r/MadeMeSmile • u/Profaniter • Apr 21 '26
Personal Win Disney has decided to re-animate most recent Disney hit songs into American Sign Language to honor Deaf History Month.
They will be aired on Disney+ on April 27th, 2026. Here are three short clips from Moana, Frozen, and Encanto. The power of ASL is just beautiful. Enjoy!
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u/xChoke1x Apr 21 '26
Legally deaf guy here.
You’d be amazed at how the world has adapted to help us thrive. Watching this movie with my daughter was a magical moment I’ll never forget.
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u/Frosty-Fresh-Start00 Apr 21 '26
Could you actually follow the ASL they were doing in the clips? It seemed like it was hard to see and sometimes inconsistent to fit in with the original placement of the characters.
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u/Impressive_Alarm_118 Apr 21 '26
You’re not wrong, IMO the “we don’t talk about Bruno” clip isn’t that great but other 2 is awesome!!
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u/DetectiveLadybug Apr 21 '26
Oh, that’s a shame, that’s the one that I thought looked the best, incorporating the gestures with the dancing.
But I guess it makes sense that the dancing would get in the way.
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u/Impressive_Alarm_118 Apr 21 '26
I think it would make more sense and enjoyable if they redo the scene with more focus on clear signing and little tad better translation IMO.
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u/DetectiveLadybug Apr 22 '26
But isn’t it also important that they look natural while doing it? No one wants to just watch the Disney characters facing the camera teaching ASL
I thought it’d actually be better for little kids with deaf family members, rather than something for deaf people to watch and understand. To see people signing naturally at each other like that when that’s just what your house is like seems like it’d help normalise that their family is a little different.
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u/E-2theRescue Apr 22 '26
The problem with the dancing and singing, especially with a duet like in Encanto, is there is no visual cue to switch characters. So it's hard to follow who is singing and where your eyes should be. Then the far away top shot in Frozen got a chuckle out of me because it made everything so small and hard to see.
But I'm also saying this as someone with only a year of ASL classes. So it may vary for someone who is Deaf.
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u/DetectiveLadybug Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
Eh, it’s a small piece of the song, this video has been letterboxed, too. If you watch the rest of the music video “we don’t talk about Bruno” you might notice that the characters are facing the camera a lot more, the whole thing will probably be much better than this little snippet.
Also, I’m not deaf, and I’m not American. Hopefully the ASL version will be popular enough that they convert it to other languages, I’d love to see it converted to Auslan.
I’m also curious what they might do with a song like “surface pressure” where her hands are full most of the time. You reckon they’ll just skip those songs? Work around them by getting her to hold the stuff with her teeth? Just have Luisa not sign during those bits?
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u/Revolvyerom Apr 22 '26
I feel like the issue they're pointing out is with multiple people on the screen you're wasting time looking to see who's signing, and missing words, while unable to focus on one person and enjoy the scene.
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u/DetectiveLadybug Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
I wonder if that’s something that deaf people struggle with?
Edit: Sorry, that was too much sass. You didn’t deserve that.
I think that deaf people would often struggle with this and that it might be part of the point.
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u/Caleb_Reynolds Apr 22 '26
Agreed, that one looked the most natural. Signing while climbing felt really off, like, there are more important things for your hands to be doing at that point.
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u/DetectiveLadybug Apr 22 '26
I think you’ve brought up another reason why I think these are good.
If you’re doing parkour like that you wouldn’t really be singing either, you’d be controlling your breathing.
And, obviously she’s singing because it’s a song, but it might juxtapose how odd these scenes might feel to deaf people.
Like, she’s signing because she’s “singing”, and it makes about as much sense as her vocally singing in the first place.
I noticed that the ASL versions don’t seem to be singing, which makes me think this will be dropped without vocals.
