During the screening of Teacher's Pet, a child cried incessantly, and I was in complete sympathy.

Movies based on television shows are a patchy lot. For every Rugrats: The Movie there is a Powerpuff Girls.

And now there's Teacher's Pet.

I wanted to like the movie; I expected to like it. After all, the Disney television series on which it's based has received several Daytime Emmys as well as many other awards. The main character used the voice of Broadway star Nathan Lane, who won an Emmy Award for the role.

But though it's just a bit over an hour long, this big-screen version of the Disney series is often leaden and forced.

I would be perfectly willing to believe I'm just a geezerette who couldn't appreciate Teacher's Pet were it not for sparse outbursts of laughter in the child-filled theater, the smattering of applause when it was over, and the ho-hum way people stood up and put on their coats. No enthusiasm, no repeating of jokes, no excitement over seeing favorite characters larger than life.

The tale centers around Spot (Lane), who believes he's a boy in the body of a dog. Spot has even gone so far as to disguise himself as a boy named Scott, tucking his tail into jeans and his ears into a beanie and hiding his big dog eyes behind glasses, so that he can attend fourth grade with his owner, Leonard Helperman (Shaun Fleming).

The school year has been the most wonderful time in Spot's life, but it's coming to a close, for which Leonard is profoundly grateful. He's looking forward to a summer of fun between a boy and his dog. Spot is less enthusiastic about chasing sticks and digging in the dirt, and his expectations of fun plummet when Mrs. Helperman (Debra Jo Rupp), who happens to be the fourth-grade teacher, learns she is in the running to be the National Teacher of the Year. She and Leonard are heading off to Florida for two weeks. Alone. Without pets.

Spot will be stuck at home with Pretty Boy, the acerbic family bird (Jerry Stiller), Mr. Jolly, the ultimate fraidy cat (David Ogden Stiers), and Mrs. Boogin (Estelle Harris), the kindly, constantly eating, nearly blind pet sitter.

But when Spot sits on the TV remote control, the soap opera changes to a talk show featuring Dr. Ivan Krank (Kelsey Grammer), a mad scientist who says he can turn animals into people. Dr. Krank is in Florida. The Helpermans are heading to Florida. It's time for Spot to become Scott again so he can finally attain his heart's desire.

But, as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. Spot is so blinded by the prospects of becoming a boy, he fails to consider the possibility of problems, not to mention breaking Leonard's heart.

There are some amusing moments in Teacher's Pet, including an educational song about the 50 states, a spoof of Disney's own Pinocchio story, and the results of Dr. Krank's experiments: a mosquito named Adele (Megan Mullally) and an alligator named Dennis (Paul Rubens).

The humor is often sophisticated - kids may not get the in-jokes - and the animation is more the raggedy doodle style of Ren & Stimpy than the lush artwork of Finding Nemo.

But for a movie that tries to be edgy and irreverent, Teacher's Pet ends with the usual feel-good lessons about friendship and liking yourself as you are. While there's nothing wrong with such sentiments, here they just seem as if they're tacked on to please parents.

First Published January 16, 2004, 1:25 p.m.