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These striking production cels from Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951) capture one of the film’s most memorable and darkly comic sequences: The Walrus, the Carpenter, the Six Oysters, and the surrounding water effects. The composition is particularly appealing because it combines the character cels with beautifully rendered hand-painted water effects. The Walrus dominates the left side of the scene, struggling through the water while the group of innocent young oysters follows behind him. The pale lavender-and-white oysters create a wonderful visual contrast against the deep blue water and green background, while the separate water-effect cel gives the scene a tremendous sense of movement.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is a 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. Disney reworked the story to fit both a younger audience and a time frame suitable for an animated film, with a running time of only 75 minutes. Although the Walrus and Carpenter episode does not originate in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Disney incorporated it into the film from Carroll's later book, Through the Looking-Glass, creating a memorable detour within Alice's increasingly strange adventures.
One of the most memorable segments of Alice in Wonderland is the story of The Walrus and The Carpenter, two wandering characters whose tale is related to Alice by Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Both characters were voiced by J. Pat O'Malley and animated by John Lounsbery, Ward Kimball, Wolfgang Reitherman, and Charles A. Nichols. Their origins can be traced to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, where the famous poem tells of the Walrus and Carpenter encountering a group of unsuspecting oysters. Disney expanded the episode considerably, turning Carroll's poem into an extended comic sequence filled with dialogue, action, music, and visual gags.
The sequence begins with the Walrus and Carpenter walking along the seashore while the Walrus indulges in his characteristic grand pronouncements. His rambling declaration, "The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things," leads into his philosophical-sounding discussion of "cabbages—and kings" and other subjects. The Walrus gives the impression that something important and prosperous is just around the corner, but his grand talk conceals the fact that he has little interest in actually working. Instead, he is constantly looking for an opportunity to take advantage of someone else.
The Walrus is very much the leader of the pair, while the Carpenter is more earnest and considerably less devious. In this respect, the Walrus resembles Honest John from Disney's Pinocchio: both are charming, manipulative schemers who prefer clever talk and deception to honest work. The Walrus continually talks about their supposed future prospects while simultaneously looking for an easy way to satisfy his own appetites. The Carpenter, by contrast, is frequently left trying to understand what the Walrus is actually planning.
The oysters provide the innocent victims of the Walrus's scheme. He discovers a group of young oysters and persuades them to leave the safety of the sea and follow him along the shore. His invitation sounds almost paternal and reassuring, as he encourages them to come along and enjoy the sights. The oysters are completely unaware of his real intentions. Eventually, the Walrus and Carpenter reach a makeshift establishment constructed from the remnants of a boat, where the oysters are led to believe they are going to enjoy a pleasant meal.
The visual storytelling in these cels captures the deception beautifully. The Six Oysters are small, almost childlike figures, with their rounded white shells and pink faces conveying innocence and vulnerability. Their orderly progression in front of the Walrus emphasizes just how completely they have fallen for his story. The Walrus, meanwhile, is depicted playing his flute like a Pied Piper moving through the water, making this particular setup especially effective as an animation-art composition. The separate water-effects cel adds splashing waves, ripples, and streams of water around the characters, demonstrating how Disney's artists could use individually animated effects to give the scene its energy and dimensionality.
The Walrus's greed eventually becomes unmistakable. After luring the oysters into the restaurant, he deliberately distracts the Carpenter and sends him away on an errand. While the Carpenter is occupied, the Walrus proceeds to eat the oysters himself. The joke is made even more outrageous by the Walrus's complete lack of remorse. His elaborate speeches about the future and his supposed concern for the oysters have ultimately been nothing more than a means of getting a meal.
J. Pat O'Malley's performance is especially remarkable because he performed all of the character voices in the Walrus and Carpenter segment, other than Alice, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, The Walrus, The Carpenter, and Mother Oyster. O'Malley had an extensive history with Disney. He was the Cockney gentleman in the "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" sequence of Mary Poppins (1964), and he also provided voices in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949), including Cyril Proudbottom, Winkie, and a policeman. He later voiced Colonel Hathi and Buzzie in The Jungle Book (1967). His ability to create such distinctly different personalities makes the Walrus and Carpenter sequence one of the film's great showcases for character voice acting.
The sequence also contains some of the most memorable dialogue associated with Carroll's poem, including the Walrus's famous opening, "The time has come to talk of many things," followed by his wonderfully nonsensical discussion of "shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—and cabbages—and kings." These words perfectly capture the peculiar logic of Wonderland: the Walrus speaks as though he is delivering profound wisdom, yet his lofty declarations ultimately serve to distract from his very ordinary—and very selfish—objective.
As animation art, this grouping is particularly compelling because it preserves three distinct aspects of the filmmaking process in one scene: the principal character of The Walrus, the individual Six Oysters, and the animated water effects. The sweeping blue water creates a strong sense of movement around the Walrus, while the smaller oysters provide the visual narrative that drives the sequence. Together, the cels offer a wonderful representation of Disney's ability to transform Carroll's absurd and sometimes sinister humor into a visually rich animated sequence—one that begins as an apparently innocent seaside adventure and ends with the Walrus revealing himself as exactly the sort of charming but thoroughly self-serving character he appears to be.