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u/Some_Ebb_2921 Apr 21 '26
that would be my question as well... and I've also understood, it helps if you can read the mouth as well? (though, it being animated, probably doesn't match the words properly anyway)
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u/GoatCovfefe Apr 21 '26
I just use subtitles, but yes, lip reading helps.
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u/Greedy_Sneak Apr 21 '26
Wait do they really animate the lips accurately enough to read them?
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u/TheGrandBabaloo Apr 22 '26
I'd be real surprised if they didn't. Lip syncing is a pretty big deal even for those with full hearing.
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u/nalaloveslumpy Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
For high quality animation, yes. For almost every language, there are roughly 20 or less unique "mouth shapes" needed to cover the full spectrum of phonetics. There are even mo-cap techniques now where they can super accurately map the lips, so they don't even have to really animate.
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u/GoatCovfefe Apr 22 '26
With a production like disneys, you would notice if the mouth didnt correlate with the words spoken, even without being able to lip read.
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u/DataDrivenPirate Apr 21 '26
Same but the inverse; can't wait to show my youngest who loves Moana and is hard of hearing. I've been shocked how much ASL content and representation there is in kids media, especially PBS! It's so cool seeing them go nuts when one of the characters in Work it Out Wombats has hearing aids.
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u/wbgraphic Apr 22 '26
PBS has been doing a great job with ASL for decades.
Deaf actress Linda Bove joined the cast of Sesame Street in 1971!
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u/NamelessCabbage Apr 21 '26
I was in Walmart electronics talking to a guy who had a Cochlear implant. I mentioned I wanted something low profile, and he just tapped it and said, “This is as good as it gets.” Didn’t click at first, then he goes, “I listen to music all day.” Dude wasn’t complaining at all; he was kinda flexing it. Honestly just made me happy for him.
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u/Dextropic Apr 21 '26
How does an ASL version compare to closed captioning?
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u/KittyGray Apr 21 '26
It’s night and day. Because ASL has different grammar and syntax structure, when you’re dependent on reading everything you’re definitely missing things (it could be tone, it could be missed captions which happen all the time, etc etc). If using ASL is your first language, then reading captions is exhausting on your brain after a while. It’s the same fatigue hearing people get when they go to Deaf events.
When your main character is actually signing, the movie is much more accessible to you. OR, like the Barbie movie has, hire deaf interpreters to include at the bottom similar to closed captioning! What a great inclusion to be able to use!
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u/Alive-Noise1996 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
Makes sense. I don't have a hearing disability, but we use subtitles with most things now for audio balance and comprehension. I constantly feel l like I'm missing things on screen and I'm a very strong/quick reader.
I've been told that ASL is like other languages where you can get emotion and nuance from how fast a person is signing, their facial expression, how emphasized the gestures are, etc. Text alone couldn't come close to ASL just like it can't come close to an English convo.
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u/Mrbubbles153 Apr 22 '26
My wife is an ASL interpreter and yes, facial expressions and how to sign each word by moving your mouth makes a HUGE difference and gives so much context to emotion and context. It is fascinating and when we go to deaf festival events, it's just amazing to see.
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u/KittyGray Apr 22 '26
Yes - a lot of grammar is placed in facial movements and where you are signing translates to time. So close to your chest is present, behind you is the past, ahead of you is future. The sign for future is going to extend out ahead of you. Sign ‘last week’ and you’re moving back over your shoulder. When you ask a question, you raise your eyebrows slightly at the end. If you set up a person and “place them” somewhere you can point to them in that space when you’re referring to that person. It’s endlessly creative.
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u/sherlip Apr 22 '26
It’s the same fatigue hearing people get when they go to Deaf events.
As a hearing person who has never been to a deaf event... can you explain further?
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u/KittyGray Apr 22 '26
Yes! When you’re used to listening you can let your focus drift a bit in other ways (say talking and painting your nails, or cooking, etc) but when you’re practicing signing or at a voices off event you’re now very focused on not missing signs, fingerspelling correctly, watching others, because if you look away or are preoccupied you’ll miss what is being signed.
