Disney Adapts Hit Songs Like ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ Into ASL for Deaf Audiences

To celebrate National Deaf History Month, Disney is releasing three musical numbers from its films that have been reanimated in American Sign Language in a collection called Songs in Sign Language. The sequences will debut on Disney Plus on April 27, but we’re getting an early look at what’s in store.

The ASL sequences include some of the biggest songs from Disney’s biggest recent animated films: We Don’t Talk About Bruno from Encanto, The Next Right Thing from Frozen 2 and Beyond from Moana 2. Animator and director Hyrum Osmond is helming the project, along with producers Heather Blodget and Christina Chen. The team collaborated with artistic director DJ Kurs and Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles to create the reimagined sequences. 

On Monday, several outlets shared previews of the upcoming project. Here’s a clip of We Don’t Talk About Bruno, posted by Daps Magic:

And another of The Next Right Thing:

And here’s a clip from Beyond:

More than 20 animators worked on Songs in Sign Language. Kurs worked with sign language reference choreographer Catalene Sacchetti and eight performers from Deaf West Theatre. Together, they “carefully reimagined and choreographed lyrics into ASL by focusing on concepts and emotion instead of a word-for-word transcription,” Disney said in a statement.  

“In the majority of cases, we created entirely new animation,” Osmond said. “There were a lot of adjustments that we had to do within the animation to be true to the original intention.”

The songs will debut on Disney Plus alongside a behind-the-scenes featurette on how the clips came to life.

Read more: Why Subtitles Aren’t Enough: The Growing Demand for ASL in Entertainment

Around 430 million people worldwide have some form of hearing loss, according to the World Health Organization. There are somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million ASL speakers in North America. Unlike closed captioning, ASL can convey more emotion, nuance and expression, which can make content more impactful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. 

A growing number of platforms are incorporating ASL options, including HBO Max. SignUp Media is a Chrome extension that overlays a sign language interpreter onto content from streamers like Netflix, Disney Plus and Peacock. And major televised events like the Daytime Emmy Awards and the Oscars have added ASL livestreams as well.

Deaf West has previously collaborated with Disney to add ASL interpretation on YouTube to songs like I See the Light from Tangled. Disney’s latest project in this space could lead to more ASL options for future films and TV series. 

“Disney stories are the universal language of childhood. The chance to bring our language into that world was a historic opportunity to reach a global audience,” Kurs said. “For so long, we have known and loved the artistic medium of Disney Animation. Here, the art form was adapting to us. I hope this unlocks possibilities in the minds and hearts of Deaf children, and that this all leads to more down the road.”