First ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ Trailer Takes The Bellas on an Aca-Adventure Across the Globe to Crush Foreign Oppressors (101 Screenshots)

The Barden Bellas have returned to crush it following their unexpected smash hit that took the world by storm in 2012. Universal has released the first teaser trailer and poster for Pitch Perfect 2 to the sweet tune of “Cups,” obviously. Winning the National Championship wasn’t enough, and now the Bellas will be taking their vocal range across the pond. Watch the new trailer after the break.

Aca-awesome, right? The Pitch Perfect 2 trailer does a fine job at throwing in a ton of new feels while recalling back to some classic jokes – interactions between Bumper (Adam DeVine) and Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) will probably never get old. But what I can’t get over, which I find kind of hilarious, is that the trailer for Pitch Perfect looks like Stomp the Yard meets Glee and Pitch Perfect 2 has a Step Up 2 vibe. With underground Riff-Offs and bigger competitions internationally, the stakes are going to get even higher for the Bellas.

What makes Pitch Perfect so entertaining is its ability to recognize the social obscurity of competitive acapella and infuse it with meta comedy and catch pop tunes. I’m happy that Kay Cannon returned to write the script for the sequel, and bringing the Bellas overseas to sing against international competitors makes for an odd Rocky IV like scenario. I’m cautiously optimistic about Elizabeth Banks directing in place of Jason Moore, especially since her short in Movie 43 is offensively terrible, but the co-star of the film also produced the original, so she should know what she’s doing.

Everyone is back for round two, but as you may recall, Chloe (Anna Camp) and Aubrey (Brittany Snow) were seniors in the first movie. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, in order for the girls to rejoin their fellow Bellas, Aubrey has stayed in school. Camp will be in the sequel, but has graduated and will appear as more of a mentor role. Now three years later, Beca (Anna Kendrick) and company are now seniors, with a few new members joining the group: Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) and Flo (Chrissie Fit).

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There is no official plot synopsis for Pitch Perfect 2 yet, but Elizabeth Banks laid it down for us in a recent interview with Yahoo:

“The girls are now graduating seniors. They’re coming to the end of their time as Bellas and figuring out how to sort of leave the nest and the comfort of each other’s friendship and figure out what they’re going to do with the rest of their lives.”

Directed by Elizabeth Banks, Pitch Perfect 2 stars Anna Kendrick, Hailee Steinfeld, Katey Sagal, Brittany Snow, Alexis Knapp, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Skylar Astin, Hana Mae Lee, Esther Dean, Ben Platt, David Cross, Adam DeVine, Chrissie Fit, John Michael Higgins, and Birgitte Hjort Sørensen.