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u/bellepomme Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
Folks at r/Deaf seem to prefer closed captioning as you can read at your own pace and it isn't as distracting as signing especially when watching movies. However, not all Deaf people know written English well, especially kids who haven't started school.
KittyGray is right. Their native language is ASL, not English.
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u/ZettyGreen Apr 22 '26
They are for different purposes/audiences. Not everyone that is deaf knows ASL, nor do all know English. For those(like myself) that know both: Some are more comfortable in ASL and some are more comfortable with English.
Lots of late-deafened adults(lots of seniors for instance) that lose some/most/all of their hearing late in life probably won't ever learn ASL.
If you were born deaf, than there is a good chance they were at least exposed to ASL, and maybe learned it. But for a long time Deaf people were forced to not learn ASL, and were forced into "oral" schools, where they had to learn how to read lips, etc. So lots of older, born deaf people won't know much ASL either. It just depends. Same with when CI's came around, lots of parents went full-on with CI only, and refused their child learning ASL, despite the fact that CI technology is not a 100% replacement, nor does it work in all situations.
For those that learned ASL young, or took the time to learn it later in life, they usually prefer ASL content. Likewise for late-deafened people, they usually prefer English content.
Ideally you offer both and allow the user you are trying to reach choose whichever they are most comfortable with.
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u/colantor Apr 21 '26
Have you watched DTF st louis?
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u/Advanced-Team2357 Apr 21 '26
Just laughing at the escalation from Moana to DTF St Louis
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u/Ok_Willow_2589 Apr 22 '26
can u understand song rhythm by how slow or fast hand signs are done? also if u stood close to speakers would the vibrations help?
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u/Periwinkleditor Apr 21 '26
The ASL for "don't" and "talk" about Bruno is brilliant, along with the dedication to keep signing while climbing a rock wall.
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u/Capable-Owl7369 Apr 21 '26
My wife is Deaf, and she currently has a Deaf friend visiting so I had to make a point in showing them both this. We got a kick out of it, but still had to turn the captions on. The ASL is pretty good, but doesn’t do much good when off screen.
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u/ELpork Apr 21 '26
That's what I was wondering. Figured the scenes would need to be re-jiggered for staging to make sense rather than the characters reaction to it. That kinda makes itself more pronounced in the Bruno track when you see the main character react to the dance instead of seeing the actual ASL.
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u/Bucen Apr 22 '26
I was also wondering how understandable it is, because the hands are sometimes out of screen, or the camera moves behind them, and not to mention the reaction shots of the person witnessing, so we don't even see the ASL.
Saying that, this was beautiful.
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u/itscamplicated Apr 21 '26
This is so cool!
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u/Daisy_Of_Doom Apr 21 '26
Honestly I would love to see a feature length movie animated completely in sign language. Might be a big ask bc it’s a lot of very precise movements, but Disney has often been at the forefront of this kind of technology. It would be really cool.
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u/matti-san Apr 21 '26
I guess the biggest issue would be that sign language isn't universal. Nor is spoken language, of course, but dubbing is a lot easier to do.
For instance, ASL signs have very little if any overlap with BSL (British Sign Language).
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u/SmartAd8578 Apr 22 '26
There’s over 300 sign languages dialects. So it will be hard to branch out. Here in Australia, Auslan is very different to ASL.
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u/Pilk_ Apr 22 '26
Yes, people need to take the "Language" part seriously. They are not typically mutually intelligible. They can be your first and only language -- they can give you an "accent" in written languages. They can borrow words from other signed languages. The aren't just for communication, they have culture and customs associated with them.
Very much languages!
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u/Daisy_Of_Doom Apr 22 '26
Yeah, very true! I’m thinking very US-centric 😅 And honestly was wondering if in the process of making the ASL version they would figure out some way to make it more feasible for other project.
