Gracie and Pedro are two beloved pets who are not precisely friends, and they will need to put their differences aside to get back to their two-legged friends in Salt Lake City after an airline mistake left them stranded.
Going into an unexpected adventure across the country through uncharted and unfamiliar lands in order to get back home and reunite with your loved ones is a theme explored since many decades ago in movies like The Incredible Journey from 1963 and more recently A Dog's Way Home from 2019. It is an interesting concept, allowing the characters to explore unknown territories and situations and see how they react to all of this. Gracie (Claire Alan), a pure-bred and refined little dog, and Pedro (Cory Doran), a stray cat rescued from a trashcan, are opposites in many aspects. From their origin to their species, they are different inside and out. Reasons that keep them occupied pulling pranks on each other, fighting, and so on. Gracie and Pedro literally embody the saying "Like cats and dogs," and this adds to the adventure since they are an unlikely pair that will have to collaborate if they want to be back home.
A story that leans on the differences and the characters interactions to produce comedy, but there is also a lot of slapstick, e.g., when going at high speed and different elements collide with someone's face again and again, or bodies defying physics in a Looney Tunes fashion. This, even if overused, renders many scenes humorous. When the pair share some laughs, they are really cute and hilarious, and the movie is funnier than ever, especially considering that, many times, the object of said laughs is standing right before them. Other characters are also funny in their own way; for instance, the rats, whose avarice-driven personalities are seen in little details. It is not clear if this was intentional or not. Its cinematography is good, and there are some POV takes in action scenes that enhance the adrenaline and also offer an interesting vehicle to put oneself in their shoes.
Gracie & Pedro: Pets to the Rescue! Finds its weakest aspects when the companions are not on the screen since the rest of the characters are not precisely fun or interesting, let alone the unnecessary musical numbers, thankfully only two, slowing the narrative and evoking a burgeoning desire for them to end. Something similar to Leo (2023), a movie with unnecessary songs, not because the inclusion of songs necessarily lowers a film's quality, but because they are simply not good and, therefore, in no way their inclusion is justified. Gracie & Pedro is a movie that is better when it is completely focused on its protagonists since they are what brought us here in the first place, an interesting and funny duo who share a special bond that develops as the story progresses, and one, as part of the audience, wants to see more of that.
