How we cite our quotes: All quotes are from Inside Out.
Quote #1
JOY: Okay. First day of school. Very, very exciting! I was up late last night, figuring out a new plan. Here it is! Fear, I need a list of all the possible negative outcomes on the first day at a new school.
FEAR: Way ahead of you there. Does anybody know how to spell "meteor"?
JOY: Disgust. Make sure Riley stands out today. But also blends in.
DISGUST: When I'm through, Riley will look so good the other kids will look at their own outfits and barf.
JOY: Joy? (talking to herself) "Yes, Joy." You'll be in charge of the console, keeping Riley happy all day long. And may I add I love your dress? It's adorable." Oh, this old thing? Thank you so much. I love the way it twirls.
Joy runs to the window as a train approaches.
JOY: Train of Thought! Right on schedule. Anger, unload the daydreams. I ordered extra in case things get slow in class.
ANGER: It might come in handy if this new school is full of boring, useless classes. Which it probably will be.
This is one of the first times in the film when we see how Riley's emotions work together to guide Riley through her day. Each emotion has a job to do, and each of them sincerely wants to be good at their job. We also see that Joy is clearly the boss—and that makes sense, right? When you're a kid, your m.o. is being happy all day, every day. Minecraft, peanut butter and potato chip sandwiches with the crusts cut off, footie pajamas; those were the days, man.
Quote #2
ANGER: Move! I'll be Joy.
RILEY: School was great, all right?
MOM: Riley, is everything okay?
Riley exaggeratedly rolls her eyes and sighs.
DAD'S FEAR: Sir, she just rolled her eyes at us.
DAD'S ANGER: What is her deal? All right. Make a show of force. I don't want to have to put "the foot" down.
DAD'S FEAR: No, not the foot!
DAD: Riley, I do not like this new attitude.
ANGER: Oh, I'll show you attitude, old man.
FEAR: No. No, no, no! Stay happy!
Anger punches Fear and sends him flying out of the frame.
RILEY: What is your problem? Just leave me alone!
DAD'S FEAR: Sir, reporting high levels of sass!
DAD'S ANGER: Take it to DEFCON Two.
DAD'S FEAR: You heard that, gentlemen. DEFCON Two.
DAD: Listen, young lady, I don't know where this disrespectful attitude came from…
ANGER: You want a piece of this, pops? Come and get it!
RILEY: Yeah, well…well…
DAD'S ANGER: Here it comes. Prepare the foot!
DAD'S FEAR: Keys to safety position.
Dad's Fear and Dad's Disgust turn their keys.
DAD'S FEAR: Ready to launch on your command, sir!
Anger blows his top. It literally bursts into flames.
RILEY: Just shut up!
DAD's ANGER: Fire!
DAD: That's it! Go to your room! Now!
RILEY: Ugh!
DAD'S FEAR: The foot is down. The foot is down!
Dad's emotions celebrate.
DAD'S ANGER: Good job, gentlemen. That could have been a disaster.
MOM'S SADNESS: Well, that was a disaster.
Thanks for hanging in there for this long quote. There's a lot going on here—a whopping 18 characters in the scene. We've got Riley and the five emotions that make up the squad in her head, plus Mom and Dad, and we also learn that Mom and Dad have their own emotional crews, too, just like Riley.
That's right—parents have emotions. That's one of the big takeaways from this scene; you may get better at managing emotions as you get older, but you're never going to master it, and you never stop growing.
The other thing worth mentioning about this exchange is the unhealthy and, let's be honest, childish way in which Riley's dealing with her emotions. Instead of opening up to her folks and admitting, "Hey, I kind of hate everything about this dumb town and this new life you threw at me without giving me any choice," she lashes out at Mom and Dad.
Her rage is understandable, but as she matures, she'll understand that there are more productive ways to deal with being ticked off, like talking, meditating, going for a run, or going on Dr. Phil.
Quote #3
SADNESS: I'm sorry they took your rocket. They took something that you loved. It's gone. Forever.
JOY: Sadness. Don't make him feel worse.
SADNESS: Sorry.
BING BONG: It's all I had left of Riley.
SADNESS: I bet you and Riley had great adventures.
BING BONG: Oh, they were wonderful. Once, we flew back in time. We had breakfast twice that day.
JOY: Sadness…
SADNESS: It sounds amazing. I bet Riley liked it.
BING BONG: She did. We were best friends.
SADNESS: Yeah, it's sad.
Bing Bong cries on Sadness's shoulder.
BING BONG: I'm okay now. Come on. The train station is this way.
This quote's so choice that we filed it under two different themes: this one and Sadness. What Joy doesn't know yet here is something that we all didn't know at some point: that it's okay to be sad sometimes. In fact, as Bing Bong shows, it can actually make you feel better to have a good cry and/or a venting sesh. Sadness herself doesn't even know that what she's doing is helpful—but that doesn't make it any less effective.
Quote #4
DISGUST: Emotions can't quit, genius!
Leave it to Disgust to distill one of the movie's main ideas—if not the main idea—down to one exasperated, sarcastic sentence. Emotions can't stop, won't stop. As adults, young or old, it's up to us to keep them in check and use them to our advantage—like blasting a hockey puck past a goalie's mask, for example, or crushing some used Buicks beneath a monster truck instead of yelling at our friends.
Quote #5
DISGUST: A ticket costs money. How do we get money?
ANGER: Mom's purse.
DISGUST: You wouldn't.
ANGER: Oh, but I would. Where was it we saw it last? […] It's downstairs somewhere. Mom and Dad got us into this mess. They can pay to get us out.
This is Riley being super-immature, really ready to grow, and rationalizing some seriously whack behavior. Anger's got the upper hand against Riley's better judgment.
Quote #6
DISGUST: Guys, what's poo-ber-ty?
JOY: I don't know. It's probably not important.
Managing your emotions is a big part of growing up, but it's not the only part. That's why it's a good idea to try to harness your emotions before your body goes haywire for, like, four straight years.
Quote #7
ANGER: I have access to the entire curse word library! This new console is the—
Anger's cut off by a loud beep. Fear accidentally pressed a button.
To misquote Uncle Ben, "With maturity comes great responsibility. Even over your burgeoning vocabulary."
Quote #8
DAD: Now, when you get out there, you be aggressive!
RILEY: I know, Dad.
MOM: But not too aggressive.
RILEY: You know, you guys don't have to come to every game.
DAD: Are you kidding? I'm not missing one! Go Foghorns!
MOM: Go Riley! Foghorns are the best!
Dad makes a foghorn sound.
RILEY: Okay! I gotta go.
FEAR: They love us.
ANGER: Yeah, Mom and Dad are pretty cool.
DISGUST: Guys, of course they are. But we can't show it.
Being embarrassed by literally everything your parents do in public: It's a cornerstone of coming of age. The older you get, the more you realize they're pretty cool people, even if they insisted upon painting their faces for every single one of your hockey games.
Quote #9
JOY: Let's play some hockey! All right, Anger. Take it!
ANGER: Give us that puck or you're dead meat!
FEAR: On our left. On our left!
DISGUST: Let's just try not to get all smelly this time.
SADNESS: Mom and Dad are watching us fail.
ANGER: Not for long!
Here at the end of the film, we see Riley's emotions working together once more, but this time, Joy's letting the other emotions step to the front, too. They're working behind a new, expanded control panel as they navigate Riley's experiences, and their teamwork's producing some positive results already. Anger, for example, is channeling his fiery rage into stealing the puck instead of into breaking hockey sticks over people's heads. That's emotional progress, people.