Apparently Soul Surfer tells the inspiring story of Bethany Hamilton, "who lost her arm in a shark attack and courageously overcame all odds to become a champion again, through her sheer determination and unwavering faith." That's a hell of a true story. Good luck figuring it out from this first teaser trailer though! This preview looks more like the inspiring story of attractive kids hanging out at the beach and surfing and then hanging out with Helen Hunt and Dennis Quaid. So just how did this genius marketing team manage to cut a trailer for a film where the protagonist is missing an arm without actually ever showing the one-armed girl? Well, upon closer inspection, they didn't quite manage it, but points for effort! I've provided screen shots after the jump in case you blinked.
Some editor must have gone through the film shot by shot to find every single angle where the missing arm was obscured. Apparently there were not a ton of these, so they then focused on wide, action-oriented shots that could be cut quickly enough so that the average eye would not notice the missing arm. Here are the latter three shots, as well as several that I suspect they used because of the angle. Chime in if you find any potential shots that I missed.
POTENTIALLY ARMLESS
BLINK-AND-YOU-MISS-IT ARMLESS
It seems silly to render judgment on a trailer that's dodging the plot of the actual movie so blatantly, so I'm holding off until we get a real trailer. In general, I am kind of a sucker for feel-good movies that are based on true stories though, so I'm cautiously optimistic. Here's the trailer: