A quote from Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: An Art in it’s Making

“A good many men misinterpret the idea of studying the actual motion. They think it is our purpose to duplicate these things. The misconception should be cleared up for all. I definitely feel we cannot do the fantastic things based on the real unless we first know the real.

The purpose of all the classes was not to make the studio artists imitators of nature which had little practical application on the job, but rather to make them such intuitive observers of nature that they could caricature it, which was the heart of the business. As Frank Thomas remembers:

*Walt always told us that the most important thing you have to do is observe. Observe. Watch dogs. Watch people. Watch different kinds of people. Watch what they wear. Watch what they do. See what things show their personalities; which things reveal their thought processes.*”