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Home / Best Quotes / We Bought a Zoo (2011) Best Quotes

We Bought a Zoo (2011) Best Quotes

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Starring: Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church, Colin Ford, Maggie Elizabeth Jones, Angus Macfadyen, Elle Fanning, Patrick Fugit, John Michael Higgins, Carla Gallo, J.B. Smoove, Stephanie Szostak, Michael Panes, Kym Whitley

OUR RATING: ★★★½

Story:

Comedy drama written and directed by Cameron Crowe loosely based on memoir of the same name by Benjamin Mee. We Bought a Zoo (2011) follows journalist Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon), who after his wife’s death decides to make a fresh start by quitting his job and moving his children, Dylan and Rosie (Colin Ford, Maggie Elizabeth Jones), to a dilapidated zoo cared for by Kelly Foster (Scarlett Johansson) and her small staff, and taking on the challenge of preparing the zoo for its reopening to the public.

 

Our Favorite Quotes:

'Sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery, and I promise you something great will come of it.' - Benjamin Mee (We Bought a Zoo) Click To Tweet

 

Best Quotes

 

Dylan Mee: My dad is a writer who specialized in adventure. He interviewed dangerous dictators. He even flew into the center of hurricane Charlie. It was a category four storm. He knew the ins and outs of strange and exotic adventure, backwards and forwards. But nothing prepared him for this one.


  

Benjamin Mee: You know what? “Whatever” is the laziest word of the twentieth century, alright? I’ve had it with whatever! I don’t want to hear it again in this century, ever again. “Whatever” is over!
Rosie Mee: He says it all the time. He won’t have anything left to say in this century.
Benjamin Mee: I’m not letting you out of the car until I get a new word.


 

Dylan Mee: Pernicious.
Benjamin Mee: Thank you! Good word.


 

Duncan Mee: Benjamin, I’ve arrived at a thought.
Benjamin Mee: Tell me, Dunc.
Duncan Mee: I believe you should court the girl we met at Jamba Juice. She’s a stunner.
Benjamin Mee: She keeps calling me to go hiking.
Duncan Mee: Benjamin, hike her.


 

Benjamin Mee: Is she a stunner? I mean, is that what they call a stunner now? I mean, what do I know? I was spoiled, I had the real thing.


 

Duncan Mee: Look, you got to let a little sun light in. Okay? Human interaction is a good thing. Take it from a guy who spent six months on a commercial fishing boat in Bali trying to find himself. Alright? Yeah. You know what I found? I missed people. So just do me a favor, attempt to start over.
Benjamin Mee: I shall try to start over.
Duncan Mee: You’re handsome!
Benjamin Mee: And so are you!
Duncan Mee: I love you, my brother.
Benjamin Mee: I love you too, man.
Duncan Mee: You’re a good guy.
Duncan Mee: Sunlight. Human interaction.
Benjamin Mee: Got it!
Duncan Mee: Joy.


 

Delbert McGinty: You know what? Bad things happen, you just keep going.
Benjamin Mee: I quit.
Delbert McGinty: Benjamin. You lost your wife, man! In some quarters sympathy would be considered the appropriate response.
Benjamin Mee: No, I’m not going to sit around here, and spin my wheels, and live in a state of sponsored pity.
Delbert McGinty: Please! Let me lay you off, so you can get the benefit.
Benjamin Mee: That’s more sympathy! No! I quite! And I love you. And those patched elbows.
Delbert McGinty: You’re killing me.
Benjamin Mee: I’ll miss you.


 

Benjamin Mee: [as Dylan has stolen some school money] Classy. Real classy.
Dylan Mee: They left the cash box right on the counter. It’s kind of their fault, if you think about it.
Benjamin Mee: That’s three suspensions in one semester. That’s got to be some kind of record.
Dylan Mee: Yeah, well. Maybe I’ll get a prize.


 

Principal: We’re a three strike school, Mr. Mee. And today was his fourth strike. I’m sorry, we have to expel Dylan. But, as one parent to another, I would examine his inner life.


 

Dylan Mee: You think he was expelling me for my artwork.
Benjamin Mee: I can almost live with the artwork. I mean, if Charles Manson needed a personal muralist, you’d be the guy. But, no. He didn’t expel you because of the artwork. He expelled you because you stole. You stole! Breaks my heart.


