Teacher's Pet: The Movie

Teacher's Pet: The Movie (also known simply as Teacher's Pet) is a 2004 animated musical-comedy film based on Teacher's Pet and serves as the series finale of the TV show. The film was produced by Disneytoon Studios, and released theatrically on January 16, 2004. Despite being a box office bomb, the film did well with critics.
This is the 6th Disney movie based on a TV show. It is the third and last theatrical movie to be based off a TV show from Disney's One Saturday Morning, and the last theatrical movie based on any animated television series produced under Disney until 2022's The Bob's Burgers Movie, albeit an acquired production and not released under the Disney banner. In this film, Shaun Fleming, Nathan Lane, Debra Jo Rupp, Jerry Stiller, and David Ogden Stiers, from the series reprise their roles as Leonard Helperman, Spot Helperman, Mary Lou Helperman, Pretty Boy, and Mr. Jolly respectively.
==Plot==
The movie opens in the living room where Spot (Nathan Lane) is having a dream where he's watching Pinocchio and says that he'd give anything if he could change into a real human boy like him. Suddenly, the Blue Fairy jumps out of the TV and decides to grant Spot's wish. After several times of failing, she whacks him with her wand and Pretty Boy (Jerry Stiller) wakes him up from his dream. When Spot wakes up, Pretty Boy tells him that it's not likely that he'll become a real boy and that it's already enough that he dresses up as a boy and goes to school everyday. Leonard (Shaun Fleming) comes passing by and tells him to get up and be ready for the last day of the school year and Spot gets ready since he doesn't want to miss his perfect attendence record.
After a quick dress-up and an extended version of the theme song, Spot becomes his alter-ego, Scott Leadready II and he has won the perfect attendance medal and several others. Mary (Debra Jo Rupp) is in tears because Leonard, Scott, and the other 4th graders are gonna be 5th graders next time she sees them in school. All the students have different plans: Leslie's (Mae Whitman) going to visit her Granny Smith, Tyler, Trevor, and Taylor (Pamela Adlon) are skating 24/7, and Ian (Rob Paulsen) gets to visit his uncle (who we'll find out about more later) after he's grounded for hacking into Buckingham Palace, and Leonard wants to play with his dog however, Scott plans to be Scott Leadready II the whole summer (best friends forever). Then, Principal Strickler (Wallace Shawn) arrives and tells Mary that she become a finalist for the Teacher of the Year award (or N.E.A.T.O. for short) and all the students are congratulating her. Strickler also tells her that the school district has asked her to compete in the finals in Florida and Strickler also lends his RV to the Helperman's only, there is one small rule - "No Dogs Allowed".
While Leonard and his mom are loading their luggage into the RV and the other kids can be heard playing in the cul-de-sac, Spot is sad that he, Mr. Jolly, and Pretty Boy cant go on the trip even though it's for 2 weeks (but in dog times its 14 weeks). While Leonard sings a sweet song to his best buddy that Spot can't stand, Leonard's mom interrupts and takes him into the RV and they drive off. In the house, Pretty Boy, Mr. Jolly (David Ogden Stiers), and Ms. Boogin the Pet-Sitter (Estelle Harris) are watching soaps and Spot changes the channel and it turns to The Barry Anger Show and today, Barry Anger (Jay Thomas) is interviewing Dr. Ivan Krank (Kelsey Grammer) an evil scientist who can turn animals into human beings. Spot sees this as an oppurtunity to become a boy and it just so happens that he lives in Florida where Leonard and Mary are going as we speak. Spot deicdes to go and have the pets cover for him with Ms. Boogin (who is fortunately oblivious).
On the road, Leonard sees Spot outside the window and asks his mom to stop, and they go to a gas station. While Mary is putting on her makeup, Leonard finds Spot filling up the tank, and he tells him he wants to come to Florida with him, but no dogs are allowed in the RV. Quick thinking, Spot becomes Scott Leadready II and convinces Mary to take him along for the trip after disguising himself as a bunch of family members, and they get onto the road on their way to the Sunshine State and sing a song about the states. After a week on the road and several stops, Leonard, Mary, and Scott arrive in Florida, and Mary has to go to the first round of the Teacher of the Year contest, and she leaves the boys on the beach and tells them to meet them at the RV park at 6:00 for dinner. Leonard wants to play fetch, but Spot/Scott explains why he came to Florida, and Leonard reluctantly agrees to see Dr. Krank despite the warnings he gives Spot.
Pretty Boy and Mr. Jolly are watching soaps back at home and turn it to The Barry Anger Show again. They have returned the spotlight to Krank because they have an animal control officer report that Krank doesn't turn animals into humans and turns them into mutants. Pretty Boy decides to go to Florida to warn Spot, but Jolly doesn't wanna go because he's afraid of the outside, but Pretty Boy encourages him to be brave, and he feels confident, and they run off to save Spot.
