In celebration of National Deaf History Month, Disney+ has debuted Disney Animation’s Songs in Sign Language, which reimagined and animated Frozen 2’s ‘The Next Right Thing,’ Moana 2’s ‘Beyond,’ and Encanto’s ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ with American Sign Language (ASL).
These three songs are available now on Disney+ and you can check out clips from each one below, but this is a truly special project that was directed by Disney animator/director Hyrum Osmond, whose father is Deaf and was a huge reason this happened.
“The inspiration for this project came from my Dad,” explains Osmond. “He was always very supportive of my career, and he would always watch my movies with subtitles. He also loved going to the theater because he could feel the vibrations and experience things in a whole different way. I began thinking, ‘What would our Disney songs look like if we had made them for him? What if we had made them for the Deaf community? What would that look like?
“Sign language is one of the most beautiful ways of communication on Earth,” Osmond continued. “If ever there was a medium to showcase sign language, it was animation. The other big reason for doing this project is to connect with the Deaf community. Growing up, I never learned sign language, and that barrier prevented me from really connecting with my dad. 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.”
Osmond, alongside producers Heather Blodget and Christina Chen, was in charge of more than 20 animators who worked with sign language reference created for Disney Animation’s Songs in Sign Language. This was all created with the help of DJ Kurs, artistic director for Deaf West Theatre, who worked with sign language reference choreographer Catalene Sacchetti and a group of eight performers, who “carefully reimagined and choreographed lyrics into ASL by focusing on concepts and emotion instead of a word-for-word transcription.”
In fact, Osmond revealed that, “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.”
“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,” Kurs said. “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. Working on this project was very emotional. 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.”
For more, check out how Disney celebrated Earth Month and the big news from Disney out of CinemaCon 2026.
Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst, Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.
