miss Baltimore Crabs.” Meanwhile Christopher Walken, as Tracy’s father, Wilbur Turnblad, has a lovely duet and dance with Travolta during one of the film’s tender love songs. (Their chaste kiss may be a little creepy for some viewers.) And of course, Queen Latifah gets to perform several numbers, one of them, “I Know Where I’ve Been,” an anthem of pride she makes her own.

JOHN TRAVOLTA AND QUEEN LATIFAH

Yet if the double- entendres are as corny as the whoopee- cushion jokes, this film/ musical keeps to the spirit, if not the letter, of the original. And while it deviates — alas, there are no beatniks in the “Welcome to the ’60s” number — there are some nice homages. Look fast for Waters as the flasher in the opening number, and the face of one of the “Miss Hairspray” judges will look familiar to anyone who saw the original or (hint, hint) watched her daytime talk show. Even Jerry Stiller, who played Wilbur Turnblad nearly 20 years ago for Waters, has a cameo here.

And while the wholesome, follow-your-dream qualities of “Hairspray” may exasperate viewers looking for a little more toxin from all the aerosol, there is just enough of a subversive edge in the lyrics to satisfy even the harshest cynic. This “Hairspray” is not Waters-ed down.