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“How many of you remember Asl Barbie?” Deaf West Theatre artistic director DJ Kurs signed from the stage at Westwood’s Regency Village Theatre last Thursday night, referring to Sign Language Barbie, which Mattel released in 2000. “Her hand was permanently stuck in the ‘I love you’ hand shape. Can you imagine how awkward that would be in real life? Like if she waved to the Ups driver, she would be like, ‘I love you?’”

The audience giggled as Kurs continued. “But seriously, that was a landmark moment back in those days. Barbie, using sign language, was in every store 20 years ago,” he said. “And tonight we celebrate a similar landmark: Children all across the country will be able to tune into the Asl version of Barbie the movie.”

Kurs was speaking at the one-night-only theatrical screening of Barbie with Asl, held on the eve of its Dec. 15 streaming debut on...

At the end of a Los Angeles screening of “Barbie” December 14, many in the buzzing crowd didn’t applaud. Instead, they twisted their hands in the air, the American Sign Language gesture for Applause, in praising Deaf Asl performer Leila Hanaumi.

The audience watched Hanaumi perform “Barbie” dialogue in Asl for the entirety of its near two-hour runtime, but even better was they saw the actress larger than life, overlaid on the movie screen.

Hanaumi’s performance was part of an Asl version of “Barbie” that debuts today on Max, alongside the English language original. Hanaumi, a Deaf actress and Asl interpreter, can be seen in the corner of the screen, signing and translating into Asl throughout the movie and interpreting every role in an effort to make the year’s biggest blockbuster accessible for the widest possible audience.

“It’s more than just a movie. It is a cultural phenomenon,...