Andrea’s film review – El Deafo

El Deafo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review by Andrea Carnevali

Follow the experiences of a child as she loses her hearing and finds her inner superhero. Available to watch on Apple+

If giving this animated miniseries a five star rating is enough to convince a few more parents to get their kids to watch it, then I feel no remorse in doing so.

El Deafo is based on the awarded graphic novel with the same title, which chronicles the experiences of a child, Cece Bell, who lost most of her hearing at age four, after contracting meningitis. Cece is now forced to wear a large hearing aid (we are in the 1970s and technology hadn’t quite caught up).

What’s particularly brave about these three episodes, is how the sound is used. Everything we hear, every noise, every word is muffled and filtered as if it were coming through Cece’s hearing aid. In fact often the sound is so bad that we might even miss bits of dialogue altogether. And that’s of course all by design, to put us, the audience, in Cece’s shoes.

Only the narration, read by deaf actor Lexi Finigan, comes across loud and clear, drawing us closer and closer into Cece’s inner thoughts, as she recollects her own real life, through the many struggles and obstacles, giving an honest and at times painful glimpse at the challenges that a deaf person faces daily and what it must be like to feel “different”, particularly at that age.

The difficulties of making friends, bullying, the struggle of lip-reading, learning sign language, the problems arising when many people speak at the same time, and even the lack of subtitles on TV all play a part.

It’s all beautifully laid out and, needless to say, it’s heart-breaking, without being manipulative or spoonfed.

But believe me, it’s not all doom and gloom (though my son at some point during the first episode did say “this is so sad”). There are some funny moments to be found too: for example, the discovery that Cece can hear her teacher, who’s wearing a microphone in school, going to the loo, is funny every time it happens.

And then of course there are those wild dreams Cece constantly has, of being a superhero, flying above everybody else, with the power to solve every problem.

The series is ultimately aimed mainly at children (the characters are all portrayed as rabbits), but I won’t hide the fact that I too found it extremely touching.

Yes, of course the animation is pretty basic (though it does reflect the source material perfectly). The intentionally contemplative pace is not always as sharp as it should be and there are some sporadic repetitions here and there, which could have easily been avoided, but in the grand scheme of things, these are all very minor quibbles.

This is a terrific and important milestone in children’s TV, which not only should be noticed, watched, embraced and praised by everyone, but also I feel should be compulsory viewing in any school.

Andrea Carnevali is a Bafta winning film maker who lives in Chiswick.

El Deafo is available to watch on Apple+

See all Andrea’s film reviews here: Film reviews by Andrea Carnevali

See also: Jessica Bloom’s review of new fiction published in March

See all the latest stories: Chiswick Calendar News & Features

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