Look...yes this movie is dated, silly and at times sickeningly sweet, but darn is it ever fun! I was a kid when this was first aired, and not surprisingly just starting out on the bass guitar myself, so ANYTHING that remotely had anything to do with music on television in those dark days before MTV was very welcome. Watching it now, of course, I see how cheesy it was, but I also realized how well it was done. It is easy to look at Ron Howard now and take for granted that he always had talent but who, at that time, could have foreseen how far his career path would have taken him? It is actually quite remarkable to look at this film and see how ambitious it actually was. Not only did he direct the movie to tell an interesting and fun story, but from a technical standpoint, he had to deal with film making situations that demonstrate how much faith the network put in him to pull this off. I am sure that it must have been difficult for him to, not only direct large crowd and concert sequences, but also do it while being nearly the same age as all of the actors themselves. There have been many rock and roll movies made over the years. Some have been great (8 mile, Almost Famous, This is Spinal Tap,) some have been simply good and fun (Rock and Roll High School, Eddie and the Cruisers,) and some have been terrible (You cant Stop the Music, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.) But Cotton Candy is a R-n-R movie that tells a heartfelt story and simply entertains. It is nothing terribly fancy, mind you, but since I don't think that Ron Howard was trying to change the world with this movie, its shortcomings can easily be overlooked when weighed against its fun-factor!
