Producer: Amy Katherine Taylor   Directors: Gottfried Roodt and Kevin Donovan   Screenplay: Jaisa C. Bishop, Bruce A. Taylor and Kelly Peters   Cast: Susan Sarandon, Bill Nighy, Brooke Shields, Danny Trejo, Al Franken, Alicia Silverstone, Claire Alan, Cory Doran, Bianca Alongi, James Kee, Mike Nadajewski, Shoshana Sperling, John Stocker, Ron Pardo, Benedict Campbell, Rob Van Vuuren and Judy Marshak   Distributor: Second Chance Productions

Grade: C-

In an era filled with mediocre computer-animated kids’ movies, here’s another to add to the pile.  Even the title seems off, since dog Gracie and cat Pedro are in need of rescue for most of the movie, though they do turn heroic toward the close.  (Actually, the movie has gone through some title changes.  The subtitle was apparently once “Mission Impossible.”)

The roster of big names in the voice cast is also a little misleading.  All of them “appear” in supporting roles, with the main ones taken by folks you’ve probably never heard of.  That’s not a bad thing—they’re all entirely adequate for their assignments.  But it’s something potential viewers might want to know. 

In any event, Gracie (voiced by Claire Alan) and Pedro (Cory Doran) are the pets of Sophie (Bianca Alongi) and her younger brother, who communicates for some reason through an electronic device.  The animals, the one a show-ready canine and the other a streetwise rescue cat, constantly fight and bicker, much to the annoyance of goldfish Laurence (Danny Trejo), who also narrates periodically, and the kids’ parents, a klutzy dad and ultra-capable mom.  Goofy grandpa (Al Franken) looks on obliviously.

The family is packing up for a move from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, and put Gracie and Pedro together in a cage for the flight.  Unfortunately, the cage gets caught up in the airline’s baggage conveyer belt, the animals are thrown out, and the plane leaves without them. 

So they’re forced to try to find their way to Utah, a problem made more difficult when the collars with their names are stolen by a couple of sewer rats, Rasputin (John Stocker) and Wade (Ron Pardo).  Thus begins their adventure.  A wise lizard called Monitor advises them to catch the bus for Salt Lake, but they get on one to Las Vegas instead, which is carrying a magic show troupe including helpful rabbit Shades (Susan Sarandon).  Further episodes introduce a horse named Willow (Brooke Shields), a hungry two-headed snake named Sissy and Chrissy (Alicia Silverstone) and a nasty condor named Conrad (Bill Nighy) that serves as a guard on freight trains.

Gracie and Pedro also trash a Las Vegas hotel room in search of food, after which they’re pursued by a dopey shamus (James Kee) and his self-professed genius ferret Sherlock (Mike Nadajewski).  Meanwhile Sophie, after all other efforts to find the duo have failed, puts up a song on the net accusing the airline of incompetence; it goes viral, of course, leading to protests that force the lead of the company—who just happens to be the fellow whose hotel room the pets trashed—to spare no effort to find them.

Everything winds up at an abandoned amusement park where the family is reunited after some supposedly exciting close calls.  By then, of course, their shared experience has turned Gracie and Pedro into buddies.  In addition, Rasputin and Wade have returned as somewhat reformed scoundrels.  Even Sherlock and Doyle turn out to be something other than the villains they were presented as.

There’s nothing offensive about “Gracie & Pedro,” so parents can take their children to it without worries on that score.  But it’s so bland and witless that there’s nothing in it to appeal to anybody other than the youngest tykes, and the pacing by Gottfried Roodt and Kevin Donovan and editor Gottfried Roodt will be sluggish even for them, though the energy level is supposed to go up at the end. Gracie and Pedro aren’t an especially ingratiating pair, and while a few of the secondary characters have amusing moments, none are especially memorable.  And it’s beyond belief that Sophie’s song, as trite as it is, goes viral. (Deon Van Heerden is credited with the music, and fortunately the songs are not numerous.)

Add to that the fact that the animation offers little compensation.  The production design by Caylin Roodt is unimaginative, and the character action (supervised by Alejandro Liñero Castro and directed by André de Villiers) is nothing special.                       

In short, this is a by-the-numbers family-oriented animated movie in which the numbers don’t add up to much.