Two school girls, Tracy and her friend Penny, are big fans of the music and dance show hosted by their heartthrob, Corny. Tracy's mother (John Travolta! in make up) won't let Tracy audition for the show, but when she does, she is rejected anyway for not looking good enough. She and Penny begin dancing with the black kids, and since this is 1950's America it is quite a shock to all. Her new dancing style is a hit on the show and Tracy is now one of the dancers. But the show manager (Michelle Pfeiffer) wants her off so that her own daughter will winner the shows award, and she also doesn't want the black kids mixing in the show either, as Tracy wants.
This film began so badly that I almost stopped watching it, but being told it was pretty good, I thought that it would improve. After you get over the shock that this musical and dance film takes place in a world that's seemingly been decorated and filled by people from the McDonald's marketing team, and after you have endured the banal plot introduction, and after you have finished throwing up, things do actually get better... just ever so slightly. Once the racism and the black/white relationships storyline begins, it all improves, but let me stress again, ever so slight. Queen Latifah who has such a great voice, is given wimpy little songs to sing and is not able to let her voice fly. Does Michelle Pfeiffer sing, if she did, it was so bad that my self protection system has blocked the horror from my memory. And John Travolta in heavy make up doing a romantic duet with Christopher Walken!?! Did I miss some in-joke?Perhaps I was in the wrong mindset for this film, but I definitely know that I was not in the target audience - girls under 10 ears old.
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