 

Benjamin Mee: Hey, Rosie, am I doing anything right?
Rosie Mee: You’re handsomer than the other dads. Lots of them don’t have hair, so that’s good.
Benjamin Mee: Awesome. I’m going to take baldness off my list of things to worry about.


 

Benjamin Mee: We just want new. We want new, new everything, new opportunities, new schools. Just new.
Mr. Stevens: In the current economic environment you’re going to find that now the buyer is not the king.
Benjamin Mee: What I’m hoping for is like a big back yard, substantial. You know, just rolling hills.
Mr. Stevens: It’s going to be very hard to find rolling hills in the city. It’s not available.
Benjamin Mee: Then stationary hills.


 

Mr. Stevens: You know what? It’s all about new. People love new. I love new. Hell, I’m new! Excuse my language, but I’m new. Hell, I’m new!
Benjamin Mee: I’m glad you’re excited about it.
Mr. Stevens: I know. I’m excited about new stuff. New, is the new old.
Benjamin Mee: New.
Mr. Stevens: New, new, new!
Rosie Mee: I like you.
Mr. Stevens: I like you too, Rosie.

 

'I'm a big fan of people being exactly who they are.' - Kelly Foster (We Bought a Zoo) Click To Tweet

 

Benjamin Mee: [after seeing the house] I mean, what we do with eighteen acres?
Mr. Stevens: Well, let me be honest with you. Rosemoor property has some challenges.
Benjamin Mee: Well, what doesn’t?
Mr. Stevens: True. But this situation, I’m going to go for the word ‘unique’.


 

Benjamin Mee: We’re going to live here.
Mr. Stevens: Oh, Mr. Mee, we have to talk. Okay? Let’s not rush into things.


 

Benjamin Mee: This place is perfect. Why didn’t you mention it earlier?
Mr. Stevens: Well, it’s a bit complicated.
Benjamin Mee: Complicated is okay. Complicated can be great. We love complicated, right? What’s so complicated about this place?
Mr. Stevens: Well, you see, it’s…
Benjamin Mee: What is it?
Mr. Stevens: It has complications to it, Mr. Mee. And it’s a zoo.


 

Benjamin Mee: Well, thanks. I mean, I don’t know anything about animals, zoos. I mean, it’s…
Mr. Stevens: It is.
Benjamin Mee: It is what it is.
Mr. Stevens: It is what it is. Sometimes you don’t know what it is until you see what it is. You know? Once you see what it is, then you can figure out is, it is what it is. You understand?
Benjamin Mee: No, but we can move on.
Mr. Stevens: Yeah.


 

Duncan Mee: [after Benjamin’s told him he’s buying a zoo] I said human interaction. This is what happens when people have a, you know what, occur in their lives. They wake up one day, and they say, “I’m going to quit my job and try something completely different with my life.” But then they wake up another day, and they say to themselves, “Thank God my older brother didn’t let me blow Dad’s inheritance by buying a broken down zoo, in the country, nine miles from the nearest Target store.”
Benjamin Mee: But maybe my older brother didn’t see this place.


 

Duncan Mee: I’m begging you, do what other people do, go to Vegas, lose a little bit of money. Or do what I did when Sheila left me.
Benjamin Mee: Start handicapping horses.
Duncan Mee: Well, that was a little misguided.
Benjamin Mee: Go into commercial surfing business and call myself Captain Dunc. Start cliff diving in Acapulco at the age of thirty eight.
Duncan Mee: I miss Sheila, man.
Benjamin Mee: I know, man. I know.


 

Duncan Mee: Alright, forget that! Forget all that. Don’t do what I did. Travel the stages of grief, yet stop just before zebra’s get involved.
Benjamin Mee: It’s only two zebra’s.
Duncan Mee: Uh-huh.
Benjamin Mee: And a lion, and a jaguar, and forty seven other species, seven of which are endangered, and all of them are saved the second we make this deal. The kids are going to be so psyched.
Duncan Mee: Really? Psyched. Are they really going to be psyched?


 

Benjamin Mee: So what did we talk about? A new place, a new start.
Dylan Mee: This is what you want. It’s not what I want!
Benjamin Mee: What?
Dylan Mee: It’s a zoo. I’m moving to a zoo.
Rosie Mee: We bought a zoo!
Benjamin Mee: [they hit their forks together] Yes, we did. We did buy a zoo. Give me some fork.


