Beasts of the Southern Wild Trailer: See What The Sundance Fuss Was About

Benh Zeitlin's magical realist fable Beasts of the Southern Wild blazed a buzzy trail through Sundance '12, but the rest of the world has had to wait months to see with their own eyes what all that fuss was about. So without further ado, watch the film's fantastic first trailer, starring newcomer Quvenzhané Wallis in a tale of a six-year-old named Hushpuppy who becomes a hero when a storm approaches her bayou home.

Head to Apple for the trailer debut in HD.

Synopsis:

In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions.

Beasts of the Southern Wild won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was snatched up by Fox Searchlight, who will release the anticipated indie on June 27. As far as trailers go, this one does a crack job of introducing us to Wallis's tenacious spitfire of a heroine, immediately conveying the poetry and sense of magic beneath the grime of her world before building to an emotional, triumphant swell. Bravo, Searchlight.

Verdict: Yes, I say! Bring on Beasts, and let's hope it doesn't get lost in the clutter of the summer movie line-up.