Oh Pixar, you wonderful company you. While other filmmakers fail me, you have a near perfect track record of beautiful, carefully crafted, well told story-making. The first big trailer for Brave had me excited. The new trailer for Brave has me practically giddy.

Well, it’s not really a trailer as much as a full scene from the film, but don’t take that as me complaining! My God, this is gorgeous. I loved how the arrow wavers from the force of the bow, but just everything about this movie looks stunning. And I still love Merida’s hair. Stunn-ing.

Anyone else wondering if “winning the maiden’s hand” actually means marriage? I’m just thinking the dad is a little nonchalant when that wimpy kid wins the competition by chance. Maybe the competition is to win her hand for their celebration? The plot summaries I’ve seen for the film mention the fathers of the three archers and how they take a certain tradition very seriously … and that Merida up-heaves it in defiance. I just don’t see the tradition being whoever wins gets to marry her because the stakes would seem higher in that case.

Another guess about the plot – the summary I’ve found mentions a “beastly” curse Merida accidentally unleashes. In the earlier trailer, we see three bear cubs making faces. Merida has three brothers. You see where I’m going with this, right? Either her brothers are turned into bears or her whole family turns into bears (not necessarily the whole community because we see a servant woman shriek and faint at the sight of the bear cubs). The bear motif is going to be a huge plot point, I’m sure of it … the original title The Bear and the Bow kind of gives that away.

Brave is scheduled to premiere in the US on June 22nd.