Disney songs reimagined for Deaf audiences
Disney Animation has recreated several of its most beloved songs using American Sign Language (ASL) to bring them to life for audiences who use it to communicate.
Animators carefully incorporated the facial expressions and full-body movements, used in ASL, using performers of Deaf West Theatre to model the action.
Each song underwent a rigorous process of translating, rehearsing, and filming the performers’ movements, according to Deaf West Theatre’s artistic director, DJ Kurs.
The project, titled Songs in Sign Language, was inspired in part by its director Hyrum Osmond’s relationship with his deaf father.
“Growing up, I didn’t really learn sign language and felt like I kind of had a barrier in connecting with my dad, and so this came about in a way to connect and bring down barriers, especially between Disney Animation and the deaf community,” Osmond said.
Kurs says there’s a misconception that “deaf people and music don’t mix”.
“Deaf people have been singing since day one. Since the beginning of recording sign language on film, you’ve had people signing songs, like ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’. And since the beginning of filmmaking, there have been deaf people signing on camera, dancing while signing, telling stories, singing songs, and now thanks to captions and high-powered earphones and assisted technology, deaf people are more into music now than ever,” Kurs said.
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