To his credit, director Rod Daniel has crafted an amiable teen film and gets a pleasing performance from Fox in the title role. Yet Teen Wolf, especially in the basketball sequences, loses its dramatic dribble.

The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous--have you ever seen a wolf break dance?--and a good deal of fun.

Fox somehow survives on the sheer force of a pleasant screen presence, but those who remember The Shaggy Dog ought to stay away.

This is a good-natured spoof of adolescent insecurities and image-consciousness in school, not Gothic shocks.