'Frozen' star Kristen Bell thinks Disney's 'Snow White' sends bad messages to girls

By Suzy Byrne

Kristen Bell helped bring a Disney princess — Frozen‘s Anna — to life, but she has issues with another one: Snow White.

The actress said that while doing nightly story time with her two daughters, Lincoln, 5, and Delta, 3, she’ll still read the classic tale, which was released as a Disney film in 1937 (based on the Brothers Grimm story published in 1812), but she makes a point of calling out the parts she finds antiquated and misogynistic.

“Every time we close Snow White 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?'” Bell, who is married to Dax Shepard, said to Parenting. “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.'”

And sometimes she asks the tougher questions. For instance, she also says, “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!”

And not every book they read needs to have a happily-ever-after ending that Disney is known for. Bell, who has been candid about suffering from depression and anxiety, also said there’s a book called Grumpy Monkey that they love because it “allows the monkey to be grumpy, even at the end. Other characters give him solutions but he decides he’s still grumpy. I’ve had that feeling, and I want my girls to know that you’re allowed to feel it. Figure out ways to pick yourself up when you are ready. I really like that message.”

Bell’s comments about Snow White — mostly about consent — have Twitter buzzing.

But others thought Bell was making too much of the issue.

It’s been a rough week for Disney princesses. A few days earlier, Keira Knightley — star of the upcoming Disney flick The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (as well as Pirates of the Caribbean and others) — said she banned her 3-year-old daughter from watching Cinderella and The Little Mermaid because she doesn’t want her to grow up thinking she needs to be saved by a man.

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