 

Benjamin Mee: [to Kelly and the other zookeepers] This is Rosie, my daughter. And my big boy, Dylan. And our dog, Leon. And this is our zoo now, I guess. And love the house, smells and all. Right? So I would like to declare us all modern day adventurers. And sponsors of animal greatness.


 

Kelly Foster: This is Buster, he’s our six hundred fifty pound North American Grizzly. He was seven-seventy, but he’s been stressed out. You know, he’s moody. We had him on Paxil, but we can’t afford it, so he’s occasionally depressed. He can still rip your arm off though.
Benjamin Mee: Hey, there, Buster. Are you missing the meds?
Benjamin Mee: [suddenly the bear roars in response] Woh!

 

'Secret to talking is listening.' - Kelly Foster (We Bought a Zoo) Click To Tweet

 

Rosie Mee: [referring to the tigers] I thought they would roar like a lion.
Kelly Foster: No, no, tigers and lions are very different. Tigers don’t growl or roar, they chuff. Like a…
Kelly Foster: [makes a chuffing noise and Rosie imitates] Yeah, when you chuff at them they chuff back.


 

Kelly Foster: That guy there, that’s Spar. He’s our oldest, he’s seventeen. He’s a Bengal tiger. You know tigers have a special sensors in the front of their two inch canines. They can actually detect the pulse in your aorta. So when they attack, they bite you, take your pulse with their teeth, reposition those suckers and boom! There goes your carotid.
Rosie Mee: Wow!
Kelly Foster: Yeah.


 

Kelly Foster: So there’s a few decisions you’ll have to make straight away, Ben.
Benjamin Mee: Benjamin. Ben was my dad.
Kelly Foster: Spar, you just met the tiger, he’s going to need some special care so we have a large animal vet coming from San Diego. It’s just that he’s a fortune to get here, and…
Benjamin Mee: That’s okay. I’ll pay.
Kelly Foster: Well, no. He’s also very old, so the truth is we don’t really know how much longer he’s got, and I…
Benjamin Mee: Just step it up.


 

Benjamin Mee: The posts and the cages.
Kelly Foster: Posts and what? They’re not called cages, they’re called enclosures. They haven’t been cages in like a century. My brief marriage, that was a cage.
Benjamin Mee: Not mine.


 

Kelly Foster: I have a question for you. You’re some random guy from the city, no one in the zoo community has ever heard of you. You know nothing about animals, and you moved into a dump. I mean, what kind of regular person just up and buys a place like this? Especially somebody with kids. Why? You have no idea what we’ve been dealing with here. We used to have three times the staff, they all quit. I’m twenty eight. I never go out. I’m here every day. My girlfriends, they text me, they’re out living their lives meeting guys named Brett, and I’m here shoveling s**t. Bear s**t! I’m pathetic! I had to move back in with my mother. No one gets paid, Ben-jamin. We need somebody who can really take charge of this place, or else we and all these animals are gone.
Benjamin Mee: So your question is?
Kelly Foster: Why did you buy this place?
Benjamin Mee: Why not?

See more We Bought a Zoo Quotes


 

Robin Jones: [after Benjamin falls over the fence] Listen, you’re not talking to them correctly yet, boss. You got to be real with them.
Benjamin Mee: [to the porcupine] I’m never talking to you again! You little a**hole!
Robin Jones: Now you’re talking to him. There you go.


 

Duncan Mee: [to Benjamin] It’s great, I get it. This whole spiritual journey. We’re all in cages, man. I love it. But at the risk of stating the obvious, you’re insane. Okay? You’re drilling yourself into insane debt.


 

Benjamin Mee: That’s Kelly.
Duncan Mee: Holy s**t! Okay, here’s the revised Duncan plan. Dump the animals, keep Kelly. That’s true joy.


 

Benjamin Mee: It’s about Rosie, man. She is happy here.
Duncan Mee: Rosie is seven, just make her a nice zoo screensaver, and she’ll be just as happy.
Benjamin Mee: I’m trying to give them an authentic American experience.
Duncan Mee: And it ends with you authentically living on my valor couch with your two children. I see you working in a field in Bolivia for angry men with large mustaches.


 

Lily Miska: I like your drawing.
Dylan Mee: Thanks.
Lily Miska: It’s a little dark. Where’s the sun?
Dylan Mee: There’s not sun at the end of the world, that I’m aware of.