Back in Florida, after a long hot walk, the boys find Krank, who is angered at another failure, and orders his minions, Dennis the Mutant Crocodile and Adele the Mutant Mosquito (the mutants that Pretty Boy and Jolly saw earlier on TV), to destroy the machine but Spot/Scott stops him and asks him to turn him into a boy because what he needs to turn an animal into a human is a mammal, since humans and mammals both have hair on their bodies. Krank agrees to turn Spot into a boy, and Spot is excited, despite Leonard's protests.
Spot is turned into a human, alright. But instead of being turned into a boy, he's turned into a MAN, which is his age in dog years. Just as Scott and Leonard are about to leave, Krank traps them in a cage to exploit them as living proof of his success. While he leaves to make plans for his two year world tour, Ian shows up. Ian decides to free them and keep their secret at home in exchange for a slimy old chew toy and they escape. When Krank finds out Ian freed them, he orders Dennis and Adele to find Scott and grounds Ian until he leaves.
Meanwhile, Pretty Boy and Mr. Jolly are on a train to Florida that is going pretty fast. Scott and Leonard finally escape and they start to get hungry and Scott needs some new clothes when they find a poster of a lost dog, they find her using the Twilight Bark (ala One Hundred and One Dalmatians) and earn $500 and Scott gets a fancy suit and a new necktie and they rent a Ferrari.
Meanwhile, Ian calls his parents, telling them how horrible Krank's house is, but he likes it anyway. Krank then tells Ian to stay off the phone, and his minions come back without Scott and Leonard and angrily tells them to go and don't come back without them. When Leonard and Scott meet Leonard's mom back at the RV, Spot lies to her and tells her that Scott's family came, he went home, he's a friend of the Leadreadys, and he's a teacher of the year finalists. After drinking coffee and going hyper, Leonard throws him out of the motor home, and Mary grounds him for the rest of the night. She also invites human Spot out on a date, and he agrees.
Mary starts to fall in love with human Spot, and things go from bad to worse with Spot and Leonard. Spot tells Leonard that he's gonna become his new stepdad, and this angers Leonard. He doesn't want his dog to become his stepdad and orders him to stop "liking" his mom at once. Spot refuses and says that Leonard cannot tell him what to do anymore, since he's now a human adult. Deciding that this the last straw, Leonard tells Spot to get out of his life and kicks him out. Spot tries to convince Leonard to give him another chance, but his former master refuses and Spot sadly leaves. After Spot relinquishes his collar and tag, Leonard begins to regret his words.
Meanwhile, Pretty Boy and Jolly end up in Cuba and eventually find their way to Florida. Pretty Boy and Jolly arrive at the RV, and Leonard tells them everything that has happened. Spot is also staying in a rundown motel after having nowhere to go and begins to see that humanity isn't what he thought it would be after all. Realizing that his and Leonard's friendship is what truly matters in his life, he decides to return to his family and make things right. At the same time, Leonard thinks the only way to be with his best friend again is to have Krank turn him into a dog, despite Pretty Boy and Jolly's protests. After Leonard leaves, Spot arrives and finds out that Leonard went to see Dr. Krank. Fearing of what could become of their master, the pets set off to rescue Leonard.
Krank is about to turn Leonard into a dog to use him as bait to lure Spot, until the pets arrive to stop him and it gives Spot a chance to properly apologize to Leonard for all the trouble he has caused. When the machine runs out of power, Spot installs the nickel Krank gave him earlier, turning Krank into a mouse. When the machine is about to explode, Spot stands right in front of the zapper to change back to a dog, and it zaps him. After the explosion, Leonard, Pretty Boy, and Jolly find that Spot has turned to a pile of blue ashes. Certain that his friend is dead, Leonard kicks the machine, and it reactivates, zapping Spot's ashes and reviving him. Now with a newfound sense of pride, Spot declares that he is proud of being a dog.
Mrs. Helperman wins the Teacher of the Year Award. While the pets are outside congratulating her, Pretty Boy wonders how they are going to get home without Mrs. Helperman seeing them. Spot dresses up as Scott Leadready again and convinces Mary Lou to drive him home and Jolly and Pretty Boy are holding onto the RV's ladder as part of Spot's plan.
