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A longtime Disney executive who spent decades safeguarding the company’s most beloved characters is now using his talents to help the faith-based hit show “The Chosen” reach audiences worldwide.
Rick Dempsey, former Senior Vice President of Creative for Walt Disney Studios, worked for 35 years overseeing character consistency across Disney character voices. He was brought on by Roy E. Disney in 1988 to help ensure classic characters like Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck maintained their voice integrity to ensure their longevity and protect the brand.
During his tenure, Dempsey helped found Disney Character Voices International, which managed dubbing, translation and localization for Disney and Pixar films and characters globally.
As a Christian, Dempsey said he always viewed his work at Disney as a mission field. Throughout his career, he found ways to integrate his faith into a secular environment when opportunities arose, such as helping bring C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” series to Disney.
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After retiring in 2023, a chance encounter in Hawaii led him to a new calling he believes his time at Disney had prepared him for.
“I had already decided to announce my retirement right at the same time ‘The Chosen’ presented itself to me. In the most random way. I mean, I was literally on a beach in Hawaii and met a random stranger over shaved ice, and we talked about my career at Disney. And he said, ‘We should stay in touch.’ And he was the guy who was sitting in a meeting with Mart Green, [board chair of Come and See], right after it was established,” Dempsey told Fox News Digital.
That connection later introduced him to Come and See Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to reach 1 billion people by ensuring all seven seasons of the biblical drama are globally accessible and free to watch in “The Chosen” app.
As senior vice president of creative and global localization, Dempsey now leads the foundation’s localization efforts, working to translate the show into 600 languages.
The project is a “monumental” task, he says, compared to his work at Disney, where his largest undertaking was overseeing the translation of the two “Frozen” films into over 40 languages.
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Unlike Disney projects, the faith-based series comes with the added challenge of ensuring theological accuracy in every translation.
He explained that the ministry partners closely with theologians to maintain accuracy and will not begin work on a new language until a subject-matter expert is in place.
So far, “The Chosen” is available in 70 languages on its app, with dozens more in progress.
Dempsey sees the effort as a global mission, helping people encounter the Gospel even in the most difficult to reach places.
“In countries like in the Middle East, where we have a hard time just getting in a Bible, we can get the series in,” he explained. “People are experiencing Jesus like they’ve never experienced him before in parts of the world that are basically banned from having a Bible.”
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Dempsey hopes the series will inspire viewers to read the Bible in their own language and get involved with a local church.
“We’re introducing Jesus to a lot of people, and he’s speaking in their heart language. And this has really never been done before, except for maybe if they saw the 1979 ‘JESUS’ film,” he said. “And we are hearing stories about people whose eyes are being opened, and their lives are being transformed in amazing ways as a result of this show.”
Last year, Come and See announced it had broken the record to become the most-translated television show in history, with more than 50 dubbed versions completed at the time.
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