 

Benjamin Mee: [to Dylan and Rosie] Hi, guys. I forgot to buy butter. How important is butter to this meal tonight? We’re going to take a vote. And remember, it’s nine miles each way to the grocery store. Nine miles. Nine miles there, nine miles back. So I think the question we need to ask ourselves as a family, is butter worth your dad driving eighteen miles right now, today? Let’s vote.
[we then see Benjamin driving back home from the grocery store]


 

Benjamin Mee: Nine point two miles. So technically, that’s eighteen point four miles for butter.
Dylan Mee: You know I found some, right?


 

Dylan Mee: You’re funny with everyone else, but never with me. Which I find funny.
Benjamin Mee: Yeah. You know what I find funny? I got to drive you forty thousand miles to school. And don’t think I don’t notice you just changed the subject.
Rosie Mee: Dylan likes Lily.
Dylan Mee: Please, she’s way younger than me! She’s twelve. It doesn’t work like that.
Rosie Mee: She’s about a foot taller.
Dylan Mee: Don’t be a tiny person.


 

Benjamin Mee: [after their yard is covered in snakes] I just want you to be happy, man. Unless you don’t want to be happy!
Dylan Mee: What is so great about being happy?!
Benjamin Mee: That’s your happy.
Dylan Mee: I’m sorry I messed up the box of snakes! Whatever!
Rosie Mee: You’re not supposed to say that in this century.
Dylan Mee: He’s so patronizing to me!
Benjamin Mee: Nice word, hot shot!
Dylan Mee: Yeah. Whatever!


 

Benjamin Mee: [referring to Dylan] Look, he’s fourteen and he went through something that no kid should ever have to go through, so giving him a little bit of a leeway. Look, honestly I don’t know. I’m trying to figure it out. There’s no manual for what happened. I mean, a minute ago he was into paper airplane, and now he’s into portraits of decapitations, and they’re really good.
Kelly Foster: Yeah, well, what do I know? I still live with my mother, and I’m not good with people.


 

Kelly Foster: You’re doing very well. You know, I expected you to be heading for the hills by now.
Benjamin Mee: Well, we got through today.
Kelly Foster: Yeah, we got through today.


 

Walter Ferris: I’m here for a pop by, Mr. Mee.
Benjamin Mee: Great. Let’s schedule a pop by. We’ve only just really arrived here, Mr. Ferris.
Walter Ferris: A pop by, Mr. Mee, by its very definition, a surprise. I’ll be taking notes in preparation for the actual inspection.
Benjamin Mee: As will I.
Walter Ferris: Now we’re responsible for the upkeep, not just the granting of licenses. Welcome to the business of live animal maintenance, Mr. Mee. It’s a real fun party.


 

Walter Ferris: [to Benjamin] Oh. Now why would you buy this place? I just can’t get a…
Walter Ferris: [imitates opening a handle on a door] Handle on it.


 

Walter Ferris: I guess I just don’t understand how you can call this place home.
Benjamin Mee: You know what? Like this. It’s our home.


 

Benjamin Mee: How much is this going to cost?
Robin Jones: I’m going to have to take a look around. You know, go through in an itemized way, but you’re going to have to put some more skin in the game, boss.
Benjamin Mee: How much?
Robin Jones: I’d say you’re looking at about fifty here. Maybe a buck.
Benjamin Mee: Okay.
Rosie Mee: A dollar fifty? I have that.
Benjamin Mee: Good. Go get it, we’re going to need it.


 

Robin Jones: Well, Ferris lusts you.
Kelly Foster: I’m not taking one for the team, if that’s what you’re getting after.
Robin Jones: I’m not getting after anything like that. No way. It’s a shame about the new boss though. He just got here and he’s already thinking of quitting.
Kelly Foster: Why are you saying that?
Robin Jones: [gestures towards Benjamin] That is the posture of a quitting man.


 

Benjamin Mee: [driving Dylan home] It’s the wrong day for this to be happening, man. I got your sister sick home from school. And you, I mean, how do they send someone home early for moodiness?
Dylan Mee: I don’t know. It’s a sensitive school.


 

Benjamin Mee: [referring to Buster] I want to make his enclosure bigger. I mean it. Much bigger.
Peter MacCready: You’re the man. You’re the man who just stared down a seven hundred fifty pound North American grizzly.