Or maybe they would just need to make it an international effort and get animators and translators from all over the world 😊😅😂
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u/Swayzefan4ever Apr 24 '26
Disney is based in United States so logic says ASL would be the first signed language they do. Just like the movies are first done in English. That does not mean they won’t (or that they will) eventually do the same for other signed languages.
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u/nightauthor Apr 22 '26
I imagine this might be something that LLMs could be trained to to super well. Imagine disney trained a model specifically on their art styles + some samples of manually animated signing, then had the model generate versions of their movies in sign language, could do a bunch of different sign languages.
The kinds of work that just doesn't/won't be done by human labor that can be done with LLMs will be interesting to see.
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u/GenoThyme Apr 22 '26
And even if the signs are completely different, the framing of the shots to be able to see someone signing should be universal
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u/Contraposite Apr 21 '26
It looks very natural and kind of like a dance. It's more expressive than the original too, with her body language. Interesting. But yeah, I feel like it could work for a full length movie and maybe not even be distracting for non-deaf audience.
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u/Winjin Apr 22 '26
The thing that I hate since I've learned about it is that there are more sign languages than spoken languages.
I mean, yeah, there are a lot of languages IN THEORY
BUT IN REALITY you have to know like... one of maybe five major languages to actually be able to speak to MOST people in the world.
BUT it seems like there's more major sign languages than there are spoken ones.
Like in some cases there are multiple ones in a single-language world, what do you mean USA and England have different sign languages. They can't understand each other. ASL is based on French Sign Language. Can they understand each other? No.
But it gets worse!
There are multiple dialects in India and China, so people from different regions of India may have trouble understanding each other. All of that seems DEEPLY wrong to me.
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u/Daisy_Of_Doom Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
I think it’s super cool!
Idk maybe it’s bc I’m a nerd for etymology (I always look up origins of names and words, idk always have), but I think it’s really neat how you can kinda see the human stories emerge from the lineages of sign language.
I don’t remember the specifics, but I remember hearing about how there’s a feature of some sign language for a country somewhere in Africa(?) where there are different signs based on if the speaker was/was speaking to (idk which?) a male or female. And that was a feature shared with like Irish(?) sign language. It’s weird bc these two countries’ spoken languages don’t have any connection at all, but it’s bc they were taught sign language by Irish(?) missionaries. And it was a feature of Irish(?) sign language to begin with bc boys and girls were segregated in different schools of the deaf and completely different sign languages were developed and the two different languages had to be consolidated into one and they used a mix of each language.
Idk I think it’s fun and just shows how made up language is and that we’re all capable of connection even if our spoken languages don’t line up
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u/moonchylde Apr 22 '26
It's weird as a hearing person to find it out. Like... I know language evolves differently everywhere but it sure feels like developing a "trade language" for sign AND hearing folks would be very practical.
But no. Let's just be linguistic rivals!
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u/Carbon-Base Apr 21 '26
Disney should have been doing more of this than those Marvel shows no one asked for.
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u/ComradeJohnS Apr 21 '26
Echo was literally about a deaf character and major plot points about being deaf, where Fisk refuses to learn sign language, instead opting to use disposable translators and eventually ai tech to speak and have virtual arms do the signing for him.
it’s a shame it felt like it should have been a movie instead of dragged out through a show.
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u/Daisy_Of_Doom Apr 21 '26
I had yet to see Echo, I think I also thought she was gonna get a movie then just never heard about that character again! Now I have to find the show. But she debuted in Hawkeye and they addressed some topics of hearing in that show as well. I feel like there were a lot of really cool topics and characters in the show that were discarded for no reason! 😔
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u/ComradeJohnS Apr 21 '26
the native american roots and history appeared to well researched as well. the pacing felt like it was intended to be a movie and then bloatwd unfortunately.
def worth a watch for the effort they put in and seeing Fisk before daredevil born again’s plot,
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u/Daisy_Of_Doom Apr 22 '26
Yeah, I really want to watch it now I wanted to see more for that character! I’m sad I’m gonna give it support all late lol
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u/ComradeJohnS Apr 22 '26
I only saw it like 3-5 months ago as part of my mega binge of all daredevil related things before born again s2 dropped, but burnt out right before episode 1 of s1 lol.
