With Up coming out this weekend (May 29th), you might have guessed that director Pete Docter has been doing lots of interviews and other press. In a discussion with Coming Soon, an intriguing slip lead to massive amounts of speculation. We tried to stay out of that mess until some clear(er) details were available. So what exactly is Brave you ask?

Apparently, it's Pixar's 2011 winter feature The Bear and the Bow.

'Brave', it turns out, is Pixar's internal name for The Bear and the Bow. Writer and director Brenda Chapman (Cars, Prince of Egypt) is 'behind the lens' of Pixar's first fairy tale, which stars Reese Witherspoon. The Pixar Blog reports the story is of a Scottish princess Merida, who would rather be known as a great (and brave) archer. Against her mother's wishes, she "make[s] a reckless choice which unleashes unintended peril on her father's kingdom and her mother's life..."

The slip about The Bear and the Bow happened during a conversation about general work practices at the Pixar Studio. The question asked was while working on Up, did Docter have any involvement with developing pictures? His response:

Once in a while, we’re at these meetings where we all look at 'Toy Story 3' or 'Brave' or whatever and we all give comments and notes, but that’s just like a day here or there.

In other Pixar news, as many of you know by now, the studio produces two shorts for every film - one for the theatrical run (Partly Cloudly will be in front of Up) and the other for DVD/Blu-ray release, usually a spin-off using characters from the feature. SciFi Wire has word that the Blu-ray release of Up contains Dug's Special Mission, and it's said to be a bit of backstory on Dug the talking dog. In a sense it'll be a prequel because it will explain what he's doing when the main characters of Up, Carl and Russell, stumble upon him.

As far as The Bear and the Bow goes, how do you think Pixar will fair with its first fairy tale picture?

The Bear and the Bow is slate to hit theaters in the Winter of 2011.

Source: Coming Soon, The Pixar Blog, SciFi Wire