 

Benjamin Mee: I’m worried Lily’s going to hurt Dylan.
Kelly Foster: Well, I think it’s going to be the other way round.
Benjamin Mee: How do you figure that?
Kelly Foster: Because she’s a farm girl, Ben-jamin. And he’s like this exotic creature from the city.
Benjamin Mee: Exotic? My son?
Kelly Foster: Yes.
Benjamin Mee: I was afraid you thought he was a little bit of a jerk.
Kelly Foster: I’m guessing that Rosie is more like your wife, and Dylan is more like you, and that’s why you’re so hard on him.


 

Benjamin Mee: I want you to know, I think you’re incredibly pretty. Please don’t take offense if I don’t hit on you.
Kelly Foster: I’d be offended if you did.
Benjamin Mee: Good.
Kelly Foster: I’m a big fan of people being exactly who they are.
Benjamin Mee: Exactly!


 

Kelly Foster: So we think alike.
Benjamin Mee: We do.
Kelly Foster: And if I wanted to be kissed by you, you wouldn’t have a choice.
Benjamin Mee: Thank you, I think. I don’t doubt that. What are we just saying?
Kelly Foster: I don’t know.
Benjamin Mee: Okay.


 

Rhonda Blair: [to the zookeepers] It hurts me to tell you this. I’ve been checking his bills, the zoo account is empty. He has no more money. He has no idea what he’s doing. He is going to end up selling this place to somebody for cheap, for the land alone. That’s right, Robin! I am warning you now, behind that front, is a front! Benjamin Mee is a fraud!


 

Duncan Mee: [after Benjamin finds deposit box slip left by his wife] She’s still looking out for you, man. She calls it your Circus Money.
Benjamin Mee: Circus money, yeah.


 

Duncan Mee: Here’s what she’s saying, you’re free. You realize that? Listen, Benji, you did it, man. You went to the circus, you changed Dylan and Rosie’s lives. They’re going to have those memories for ever. But staying here and going down in flames, that’s not what Katherine wanted. She wanted you to be free. This money is your ticket out, and if you won’t listen to your brother, the accountant, then listen to your wife, who clearly planned a financial future for you.


 

Benjamin Mee: [to the zookeepers] I’ve been an adventure addict my whole life, with no big regard for cost. With, well, with no regard for cost. Basically, I was just an observer and a writer, but this is my first real adventure. And I just want to say that it’s been the best one of all, because it’s personal. And thanks to my Katherine, the money came through. So, I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I am able to say, though I don’t have a lot, I do have enough to get us by and if you stick with me, I will give this everything. But I will need everything from you and we’re going to reopen this zoo. This is the best job in the world, and it’s going to take everything to make it work. So don’t give up on our adventure.


 

Benjamin Mee: Circus money, man! Our adventure is just beginning.
Duncan Mee: That’s not what I meant!
Benjamin Mee: I know. And, Rhonda, I wish you the best in Mexico.
Rhonda Blair: I don’t speak Spanish.
Benjamin Mee: Adios.


 

Rosie Mee: How come you don’t tell stories anymore?
Benjamin Mee: Well, because we’re living the story.


 

Robin Jones: [referring to Spar] Benjamin, I think it’s time.
Benjamin Mee: For what?
Robin Jones: He’s ready. Let’s call the vet. You’re the owner, you have to okay this.
Benjamin Mee: No, man. Look, this doesn’t feel right.
Kelly Foster: Benjamin, it never feels right.


 

Benjamin Mee: [referring to Spar] I know exactly how this goes.
Kelly Foster: And I’d like you to tell me about that sometime, but this is a rookie mistake. I’ve been with him for thirteen years. You can’t see how selfish this is to extend this? Come on. Come on. You’re too smart not too.
Benjamin Mee: I’m saying just let him live for a couple more weeks. Get him some medicine! Invest in a little bit of hope!
Kelly Foster: I can’t stand by and watch this happen. I’m not going to do it.
Benjamin Mee: Well, it’s not up to you.
Kelly Foster: It’s going happen.


 

Kelly Foster: Don’t make me get angry!
Benjamin Mee: Oh, because that would just be so terrible! If you got angry!
Kelly Foster: You know what the right thing to do is! I’m so disappointed in you.
Benjamin Mee: You don’t even know me well enough to say that!