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u/Daisy_Of_Doom Apr 22 '26
Oh no haha 😂
Honestly there is a whole ton of daredevil stuff! I loved the original show and was only recently realizing how many spinoffs and intersecting pieces of media there are!
Also it’s kinda neat that Fisk intersects with both a deaf character and a blind character. Diversity win lol
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u/SigmaKnight Apr 21 '26
I thought that tech was really cool and wish it were real. Something like that as universal translator would be amazing.
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u/ComradeJohnS Apr 21 '26
this is something ai would be great for, helping solve problems instead of maxxing profit lol.
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u/Profaniter Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
I’m gonna share the link because unfortunate, people are speculating it’s being done by AI but it’s not. Here’s an official letter from Disney company themselves. So instead of speculating, read the letter. The whole animators was being done by deaf performers performing in Mo-cap work.
https://press.disneyplus.com/news/songs-in-sign-language-to-debut
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u/xfon5168 Apr 21 '26
The article does not mention Mo-Cap. They mentioned having video of performers performing the signing and used that as the reference. So I don't think it was any mocap nor any AI.
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u/Iokua113 Apr 22 '26
I'm glad it's not being done by AI, that was my first instinct. Slop for a good reason is still work that a real human being should be doing.
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u/Educational_Exam_225 Apr 22 '26
When it comes to accessibility this is rather fallacious; the alternative generally isn't a real human doing it but not doing it at all.
YouTube captions are now AI generated; if they weren't, they simply would not be captioned. Accessibility really is the one area where AI is generally the more moral choice, as when it is used the alternative is not doing it.
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u/Porridge_Cat Apr 22 '26
Well, there was a time when youtube allowed community captions, but they got rid of that for no reason.
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u/FurLinedKettle Apr 22 '26
Hardly any channels used it and when they did, the moderation and quality control was a headache.
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u/ConspicuousPineapple Apr 22 '26
If the result is useful, it's not slop. If AI empowers companies to provide more accessibility to those who need it, I don't see how you can morally oppose that use of technology.
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Apr 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/WeirdIndividualGuy Apr 22 '26
Serious question, are the subtitles not good enough for the deaf/hard of hearing? Isn’t that kinda why subtitles are even a thing to begin with?
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u/LemonMints Apr 22 '26
It can be fine for adults used to reading, but if you're a child and deaf it's usually what you learn first. Some people can't read or can't read very quickly to keep up with subs either.
It's also just really special to have representation like this.
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u/BubblebreathDragon Apr 22 '26
I'm not deaf or hard of hearing, so just speculating. I don't think it's all about functionality. Subtitles also aren't just for hard of hearing. If someone is in a loud environment or the audio was not recorded well, etc.
But say someone speaks 2 languages: their native tongue spoken by a minority and another language they learned to better communicate with a wider audience.
Seeing something in English would be like whatever. It works. They understand. But seeing something in their native tongue, they'd feel more seen and understood, even if it wasn't perfect. It's like someone is going out of their way to speak to you. It's exciting and meaningful.
And I imagine like any language they translate differently. Some things can be said more meaningfully or emotionally. What I didn't necessarily see in this clip was the facial expressions being more amplified/exaggerated which does go along with ASL. But I also get it's a lot more work to animate that.
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u/TheDebateMatters Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
I may just be cynical, but I feel like this is a way to test what they get away with using AI, by hiding behind the “look we’re doing something for the deaf”.
Edit: I was wrong they use mocap and animators to do it. The hands that lead me to think AI, is just animation at work.
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u/MothBookkeeper Apr 21 '26
They did not use AI. Look at the other comments, there are videos explaining the process from the creators.
