A Few Thoughts on 2015

Another year, another year-end recap. 2015 has come and gone and, I gotta tell you, it's been a great year, both for movies and me personally. Pixar-wise, 2015 was a big year. For the first time, Pixar released two films this year. And, like a lot of movie studios when they release two movies, one was great and the other was ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ eh. Inside Out was the first to come out in June and it was spectaular. My thoughts are better outlined here. Needless to say, I enjoyed it. The second Pixar movie to come out this year was The Good Dinosaur. I have to admit, I haven't seen it. Probably won't see it until it hits Blu-Ray. The movie has been very polarizing, with some people saying it's amazing and others saying it's a god-awful piece of trash. I couldn't tell you whether it's the latter or the former or somewhere in the middle, but I know that a lot of people love it and a lot of people hate it so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Money-wise, Inside Out was the sixth-highest grossing film of the year, and the thrid highest-grossing Pixar film. Meanwhile, The Good Dinosaur was, by all intents and purposes, a failure. It only made $17 million more than its production budget and, factoring in marketing, it will probably go down as the first Pixar movie to lose money. But that's okay. Pixar needs a failure to show they can't just rest on their laurels and they need to continue making original films. New movie-wise, Pixar confirmed their schedule for the next three years, with Finding Dory hitting next June, Cars 3 hitting June 2017, Coco, the Lee Unkrich-directed Dia de los Muertos movie, coming November 2017, Toy Story 4 coming June 2018, and Incredibles 2 coming June 2019. I'm excited for the upcoming slate. Finding Dory, I'm still not a fan of and the character designs that just came out are not exactly helping. I think Cars 3 can be good if they return to the roots of the Cars franchise, and not make Mater the lead. Coco seems intriguing. We don't much about it, so I can't exactly say what I'm expecting, but Lee made Toy Story 3, so I trust him. Toy Story 4, still not a big fan of, but I'm interested in where they're trying to go, with it being a Bo Peep-Woody love story. Incredibles 2, I can't wait for. With Brad Bird returning, it should be a great time.

As for movies in general this year, 2015 will probably go down (until 2016) as the best year for movies ever. So many great movies came out this year. The ones that came out this year that I've seen were Kingsman, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mad Max: Fury Road, Tomorrowland, Jurassic World, Ant-Man, Paper Towns, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Kingsman, I love. Avengers 2, I love. I remember having a big, dumb grin on my face the whole time I was watching it. Mad Max was great. It was just so batshit insane, while still being extremely poignant and heartfelt. Tomorrowland was pretty good. Probably the worst thing Brad Bird's done, but when your first four films are as great as his, it's not that bad. Jurassic World was pretty good. While I do agree with, well, everyone that the characters were awful, there's just something about dinosaurs destroying shit that's just so great. Ant-Man was good. It served as a nice little break in the MCU and I can't wait to see what they do with the character next. Paper Towns was okay. I was never a huge fan of the book, so I had low expectations for the movie, but it was actually quite good. Finally, Star Wars. Oh my god, Star Wars. What a movie. For a movie that I had such high expectations for, it EXCEEDED them. If it's any indication of how much I loved it, I saw it twice in the first 24 hours in was out and then again three days later. It's great.

Looking forward to 2016, it's shaping up to be yet another fantastic year. For Pixar, the only release for next year is Finding Dory. I'm not a fan, but it will definitely still make a bajillion dollars and will make up for the financial failures of The Good Dinosaur. Kung Fu Panda 3, Hail, Caesar!, Deadpool, Zootopia, Batman v. Superman, Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse, Independence Day 2, the female Ghostbusters reboot, Star Trek Beyond, Suicide Squad, Laika's Kubo and the Two Strings, Gambit, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Moana, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It's as though a thousand wallets cried out in terror and then were suddenly silenced.

So that concludes my year in review. Personally, this has been probably my best year ever. I've met and gotten to know a lot of great people through my fraternity and beyond. I've gotten to experience some amazing opportunities, working for both Ball State and Purdue. After a tumultous 2013 and 2014, it's nice to finally settle in where I'm at and feel like I'm part of another great family. So thanks to everyone who helped make my 2015 so cute and so frat. See ya in 2016, maybe, who knows. This blog gets so underused that I sometimes forget to use it. I'll be around though. I'll probably post a Finding Dory review and other random things. So stay tuned, I guess.