The two minute trailer for Bumblebee was released by Paramount Pictures. It’s not the kind of trailer you might have been expecting for a Transformers film. In fact, the trailer seems more in line with Herbie The Love Bug than Michael Bay’s depiction of Hasbro’s transforming space robots.

The prequel film takes place back in the 1980s, and stars Hailee Steinfeld from the True Grit remake. She ends up encountering Bumblebee and he becomes her ride.

During a routine checkup (which is a far-fantasy of some SJW writer given that most teen girls couldn’t give two monkey flicking boogers about checking under the hood of their car) Bumblebee comes to life and presents himself to Hailee’s character. From there, the two share an unlikely bond and go on some kind of an adventure of friendship and a little bit of action.

It’s no where near the epic sized, planet-busting affair from the other Transformers films, but it’s more contained and personal, almost like The Iron Giant. You can check out the trailer below.

As far as editing and pacing is concerned, there’s no faults that I can find with the trailer.

It presents Bumblebee as a feel-good seasonal film for the whole family, which is probably what Paramount was gunning for.

The thing is, who is actually going to go see this flick? The fatigued Transformers fans? Teenage girls? Teenage boys? 40-year-old geeks? Who exactly is the target audience?

I would have expected testosterone-laden men would have been the prime demographic, but then the trailer isn’t anywhere near as action-packed to lure in that crowd, and they only briefly tease John Cena as some kind of a military antagonist at the very end of the trailer, so I’m guessing they’re trying to orient the film’s marketing toward a younger, more sentimental audience.

Either way, I can’t really say much about the flick since we haven’t seen much from it. I can at least give props to the marketing team for not burning the entire plot away within the span of two minutes like some other films. But the quality of the film is totally going to be up in the air. The general consensus from YouTube is surprisingly positive, so maybe there is an audience for this feel-good family film after all?

You can look for Bumblebee to hit theaters this Christmas.