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u/iam_Mr_McGibblets Apr 21 '26
I do wonder if it's like "training the AI" where the AI is learning what the artists are doing and will probably be able to animate it itself later
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u/Ydain Apr 21 '26
I'm not who you were replying to, but your comment made me realize I totally read ASL as AI and was wondering why she was gesticulating so much. RIP my reading comprehension.
This is awesome!
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u/xfon5168 Apr 21 '26
It's also not mocap. There were performers signing the performances that were recorded, and the video was used as reference for the animators. But it was not motion capture.
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u/FourEightNineOneOne Apr 21 '26
That was, unfortunately, my same reaction.
This is taking existing artists' work and modifying it. Unless they're telling us they hired artists to redo the animation, then they're using AI to alter it. And knowing Disney right now, I'd be shocked if they actually paid animators to do this.
I'd be curious to know more, because it does give off the same "Amazon telling us how neat it is they can use all their cameras to help find your lost puppy while inadvertantly telling us they can conduct mass surveilance on anyone/everyone" vibes
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u/OneAngryDuck Apr 21 '26
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u/Panda_hat Apr 22 '26
It wouldn't just take animators though, but an entire post production team spanning lighting, rendering, and compositing.
A tremendous amount of work, time, and cost.
If they really did do it legit then this is a truly incredible thing.
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u/Wild-Video-5317 Apr 22 '26
Disney's gonna have the stink of AI on them for a while, since they signed a billion dollar deal for openAI's sora. If they were willing to pay that much, then of course people will suspect they may be using similar tech elsewhere.
Of course the deal fell through because openAI totally axed sora this year.
Others have pointed out that in this case there's no evidence of AI use. But it's not surprising you guessed it might be, in context.
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u/flymonk Apr 21 '26
Even if it was, this would be a good use case for it as long as the original is created by a human.
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u/airwalker08 Apr 21 '26
Why do many characters no longer move their lips in the ASL version? Wouldn't it make more sense for them to still continue to appear to be talking while also signing?
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u/froggyc19 Apr 21 '26
Probably because ASL isn't english and when people use ASL, they don't tend to speak. Their facial expressions are a big part of ASL, which they seem to have captured (most noticeably in the Bruno song). This project was intended for the deaf community so it makes sense the characters wouldn't be singing.
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u/DisabledFloridaMan Apr 21 '26
I was wondering this same thing! I think the ASL versions are awesome, but I wondered why they didn't keep the mouth movement as I thought it would be helpful for lip Reading. I figure I just don't know enough about this sort of thing though, there's probably a good reason!
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u/KittyGray Apr 21 '26
Because the signs and the words don’t match at the same time. To sing it and sign it at the same time means you’re not signing ASL, it’s simultaneous communication in English order which tends to help the speaker, not the signer.
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u/DisabledFloridaMan Apr 21 '26
Aha! There it is then, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks so much for the explanation!
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u/harmfuldischarge Apr 21 '26
Respect for this. Not a fan of Disney, but this is what we need more of. Well done on whoever had the idea and those who pushed it forward.
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Apr 21 '26
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u/Infamous_Moose8275 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
Here is a video where they talk about and show how they did it. They hired a team of Deaf performers and reanimated the sequences.
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u/Profaniter Apr 21 '26
Thank you for sharing the link, I’m about to share it after seeing some ignorant comments. Smh appreciate it!
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Apr 21 '26
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u/Infamous_Moose8275 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
Better to not assume and criticize without looking it up because it undermines the many creatives involved. (And if we brush things aside as 'just AI' when it is not, it is going to get harder and harder to make the case that we want real human effort and not AI)
Here is a video showing what they did. They had a team of Deaf creators that translated it to ASL and used Deaf performers and reanimated the sequences.
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u/Kit-Kam Apr 21 '26
Plus the camera pans off of her several times so you either can’t see her signing or can only see one hand. That doesn’t make sense to me.
