Keira Knightley Won't Let Her Daughter Watch These Disney Movies For A Very Valid Reason

It may seem a little like biting the hand that feeds her, but on Tuesday's episode of Ellen, one of the stars of Disney's upcoming The Nutcracker and the Four Realms revealed that she's not OK with her kids watching a few of the franchise's legendary films. In fact, Keira Knightley's daughter can't watch certain Disney movies, but she does have a very good reason for banning them in her household.

Host Ellen DeGeneres — the breakout star of 2003's Finding Nemo, which led to her own 2016 spinoff, Finding Dory — asked Knightley which movies 3-year-old Edie is prohibited from seeing, according to Page Six. "Cinderella," Knightley replied. "Banned, because she waits around for a rich guy to rescue her. Don't. Rescue yourself, obviously." Judging from the audience's reaction, it's not an unpopular opinion, either.

But not all of the movies on Knightley's list were easy decisions. "And this is the one I'm quite annoyed about," she continued to tell DeGeneres, "because I really like the film, but Little Mermaid. I mean, the songs are great, but do not give your voice up for a man! Hello? The problem with The Little Mermaid is I love The Little Mermaid, so that one's a little tricky, but I'm keeping to it."

I haven't seen that movie in nearly 30 years, but I'm fairly certain that I could still sing the entire score from memory. "Under the Sea"? "Les poissons"? Come on! Those songs are incredibly fun. But as Knightley pointed out, the idea of a teenage girl giving up not just her voice (which is bad enough), but her family, her culture, and her very identity, all for a cute boy who she doesn't even really know is troubling. Those whoozits and whatzits galore, though. it's a tough one.

However, that's not to bag on all Disney movies. "She is, however, allowed — Dory is a big favorite in our house," Knightley clarified to the voice of the blue tang with an impaired memory. "Of course," DeGeneres agreed. "There's nothing wrong with Dory." The ambitious little fish teaches kids plenty of great lessons about kindness, friendship, and persistence in the face of adversity. In fact, as The Verge pointed out, both Dory and Nemo centered around protagonists with disabilities, which is pretty damn progressive for a pair of children's animated films.

And lest we think Knightley was just kissing her host's butt, she added that Frozen and Moana are also OK on her list. And it makes sense, in Moana, as noted by INSIDER, there's no love interest whatsoever; it's about a young woman on a quest to save not only herself, but her entire village. And although she didn't bring it up, we have to give credit to Knightley for her role as Elizabeth Swann in four out of the five Pirates of the Caribbean films, another Disney franchise. She could have easily gone the whole "damsel in distress" route, having started out as a classic princess analogue: a wealthy and beautiful kidnapping victim with a dead mom and a powerful dad. But she ends up becoming a pirate in her own right — the king of all the Pirate Lords, in fact.

Without the influence of a certain type of children's movies, it's no surprise that little Edie dreams of being more than just a princess when she grows up, which I think we can all agree is a good thing. Knightley also shared her daughter's evolving career goals with DeGeneres:

She did want to be a dentist, which I was super happy about, because I thought, you know, that's a stable career... Now, she want to be a lion.

No matter how silly of an ambition that might be, her mother is still supportive of the little girl's dream. Although Knightley admitted to DeGeneres that becoming a lion is a "slightly more problematic" career goal, she couldn't help but brag: "She roars very well."

I am 100 percent on board with that.