Some people dislike Walt Disney and say he didn't do any of the work to deserve the credit he gets. But Walt Disney was a genius. He had the vision and idea to push animation beyond the limits of what it was. He gave hair artists the idea that this was possible. He helped nurture their skills by bringing in some of the top artists/teachers from around the world to give lessons to the artist at his studio (they learned all the different art styles and movements).
Hearing him pitch Snow White is so fascinating. Even if Walt himself wasn't the person with the talent behind the pen/pencil, he knew what was possible with animation and made others believe it and achieve it. He also was smart enough to make his artist better at their skills, so that they could be good enough to take on his visions and push animation to the next level of evolution.
I do think that sometimes people like Disney and Jobs get too much credit as we tend to focus on individuals in our society. But I truly believe that it doesn't matter how much talent someone has, it takes someone with a vision to push and enable others to move things forward.
It's really quite amazing the big jump from early animation to what Walt Disney pushed it to be. How drastic animation evolved in a short time, and how much that was a result of Disney. It's neat to see so many people on here not knowing they used live action models. Walt Disney was really crazy at how much time and effort he put into building up his studio, so it could enable talent to take their art to the next level. They guy wasn't just a businessman, he knew what it would take to make animation something better.
I recommend people watch the PBS documentary on him:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/walt-disney/
Really great (although I think the documentary is slightly biased in the section with Walt Disney and the studio strike. I don't agree with what Disney did, but I feel the documentary makers own political views on unions, effects the documentary as they leave out some information).