In celebration of Friday’s International Day of Sign Languages, Deaf West Theatre teamed up with Disney Music Group to release an American Sign Language version of the hit song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Disney’s Encanto. The Tony award-winning company featured an all-deaf Colombian and Hispanic cast in the video for the three-times platinum-certified song topped the Hot 100 chart for five weeks.
The “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” video utilizes both American Sign Language and Colombian Sign Language, adding layers of authenticity to the music video. Deaf West Theatre had a team of sign language choreographers that worked through the text of the song in order to find an accurate signed translation in order to translate the sung English lyrics into ASL and CSL, per Variety. Encanto tells the story of the extraordinary Madrigal family blessed by magic, giving every child born into the family magical powers – except Mirabel, voiced by Stephanie Beatriz (In The Heights, Brooklyn Nine-Nine). When the magic surrounding their home is in danger, the “ordinary” Madrigal is the family’s only hope. Praised for its layered message, colorful characters and soundtrack, Encanto was an instant hit last year and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” became its most popular song.
The sign language video for “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” that was released Friday features Nataly Barahona as Pepa, Andres (Flash) Otalora as Felix, Donna Valverde as both Mirabel and Abuela, Jasmine Garcia as Isabela, Joseph Rocha as Camilo and Andrea Rodriguez as Dolores. Valverde and Barahona are also the ASL Choreographers for the video with Otalora acting as the Director of Photography and Austin Balaich editing.
Deaf West’s Artistic Director DJ Kurs shared the positive impact collaborations like this one with Disney Music Group can make for Deaf children.
“The impact this film has on children cannot be dismissed. The majority of Deaf children are born to hearing families and sometimes the only exposure to the community and sign language is through videos like this,” Kurs said. “By working with Disney Music Group on expanding the access to one of their songs to the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities brings us immense pride.”
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is one of eight original songs by Hamilton-creator Lin-Manuel Miranda (Moana) that make up the original motion picture soundtrack for the film along with an original score by Academy Award-nominated composer Germaine Franco (Coco, The Casagrandes). In addition to the uber success of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” last year, Encanto’s soundtrack held the No. 1 position on the Billboard 200 album chart for nine non-consecutive weeks. The soundtrack as well as the song held the No. 1 position on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 for five consecutive weeks.
Check out the official ASL video for “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” below”