 Very few of the animators at the Disney studio had had artistic training ( most had been newspaper cartoonists ) ; among these few was Grim Natwick , who had trained in Europe . The animator 's success in designing and animating Betty Boop for Fleischer Studios showed an understanding of human female anatomy , and when Walt Disney hired Natwick he was given female characters to animate almost exclusively . Attempts to animate Persephone , the female lead of The Goddess of Spring , had proved largely unsuccessful ; Natwick 's animation of the heroine in Cookie Carnival showed greater promise , and the animator was eventually given the task of animating Snow White herself . Though live action footage of Snow White , the Prince and the Queen was shot as reference for the animators , the artists animators disapproved of rotoscoping , considering it to hinder the production of effective caricature . None of Babbit 's animation of the Queen was rotoscoped ; despite Graham and Natwick 's objections , however , some scenes of Snow White and the Prince were directly traced from the live @-@ action footage . 
