Oh Pixar, how I love you.

At least when I pretend that you never made Cars and Cars 2 – the search for more merchandising. (And yes, I know that is a cheap Spaceballs rip off, thank you very much)

Some of the most gorgeous animation in the past decade+ has come from the artists at Pixar, from the bottom of the ocean with Finding Nemo

Dory, Marlin, and an awesome whale

to the stars with Wall-E

Wall-E in space

to the beautiful simplicity of a peasant dish in Ratatouille.

Ratatouille's eponymous dish

And beyond just being beautiful, these movies have souls. Somehow they make us care about a rat becoming a chef…and a robot holding hands with the object of its affection.  Talk about some serious magic.

The latest offering is getting some ink because the hero of the story is a heroine. Which is kind of funny since Disney movies tended to focus on the ladies, even if those ladies wore pretty pretty dresses and needed to be rescued by dashing princes. Ok, maybe the press is necessary.

Merida encountering magic

In Brave, Merida is a Scottish princess who doesn’t like wearing the princess trapping or behave like one or marry a nice Scottish warrior just like her parents would have her do. It is a bit cliched to say that she has a spirit as fiery as her hair, but there you have it. She takes on a quest, as all good movie heroines do, and I’m sure finds herself in the process. But even a simple and familiar story such as this will probably be transformed by Pixar into something memorable — and of course, visually stunning.

We find out for sure on June 22.

@brave