 

Kelly Foster: I bet you put all your feelings into your drawings, huh?
Dylan Mee: Not really. I guess, I just can’t talk to girls that well.
Kelly Foster: Well, talking to girls is easy. They’ll tell you everything. Secret to talking is listening.


 

Benjamin Mee: I thought if I came out here it would stop. Back home every place reminded me of her. Philippe’s on third street, Balboa park, Little Dom’s the coffee shop, that’s a big one. I mean the air, the way it smelled in May and August because those were the months her favorite bushes grew flowers all over our neighborhood. There all triggers, man. Then it got better for a while. I mean, it did, out here. But the funny thing is that it just turns out that she’s here too. I mean I go to Home Depot, I go to the nine miles away Target.
Kelly Foster: We need a new store.
Benjamin Mee: And seriously, I’m avoiding half the isles. Condiments. Pastries, forget about it. She loved red kites and blueberry pop tarts. I mean, who doesn’t, right?
Kelly Foster: Who doesn’t.


 

Benjamin Mee: Most of all it’s the kids, they’re the biggest triggers of all. I mean, Dylan, his eyes. You know, I’ve only seen that expression in somebody’s eyes once in my life. And the way he just drives me nuts, he makes me crazy. Denies me, frustrates me, and all the time just looking back at me with her eyes and none of her lightness. What I figured out is that when you love somebody that much, that hard, that long, you can never get away from them, no matter where you go. And that only comes once in a lifetime. Just can’t get a…
Benjamin Mee: [imitates Ferris] Handle on it. I cannot let go.
Kelly Foster: I can. Sleep well, Benjamin. Sweet dreams.


 

Dylan Mee: I can’t stand it here! Can’t you see that?
Benjamin Mee: No! But thank you for telling me, again! I keep forgetting, it’s all about you! Why don’t I just pack us up. We’ll just, we’ll just go on the road together. We could be hobos.
Dylan Mee: Because you wasted all our money! Some of that belonged to me, dad!
Benjamin Mee: I didn’t waste our money. I thought you liked it here. And I’m sorry, I thought your friends would come out and visit you, man. I called them all myself and I invited them. And I’m sorry, I thought you and Lily were friends! I thought, I thought, I thought, I thought this was! I mean, I thought you liked me! I thought this was a dream come true for us!
Dylan Mee: It’s your dream! You can’t force a dream onto someone else, dad!
Benjamin Mee: Yes, I can! I can force a dream on you!


 

Dylan Mee: Why are you yelling?
Benjamin Mee: Because it’s a good dream! And it’s got cool animals in it, and some pretty great people too! And because I’m your father, and I’m the only one you’ve got, and the line of people in this world who really care about you ends here! So stop mopping around this place, man. And pick up a shovel and dig a hole! Do something! You just sit here and feel sorry for yourself, man! Help me with your sister. Help me, dammit!
Dylan Mee: Help me, dammit! Help me!


 

Benjamin Mee: I’m sorry that your mother got sick when she did. Believe me. I’m sorry that you didn’t get more of a childhood, man. That’s just how that one went. But we live with a seven year old girl who still believes in the Easter Bunny. What are we going to do?
Dylan Mee: You never ask me how I’m doings. You never even taught me how to shave.
Benjamin Mee: [Dylan goes to his room and slams the door shut] You want to know how to shave? I would love to teach you how to shave! Let’s shave.
Rosie Mee: [comes out of her room] What about the Easter Bunny?


 

Benjamin Mee: What happened with you and Lily?
Dylan Mee: I don’t know. I guess I didn’t listen to something she told me or something. I mean I liked her. It’s like you embarrass yourself if you say something and you embarrass yourself if you don’t.
Benjamin Mee: I like it when you talk. You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery, and I promise you something great will come of it.


 

Dylan Mee: I never know what to say to you.
Benjamin Mee: I’m the same way. Why don’t we tell each other what wished the other guy would say?
Dylan Mee: I’m sorry I brought you out to the sticks.
Benjamin Mee: You’re a great dad.
Dylan Mee: [referring to Spar] You did your best, dad. He knows that.


 

Dylan Mee: [as he sees Benjamin is using his drawing for their new logo] Where are you putting this?
Benjamin Mee: I don’t know. I was thinking maybe, everywhere. I’m your fan, man. Don’t you know that by now?