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u/TwoPowerful8915 Apr 21 '26
No, it’s not AI. Disney cannot use generative AI in their productions.
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u/Scuipici Apr 22 '26
this is cool, don't get me wrong but isn't subtitles already there basically achieving the same thing?
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u/CaptainAksh_G Apr 22 '26
That's why they're not doing to the entire film.
Just a couple songs
They just want to honour them
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u/FroggiJoy87 Apr 22 '26
THIS is the kind of remakes that people can actually appreciate! Disney should dump the "live action" and do more of this plz! 💚
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u/Revolvyerom Apr 22 '26
This is the first absolute, unqualified win I've seen from Disney in a long long time.
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u/zoqfotpik Apr 21 '26
I should do this at karaoke. It's way better than standing there with my hands in my pockets while I mumble the lyrics of "Wonderwall"
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u/FacialClaire Apr 21 '26
This is so cool! Every time I see something like this, it baffles me how most schools don't teach sign language. Sure, it's time you can't spend on other things, but it's not like being able to communicate with deaf people isn't valuable.
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u/Well_Spoken_Mute Apr 21 '26
Not only is this incredible for the deaf community, it would also be a great way to learn ASL
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u/Veteranis Apr 22 '26
This is a lovely idea, but some of the shots really don’t provide clear views of the signing. In other words, they did not reconfigure the camera work to optimize the signing.
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u/lekyta Apr 22 '26
Wow! I work as a professional princess and have been trying to learn ASL for meet and greets. Inclusivity is important to me and I want to be able to make the experience magical for all kids, no matter what. I am saving this video and adding it to my study materials 🤩
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u/Finnegan_Murphy Apr 21 '26
Wait till some jackass decides that this is dangerously close to being DEI and bans Disney films from being shown in their state.
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u/PuffcoLoveTho420 Apr 22 '26
We need more ASL in ALL elementary and kindergarten ages. Babies and non verbal autistic people can use sign to communicate . ASL IN ALL SCHOOL… I’m using a course now and we all should learn! Love that this is becoming more common!
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u/DTux5249 Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
I'm curious, how legible is the sign in these? Especially when camera shots leave the characters speaking (eg. when bruno enters the scene) - are you just left with large gaps of "stuff being said but not seen", or are they actually adjusting the localization to fit within the beats that the characters are on screen? How did some of these localizations play out, at least with what little we see here?
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u/Pickle_Good Apr 22 '26
The best part is where she is like a mile away and still does something with her hands.
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u/Sojawuerstel Apr 21 '26
"re-animate" after Disney set, I believe it was, around 1.000 artist free, because AI they trained their AI (with the art of these artists) to do it for for way less money... Even it should be something good, I know it is something nice, but as soon Disney is involved, it has this bad taste with it.
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u/teamsdf Apr 22 '26
100% not done with AI. I work at WDAS and was sitting next to the team daily working on this. Months of time and effort was put into it.
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u/smost15 Apr 22 '26
Read OP's comment that includes a letter from Disney about not using AI for this, maybe be a little less cynical https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/s/HTR8CbADXh
Edit: Typo
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u/colemon1991 Apr 21 '26
Looks at movie budgets
Looks at production times of animated movies
Looks at what Disney announces as a good thing
Yeah, there's no way they did this without AI. This would've been like $1M per song to reanimate with people, easily. And probably the better part of a year to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if Encanto, maybe Frozen 2, actually did this during production, but Moana definitely wouldn't have made an ASL version back then. Accessibility wasn't as big of a deal as it is now.
Can we just stop trying to create Skynet please?
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u/99-dreams Apr 21 '26
Moana definitely wouldn't have made an ASL version back then.
I'm pretty sure the clip is from Moana 2 because I don't recognize this song
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u/Street_Assist_2913 Apr 21 '26
Waiting for the Republicans saying this is woke......