==Cast==
*Nathan Lane as Spot Helperman
*Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Ivan Krank
*Shaun Fleming as Leonard Helperman
*Debra Jo Rupp as Mary Lou Helperman
*David Ogden Stiers as Mr. Jolly
*Jerry Stiller as Pretty Boy
*Paul Reubens as Dennis
*Megan Mullally as Adele
*Wallace Shawn as Principal Strickler
*Rob Paulsen as Ian Wazselewski
*Estelle Harris as Mrs. Boogin
*Jay Thomas as Barry Anger
==Soundtrack==
#Teacher's Pet - Christy Carlson Romano
#I Wanna Be a Boy - Nathan Lane, Mae Whitman, Cree Summer, Lauren Tom, Pamela Adlon, Shaun Fleming and Rob Paulsen
#A Boy Needs a Dog - Shaun Fleming and Nathan Lane
#A Whole Bunch of World - Debra Jo Rupp, Shaun Fleming, Nathan Lane
#Small But Mighty - Jerry Stiller and David Odgen Stiers
#I, Ivan Krank - Kelsey Grammer
#Take the Money and Run - Jack Sheldon
#I'm Moving On - David Ogden Stiers; Debra Jo Rupp; Jerry Stiller; Kelsey Grammer; Megan Mullay; Nathan Lane; Paul Reubens and Shaun Fleming
#A Boy Needs a Dog (Reprise) - Nathan Lane and Shaun Fleming
#Proud to Be a Dog - Nathan Lane, Shaun Fleming, Rob Paulsen, Megan Mullaly, and Paul Reubens
#Hot Diggety Dog - The Disney Chorus
#Mambo del Perro - The Disney Chorus
#Wacko (The Barry Anger Theme) - The Disney Chorus
#Top of the World Blues - Carmen Twillie
==Trivia==
*This is the fifth theatrical Disney film to be based on a TV series, after DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, A Goofy Movie, Doug's 1st Movie, and Recess: School's Out.
**Thus, it was the last animated film based on a TV series to be theatrically released by Walt Disney Pictures until an upcoming untitled Bluey film in 2027.
*This is the first time Jerry Stiller and Estelle Harris have worked together since the end of Seinfeld.
*Many different references to past episodes are made in this. Including: Being Mrs. Leadready, The Nose Knows, The Blight Before Christmas, Taint Valentines Day, One Dog's Junk, and more.
*Teacher's Pet: The Movie is the last Disney movie to be based on a One Saturday Morning show.
*During the time this movie released, Disney made a special issue of Disney Adventures Magazine about this movie.
*This movie was rated PG for some mildy crude humor. This is the only movie based off a One Saturday Morning show to get a PG rating.
*This movie was announced in the opening previews of the VHS and DVD releases of Lizzie McGuire: Fashionably Lizzie, Lizzie McGuire: Growing Up Lizzie, Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade, and Recess: All Growed Down. All four titles were released December 9th, 2003.
*When Spot is walking down the beach, he notices a little boy and his pet cocker spaniel, this was an animated homage to Gary Baseman and his dog, Hubcaps.
*The magazine Leonard is reading says "Gary Fashion", which is named after the show's creator.
*The Barry Anger Show is a spoof of The Jerry Springer Show.
*After the credits, the last roll says "In Loving Memory of Hubcaps Baseman". Baseman's dog died while the movie was in development.
*Pretty Boy gets the last line in the series.
*Krank's address (666 Acko Way) is a reference to 666 Park Avenue. "Acko Way" is also Pig Latin for "Wacko".
*This is the first time to have Nathan Lane voice Spot since the Season 1 episode You Can't Bite City Hall.
*Pretty Boy's line when he and Mr. Jolly end up in Cuba, "Missed it by that much", is based on Maxwell Smart's catchphrase from Get Smart.
*This is the only One Saturday Morning movie in which a character is killed and then brought back to life.
*This is the only Disney movie to not have the title appearing until the end before the credits roll until Maleficent, as well as the only animated Disney film to do so until Big Hero 6.
==Reception==
Critical reception was fairly positive, with a 75% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes; the consensus states: "Despite its short running time, Teacher's Pet is a witty and irreverent family film." On Metacritic, which uses an average of critics' reviews, the film holds a 74/100 rating, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
===Box office===
Over its 4-day opening weekend, Teacher's Pet took $3,602,245 in 2,027 theaters, a mere $1,777 per theater, making it one of the lowest openings in history. By the end of its run, the film had only made $6,491,969. Due to this being a box-office failure, Disney never made another theatrical animated adaption of their television shows again.
==Gallery==
Teacher's Pet Baseman.jpg
Bluefairyteacherspet.jpg
Pinocchioteacherspet.jpg
Helpermansatthebeach.jpg
Category:2004 films
Category:Films based on television shows
Category:Animated films
Category:Teacher's Pet
Category:Traditionally Animated Films
Category:Films about animals
Category:PG-rated films