 

Duncan Mee: In the trunk of this car is haddock, two hundred pounds worth. For Bruno.
Benjamin Mee: Buster.
Duncan Mee: Whatever!
Benjamin Mee: You serious?
Duncan Mee: No. Serious is the smell in that car. I started questioning my entire being back there on the four-o-five. It was like altered states, I saw an iguana and a dwarf Indian.


 

Benjamin Mee: [referring to Duncan being dressed in a ridiculous farmers outfit] Did I look like that?
Peter MacCready: Worse.
Benjamin Mee: Wow, it’s humiliating.


 

Benjamin Mee: Mr. Ferris, welcome back to the Rosemoor Animal Park Adventure.
Walter Ferris: It’s an adventure now?
Benjamin Mee: Well, to be precise, sir. It always was.


 

Kelly Foster: [after she discovers Solomon’s enclosure gate won’t lock] We’re going to fail this inspection.
Peter MacCready: Calm down.
Kelly Foster: Yes, I am.
Peter MacCready: What are you going to do to help?
Kelly Foster: I’m going to distract him from the other side of this enclosure and you’re not going to get eaten!


 

Peter MacCready: [as Solomon approaches him] You don’t want me! I am filled with Scotch and bitterness and impure thoughts!


 

Rosie Mee: [to Ferris] Hey, mister. Everybody says you’re a d**k. I don’t know what that means, but I don’t believe it.


 

Benjamin Mee: [as Ferris gives the final okay for them to open the zoo] Listen, I want to see you here opening day.
Walter Ferris: I don’t fraternize, Mr. Mee. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of reports.


 

Duncan Mee: [to Benjamin] Let me say this one more time, buddy. I like the animals, but I love the humans. You do something for the right reasons, nothing can stop you.


 

Dylan Mee: Look, am I nuts to say that I missed you like crazy a lot? A lot! Plus, I wasn’t names after Bob Dylan. I was named after a dog named Dylan.
Lily Miska: I don’t even care. Who cares? Sorry about the rain.
Dylan Mee: I love it! I love your hair! I love your sign! Lily, I love you!
[Lily looks at him with happy tears in her eyes and they hug through her window]


 

Benjamin Mee: [on their opening day] Okay. Well, we all know that I stink at speeches, so I won’t even try. If Katherine were here she would have come up with something really funny and clever for me to say, I’d have taken full credit. It’s not about where an adventure ends, because that’s not what an adventure’s about. So anything that happens from here on out is a bonus. And I love you guys.
Peter MacCready: [cuts the ribbon at the gates] Okay, let’s open the gates. It’s a zoo!
Duncan Mee: Yes, it is!


 

Kelly Foster: [as the zoo open day is going well] I got a big crush on you and I just can’t get a…
Kelly Foster: [imitates opening a handle on a door] Handle on it.
Kelly Foster: [kisses Benjamin] Congratulations.
Benjamin Mee: Congratulations to you.
Kelly Foster: [Benjamin kisses her] And if we’re stand near each other on New Year’s we can do this again sometime.
Benjamin Mee: I look forward to New Year’s.


 

Lily Miska: [to Kelly as they watch Benjamin, Dylan, and Rosie] If you had to choose between people and animals, really quick, how would you choose?
Lily Miska: [as Kelly just smiles] Me too. People!


 

Benjamin Mee: We bought a zoo.
Duncan Mee: We did that.
Benjamin Mee: Do you remember what you told me when I was a kid?
Duncan Mee: You only have to be courageous for twenty seconds.
Benjamin Mee: It has guided me my entire life.


 

Benjamin Mee: [to Dylan and Rosie, referring to how he met Katherine] So, I was walking by, and I saw, I literally stopped! Like this! Just stopped! And went, “Oh, my God! That is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my entire life!” But I’ve never done anything like this. I never gone and talked to a total stranger before. But she was right there, and so I thought to myself, twenty seconds. Right? Go. Now I’m in the restaurant, and I’m terrified, thinking about leaving. I can actually touch her, she’s right there. She still hasn’t seen me, and I still have fifteen seconds of courage left. I’m going for it. Bravery.


 

Benjamin Mee: [as we see him speaking to Katherine as they first meet] Why would an amazing woman like you, even talk to someone like me?
Katherine Mee: Why not?

 


 

Trailer:



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