You can make it all shiny and new with updated dance moves, hip-hop songs and pop culture references, but softening up the story because you don’t think it needs to be deep is a real slap in the face to the original.

The remake of “Fame” is a sanitized version of Alan Parker’s gritty and edgy original portrayal of talented teenagers in pursuit of stardom.

Parker, a director no stranger to provocative themes, took on racism, illiteracy, abortion, homosexuality, elitism and suicide in his Oscar-winning film that was released in 1980.

Sure, in this dumbed-down version, given to us at the hands of director Kevin Tancharoen, there are nuanced references to some of that serious stuff, but the film never materializes into anything beyond an MTV musical with updated dance moves and pop culture nods to YouTube and OK Magazine.

If you’re buying what Tancharoen, along with screenwriters Allison Burnett and Christopher Gore, are selling, then the most pressing problem today’s teens face is overbearing parents.

This scaled back version comes as no surprise, though. The original carried an R rating and the remake is PG. After all, you can’t make money off your target audience if that demographic isn’t allowed to see the film.

Even the instructors, (Kelsey Grammar, Bebe Neuwirth, Megan Mullally and Charles S. Dutton) at the Performing Arts High School in New York are mild compared to the butt-busters from three decades ago. If this “Fame” speaks of any truths, it’s that teens today are more coddled than ever. None of the cast could relay the anguish, hunger or ambition to be a star that is at the heart of film’s premise. This is a gritty group of young performing artists who are equal parts misfit and talent. They are adolescents who have no idea who they are or where they’ll fit into the world. It’s as much a coming-of-age tale as it is a movie musical.

Like before, the new “Fame” follows a group of actors, musicians, dancers and singers through four years at the Performing Arts High School. It starts with audition day and then spends about 20-25 minutes documenting each school year before it ends on graduation day.

Asher Book, Kay Panabaker, Collins Pennie, Naturi Naughton and Walter Perez are among the ensemble cast of students who you start to care about. I say start because the movie takes on the impossible task of weaving the tales of too many characters (10 not including what little we learn of the teachers), giving short-shrift to each as it sprints along defying to develop a fully-realized character.

Panabaker’s Jenny is the naive, self-conscious actress; Book is the dashing leading man with a tender voice; Pennie is the angry inner city kid; Perez is the musician who can’t color inside the lines; and Naughton the classical pianist with the desire to be the next Alicia Keys. There’s also the eager filmmaker (Paul Iacono), the effeminate ballet dancer (Paul McGill), the actress who can’t keep her grades up (Anna Maria Perez de Tagle), and the beautiful dancer plucked by a professional troupe (Kherington Payne, a contestant from television’s “So You Think You Can Dance”).

What “Fame” does gets right is the dynamic dancing and the stellar singing, at which Naughton was the most-noteworthy, especially so belting the only song holdover “Out Here on My Own.” And look out Zac Efron, the handsome Book is hot on your heels.

“Fame” starts out with Debbie Allen’s famous “You got big dreams, you want fame,” speech and then proceeds to lift more scenes, situations and structure from its predecessor, but it leaves out the best stuff, like the abortion monologue and the performance of the film’s iconic theme song “Fame.” Here it just runs over the final credits.

You can make it all shiny and new with updated dance moves, hip-hop songs and pop culture references, but softening up the story because you don’t think it needs to be deep is a real slap in the face to the original. Sadly, this “Fame” doesn’t dance to the same tune as its predecessor.

FAME (PG for thematic material including teen drinking, a sexual situation and language.) Cast includes Asher Book, Kristy Flores, Paul Iacono, Paul McGill, Naturi Naughton, Kay Panabaker, Kherington Payne, Collins Pennie, Walter Perez, Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, Debbie Allen, Charles S. Dutton, Kelsey Grammer, Megan Mullally, Bebe Neuwirth. 2 stars out of 4.

The Patriot Ledger