April was Deaf History Month, a month dedicated to celebrating the rich culture, history, and achievements of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. To celebrate, Disney Animation Studios reanimated three songs from some of the newest Disney films with sign language. Not just a human interpreter in the corner signing with the characters, but the characters themselves signing! The three songs they chose for this monumental project were We Don’t Talk About Bruno from Encanto, The Next Right Thing from Frozen II, and Beyond from Moana II. 

This project was a huge step forward for the Deaf community, as it brought much-needed representation to ASL and the lives of deaf people. Disney has always been a place where children of all backgrounds can see themselves in a character, and now deaf children can see their favorite, or at least one of their favorites, princesses and characters signing, showing them that they can be anything — even a princess. An amazing way to represent deaf culture.

ASL is a language that, contrary to popular belief, requires a lot more than just moving your hands in a specific way. ASL requires a humongous use of your face and the emotions on it, which is why it is amazing that the animators on this project took the time to change the facial expressions of the characters in relation to the language. These animators clearly care about doing a good and correct job because they worked very closely with Deaf West Theater — a deaf theater company — to interpret the songs as correctly as they could. This collaboration resulted in beautifully interpreted songs.

Here’s the thing: while these songs are an amazing step forward for representation, they could use a little work if they want to be just as amazing for accessibility. Due to Disney using the original structure for all the songs, they left camera angles, lighting, and choreography mostly the same, which makes it difficult at times to see the signing. In a song such as We Don’t Talk About Bruno, the camera shows a character who’s signing and singing, but while they continue singing, the camera cuts away so all the signs get lost. This is a big problem for those who are deaf and hard of hearing, as they will still have to use closed captions, which are flawed in many ways, to still be able to understand what is being said, defeating the whole purpose of this project.

Although it could use some work, this project is a huge step forward for representation and a step in the right direction for accessibility. Deaf children can finally see themselves represented in their favorite Disney princess, something all children should be able to do. All backgrounds and stories deserve to be represented in movies from a company as large as Disney Animation, it’s incredible that more stories are finally being told.