On April 27, in celebration of National Deaf History Month, Disney+ will premiere Songs in Sign Language, three animated musical sequences from recent Walt Disney Animation Studios features, newly reimagined and animated in American Sign Language (ASL).
Directed by veteran Disney animator/director Hyrum Osmond, the special presentation features “The Next Right Thing” (from Frozen 2), “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” (from Encanto) and “Beyond” (from Moana 2). Osmond and producers Heather Blodget and Christina Chen worked in collaboration with artistic director DJ Kurs and his team at Los Angeles’ Tony Award-winning Deaf West Theatre to create the new versions of these beloved songs.
Osmond led a team of more than 20 animators who worked with sign language reference expressly created for Songs in Sign Language. Kurs, working with sign language reference choreographer Catalene Sacchetti and eight performers from Deaf West Theatre, reimagined and choreographed signed lyrics by focusing on concepts and emotion instead of a word-for-word transcription.
“In the majority of cases, we created entirely new animation. There were a lot of adjustments that we had to do within the animation to be true to the original intention,” says Osmond, who grew up with a father who is hard of hearing. “I never learned sign language when I was growing up, so I felt a lot of regret because I couldn’t connect with my dad,” he notes. “With this project, I just wanted to do something that would take down the barriers. This reimagining of Disney Animation musical numbers helps bring down barriers and allows us to connect in a special way with our audiences in the deaf community. I’m grateful that the studio got behind making something so impactful.”
Songs in Sign Language – “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from ‘Encanto’
A Personal Touch
For Osmond, who had his first credit as an animator on Bolt (2008), went on to supervise the character of Olaf in Frozen (2013) and was head of animation on Moana (2016), making Songs in Sign Language was personal and profoundly rewarding. He says the team decided to zero in on three songs that would deliver a range of energy and emotion. “’We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ is a very different song than ‘The Next Right Thing,’ which is much more subdued and emotional … We really wanted to play with that with that difference Also, technology changes very quickly, so we wanted to pick some [sequences] that we could still access and utilize within our current animation tool set.”
Producer Heather Blodget adds, “From the very beginning of this project, Hyrum’s goal was not to just put sign language over the existing performance, but to reimagine the choreography and performance of the song in a way that would translate with ASL. We collaborated with DJ Kurs and the great folks over at Deaf West Theatre to think through how each shot translates and what the different implications of movement should be. They drew from an incredible community of Deaf performers who were well versed in this style of storytelling. Catalene Sacchetti did a great job in her role as sign language reference choreographer.”
Kurs notes, “When Hyrum approached me with a potential collaboration involving the integration of ASL into the fabric of Disney storytelling, it was an immediate ‘yes’ for us. My reaction was a mix of excitement and a deep sense of responsibility. 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.”
“There are moments when Disney Animation creates something that is truly remarkable,” adds producer Christina Chen. “When Hyrum came to us with the idea of reimagining some of our iconic musical numbers using sign language, I immediately started thinking to myself, how is he going to do that? He had it all figured out and knew how he was going to build a team to get this done. Put a challenge in front of someone who has passion for an idea, and it’s amazing what they can achieve.”
Two of the featured songs, “The Next Right Thing” and “Beyond,” spotlight a single character performing the song. This allowed Kurs, Sacchetti and the actors from Deaf West Theatre to concentrate on the performance and interpret how the lyrics could work in ASL. In the case of “Beyond,” Kurs cast a Samoan actor who is Deaf to ensure that the cultural nuances of movement were accurate. Similarly, for “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” Colombian actors who were Deaf were cast, ensuring authenticity.
“I used ‘The Next Right Thing’ as a proof of concept because it focuses on a single performer and is a very dramatic song,” says Osmond. “Clark Spencer [Disney Animation president] really wanted us to do ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ from Encanto, which is a fun and elaborate production with nearly 30 characters and lots of choreography. We knew that it was going to be a ton of work, but I’m glad he pushed for it because it turned out great and really challenged us to do something special.”
Songs in Sign Language – “The Next Right Thing” from ‘Frozen 2’
Hitting the Emotional Notes
According to Osmond, “From the very beginning of the project, we were never going to take sign language and just slap it on to character performances. In the majority of cases, we’ve created entirely new animation. Our directive to the animators was for them not to be bound by what was there. Our approach was to use the sign language reference footage shot with the actors from Deaf West as a base structure, but then to adjust that for the texture of the shot. For instance, sometimes the signing would be big, and we would work with Deaf West Theatre and the performers to find the subtlety needed for the moment. There were a lot of adjustments made within the animation to be true to the original intention of the scene.”
In his role as head of animation on the project, Joel Reid led a team of artists and animators who shared Osmond’s desire to create something unique and impactful. Reid and several of the other animators on the project had worked on the three original productions from which these songs were taken.
“When I first heard that Hyrum was doing this project, I begged to be a part of it,” recalls Reid. “I had a personal connection through a Deaf friend of mine who I got to know when we dropped our kids off at school together. With a few other dads, we became a tight group, and he taught us about Deaf culture and sign language. We learned a lot from him and even took some classes together. Sign language looks like an easy language to learn, but it’s not. It’s not like a conversation or a word-to-word translation. It’s like taking a story and making it a poem. Especially with songs, it’s like signing concepts instead of words. Hyrum would talk about it as being like ballet.”
“In animating sign language, there’s a lot more going on than just moving the hands,” Reid, whose many credits as a Disney animator include the three spotlighted films as well as Raya and the Last Dragon, Zootopia and Big Hero 6, explains. “When your hands move, they move your torso, and you have to get the body to support what the hands are doing. The expressions on the face also support the signing. Hyrum would talk about how the eyebrows could express a question or add to a sense of confusion.”
“Working on this project has been incredibly rewarding, and it’s my favorite project since I’ve been at Disney,” concludes Reid. “During breaks in the reference shoots with DJ and the actors, we would review and play the footage that had been shot. Every time, from the first scene, someone would start crying. I haven’t experienced anything like it before. There was just this concentrated emotional connection. It’s so visually beautiful and appealing. It’s a dance that feels like poetry in motion.”
All three Songs in Sign Language shorts arrive on Disney+ streaming on April 27.
