Published: April 03, 2009 10:32 am      

MOVIES: Early Disney films in Shea's spotlight

In the 21st century, the word Disney is synonymous with wealth, power and everything good about show business — and much of what’s bad about it.

But what people often forget are the working-class roots of the media empire.

“People look at the Disney corporation as a big, rich corporation. But when they made ‘Plane Crazy’ in 1928 they were bankrupt,” Edward Summer, a Buffalo native and former screenwriter for Disney, said of one of the company’s earliest cartoons. “These were very hard-working people.”

Those people — several of whom have a Western New York connection — will be celebrated this weekend at the “Mickey Mouse’s Movie Masterpieces” event at Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo.

Summer, also founder of the Buffalo International Film Festival, said he helped organize the event because of the long-standing love people have for Mickey Mouse. The day-long festival was originally scheduled to take place in 2008 during Mickey’s 80th anniversary, but logistical issues forced several postponements.

“Mickey has become a kid of a symbol, but when he was a baby, he was a charming, lovely character,” said Summer, who illustrated Mickey during the 1980s. “He was funny, full of life, energetic.”

The event will be broken down into three parts. The centerpiece of the festival is a screening of the original print of the 1940 film “Fantasia,” which is the only one still in existence and which hasn’t been seen in theaters since 1990. The Shea’s sound system had to be customized to accommodate the screening, Summer said.

“I can’t stress enough to people how special this is,” he said. “You will never see this again.”

As much as the festival is about Mickey Mouse, Summer also wanted to honor local people vital to Disney’s history. Beside Summer, those people include:

• Pat Powers, who helped develop the Powers Cinephone sound system that Roy and Walt Disney used to give Mickey his voice in 1928’s “Steamboat Willie,” the first Mickey cartoon to feature sound. “Without Pat Powers, Mickey Mouse never would have happened,” Summer said.

• Ralph Kent (born Ralph Kwiatkowski), whose illustrious 41-year career as a product designer and Mickey illustrator and earned him the title “The Keeper of the Mouse” and won him a Disney Legend award, which Summer equated to the company’s internal version of an Academy Award.

• Michael Healey, who produces original moves for cable’s Disney Channel.

• Brian Wittman, who produces live shows and special events at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

Before Saturday’s festival, local Disney fans will get a chance Friday to see the rarest Disney art still in existence. Being brought to Buffalo is a storyboard from “Plane Crazy” drawn by Ub Iwerks, who was the Disney brothers’ partner in forming the studio. The print will be available for viewing from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Gallery before moving to Shea’s on Saturday.

Iwerks sketched between 9,000 and 10,000 images in drawing the cartoon almost entirely by himself, said Summer, who said that “Plane Crazy” was the first cartoon to feature Mickey even though it was not the first released.

“He literally did this all alone locked in a room,” Summer said.

A charity dinner to benefit the film festival will take place concurrently in the museum’s The Muses Restaurant starting at 6:30 p.m.

A love of film and a passion for this character combined to make this event essential for Summer to pull off, he said.

“For better or for worse, the reason I got into the motion picture business ... is because I went to the movies here,” said Summer, who said he took frequent trips to North Tonawanda’s Riviera Theatre in his youth. “I wanted to give back something. I wanted to do something good for the region.

“This is where Mickey came from.”