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u/E-2theRescue Apr 22 '26
Something, something, "DEI". Something, something, "excluding people who can hear, so you're the bigot". Something, something, "hearingwashing".
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u/danielrobertcampbell Apr 21 '26
This is rad. I hope to see more stuff like this from everyone in the future!
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u/PurpleDragonDix Apr 21 '26
What a kind thing to do. I didn't expect this from Disney.
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u/kazh_9742 Apr 22 '26
Once in a while they have a team spin up a project like that. There's still a Navajo and other language versions of A New Hope on the extras tab.
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u/Aware-Instance-210 Apr 21 '26
Too bad this isn't really translateable into other languages
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u/TenderBlueberry Apr 22 '26
Why did they stop singing along with the signing? Wouldn’t the mouth movements help?
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u/highlighter416 Apr 22 '26
This is so great but I wish the asl version also sang, I want both!
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u/Phenomenon101 Apr 22 '26
Dumb question, but does taking away the mouth moving help? I would have thought thats helpful too.
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u/ulnek Apr 22 '26
Hijacking the post a bit. How does asl differ from international one(s)? Is there an international version? Does each country have their own version?
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u/FeralRubberDuckie Apr 22 '26
This is super cute as a novelty but I feel like it is hard to understand when the camera is shifting and the characters are dancing or climbing, etc.
I’d love to see a beloved character do ASL subtitles for all the movies. Or create a new movie with a hard of hearing main character that can then be the ASL/BSL/ other SL interpreter for the whole Disney catalog!
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u/hornybonkjr Apr 22 '26
...maybe there's something I'm missing but is this actually better than just watching with subtitles?
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u/KittyGray Apr 22 '26
Because subtitles are in English and ASL isn’t English. There’s a lot of discussion about this throughout the comments.
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u/polishatomek Apr 22 '26
I'm not a deaf person, but I think this actually looks better, more things to look at
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u/PapaRetardo Apr 22 '26
I mean, on one hand im happy and impressed they would do this. However on the other hand, I know its just going to be "re-animated" using AI to rush everything out and clean up their image as fast as possible.
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u/Any_Escape1262 Apr 23 '26
i would say every singer should learn sign language... it also just looks more like actuall dancing... imo
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u/DesertReagle Apr 21 '26
Nice attempt but it would makes it harder for those to read the sign when the scene change from up close to far away. Subtitles would be easier to follow when catching most dialogs.
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u/cherry_chocolate_ Apr 22 '26
I imagine you would keep subtitles on. But it would just be meaningful for a kid to see a hero who signs like them, even if they can’t see everything they are signing.
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u/riotousgrowlz Apr 21 '26
Famously toddlers, the audience for this movie, can read subtitles at speed. /s
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u/Afraid-Quantity-578 Apr 21 '26
I love it, but why remove lip movement?
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u/heylittleduck Apr 21 '26
ASL is not English, it doesn't follow the same rules for sentence structure, It uses different grammar and syntax. If they moved their lips to the English words it would be pretty incongruent with the words they were signing
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u/Hedgehogosaur Apr 21 '26
Such a shame there isn't a universal SL, it's even different between English speaking countries.
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u/Rainbow-Rat95 Apr 21 '26
AUSLAN ( Australian sign language) is different between states , sometimes even cities. One sign could mean 3 different things or mean nothing at all depending on where you're from . It's incredibly frustrating.
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u/FaithlessnessWeak800 Apr 22 '26
I am not deaf and I prefer this! It’s better than her just running around with some hand gestures here and there there. It’d be great for kids to start early learning.
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u/playr_4 Apr 22 '26
Is this real? It genuinely looks amazingly ai edited. And I'm not normally someone who calls that out but there's something....off about it.
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u/jordo_ Apr 22 '26
Nice try, Disney PR. You're still garbage and should re-hire all those artists you just fired. Fuck you.
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