'El Deafo' - Incredible graphic novel adaptation

 


El Deafo is yet another awesome Apple TV production. It is based on the book of the same name by Cece Bell. It is semi-autobiographical about her being deaf, with cartoon rabbits. It is had now been made into a three-part miniseries. 

Cece Bell narrates the series, while cartoon rabbit Cece is voiced by a real life deaf girl. The first episode demonstrates how a serious infection caused Cece to lose her hearing. It doesn’t hold back from showing all the new and scary thoughts little Cece head. 

The sound design also muffles the characters’ speech, so you can really immerse yourself what it sounds like when you are hard of hearing. Bell’s narration also lampshades how back then, deaf kids didn’t use sign languages, so they use lip reading instead. And how TV shows didn’t have subtitles. Luckily, these have changed. 

Speaking of TV, Cece witnesses a show where a deaf girl is bullied, and called "Deafo". While hurt by this at first, she reclaims this for her Superhero alter ego, El Deafo. 

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Cece keeps having to deal with bossy people and fake friends. But we know she’ll come out on top and okay in the end.

If you are disabled, I definitely recommend the series 

Animation - 2/2. Simple and clean, to quote Hikaru Utada

Voice acting - 2/2. It does have some big names like Jane Lynch and Pamela Adlon, along with unknown child actors. Nonetheless, they all invigorate life in their characters, and IT WILL make you feel something. 

Characters  - 1/2. While Cece is likable, her “friends” are unbelievably shitty. Then again, that’s the point, to make you feel bad for Cece and showcase forms of ableism and bullying. 

Sound design - 2/2. This time, instead of music, I’ll be talking about the sound design. Like the voice acting, it is incredibly believable and realistic. For a bit, you can step into a deaf  person’s shoes, and hear almost nothing. This is their reality. 

Writing - 2/2. I use ‘realistic’ a lot here, because this is exactly what it is. Very accurate to real life and even painful at times, not pulling any punches, but still assuring us that everything will be okay in the end. Even so, this show is definitely not for the faint-hearted. 

Final rating - 9/10

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hanna-Barbera and the LGBT+ Community

Image
  We'll have a gay old time, indeed. Hanna-Barbera has been an obsession of mine for almost a year now. Their cartoons are still pretty fun to watch, but they obviously run the risk of being outdated in today's society. Here, I will be speaking on Hanna-Barbera's relationship to a group I'm a part of -- the LGBT community. Obviously, due to censorship and homophobia, there couldn't be any LGBT characters on TV or in film back in the day, much less positive ones. If a gay or at least ambiguously gay character did appear, they were an unflattering stereotype (lisps, limp wrists etc). Despite this, H-B unintentionally created one of the gayest cartoon characters ever - Snagglepuss. Heavens to Murgatroyd! He's pink, is into theatre, and talks like this , even. Ever since the first Snagglepuss cartoon aired, there have been rumors and jokes that he was gay. In order to stop the rumors that the character was gay, they added a female love interest for him named Lila Li...
Read more

On Cringe Culture, Kids' Shows, and Elitism

Image
"i'M nOt rEaDiNg aLl tHaT" Ok, scroll down for the TL:DR. Recently, the CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek, has stated the animation is only for children . Never mind that this is the same company that owns The Simpsons, and was founded by a guy who said, and I quote "You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway." Naturally, this has caused universal backlash within the animation community, with many people defending animation as a medium for everyone, not just kids. However, the animation community was also mocked by outsiders for using kids' shows, such as Gravity Falls, to prove that animation is for everyone. In fact, the animation community (more specifically the western animation community) has always been cruelly harassed by outsiders for watching cartoons, especially ones aimed at children.   There is nothing wrong with watching children's shows AT ALL. Watching kids' shows doesn't make you immature, a pedophile,...
Read more