Gene Hazelton was an animator and artist of newspaper comics. At college, he got the offer to work as Jimmy Hatlo's assistant. He declined, since he prefered working in animation. He was hired by the Walt Disney Studios in 1939, where he worked as an animator. Hazelton did the character designs for Disney's Wind in the Willows in 1939. The characters were translated to the screen exactly as he created them when the film was made ten years later. He also animated goat kids and cherubs for Disney's 'Fantasia' and the boys in the "Pleasure Island" sequence of 'Pinocchio'.
