The teaser trailer for James Cameron’s new film Avatar has arrived.

The clip isn’t yet properly live at Apple, the site meant to be hosting it in the US, but you can see it in 1080p with this link, or at the French MSN site.

Here’s the quick recap: Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) arrives (in his wheelchair) on Pandora. He sees the planet’s beauty and, though him, we’re quickly introduced to the ten-foot tall alien Na’vi avatars. Implanted in his Na’vi body, Jake leads us on an exploration of Pandora. We see Zoe Saldana’s Na’vi character and Jake’s imprinting session with Pandora’s version of a dragon. (Hey Anne McCafferey, did you get a royalty check?) There’s even a glimpse of Pandora at night, and a little bit of the new power suits in action, which weren’t much seen in the Comic Con footage. We don’t see Sigourney Weaver, but do get a glimpse of Drag Me To Hell’s Dileep Rao as one of the Avatar technicians.

And, much as I thought when seeing footage in Hall H, it all looks a bit like a big adult Pixar movie. Which people are probably going to take as a pejorative, given that the whole thrust of Avatar so far has been that it is a game-changing experience. But when is being compared to Pixar ever an insult?

The real insult is from Fox, which keeps mismanaging Avatar’s debut. First there was the Avatar ticketing server crash and subsequent confirmation confusion, and now the teaser launch has been screwed up. In the long run this isn’t a big deal, but creating hype for a film is all about getting the moment right and that hasn’t been happening so far.

Official Plot Synopsis: AVATAR takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery, as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization. The film was first conceived by Cameron 14 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work, AVATAR delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film, disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.