Actors Keira Knightley and Kristen Bell have both commented on their unease about using Disney princesses as role models for their children.

Speaking on the Ellen Show, Knightley said her daughter (who was born in 2015) was “banned” from watching Cinderella, which Disney produced as a cartoon in 1950 and a live-action film in 2015. “[Cinderella] waits around for a rich guy to rescue her. Don’t. Rescue yourself! Obviously.”

Knightley added that she had also proscribed The Little Mermaid, the 1989 animation. “This is the one that I’m quite annoyed about because I really like the film. I mean, the songs are great, but do not give your voice up for a man. Hello! … I love The Little Mermaid! That one’s a little tricky – but I’m keeping to it.”

However, Knightley expressed approval of Disney hits Finding Dory (which stars Ellen Show host Ellen DeGeneres), Frozen and Moana.

Bell, the star of Frozen, expressed her disapproval of the Snow White fairytale, which became a classic Disney cartoon in 1938. In an interview with Parents, Bell said: “I look at my girls and ask, ‘Don’t you think it’s weird that Snow White didn’t ask the old witch why she needed to eat the apple? Or where she got that apple?’ I say, ‘I would never take food from a stranger, would you?’ And my kids are like, ‘No!’ And I’m like, ‘OK, I’m doing something right.’”

Bell, who played a Disney princess in Frozen, said she also used the story to illustrate issues surrounding consent. She says that she asked her children: “Don’t you think that it’s weird that the prince kisses Snow White without her permission? … Because you cannot kiss someone if they’re sleeping!”

Bell later responded to criticism on social media by tweeting. To one user she wrote: “I’d be happy to send you copies of Snow White and Frozen, and you can see the differences. How far the example set for women has come. It might enlighten your point of view”; to another: “Everything IS a message to our children, because they are sponges that soak up everything and are learning how to be adults through what they see. I want my girls to see and practice critical thinking and respectful behavior.”

