{"id":593,"date":"2016-05-30T05:40:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T05:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/?p=593"},"modified":"2016-12-16T03:18:19","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T03:18:19","slug":"a-search-for-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2016\/05\/a-search-for-happiness.html","title":{"rendered":"A search for happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

First there was Alice in Wonderland<\/em> (2010, USA). Then, Alice Through the Looking Glass<\/em> (2016, USA).<\/p>\n

The story of Alice in Wonderland<\/em> is, from a point of view, a search for true happiness.<\/p>\n

Alice is promised the hand of marriage to Hamish, who is a lord, but the nineteen-year old can\u2019t make up her mind if she will marry him.<\/p>\n

She has the advice of others going through her head. The biggest piece of advice she gets is to be happy. They claim that Hamish will make her happy because he is rich and secure.<\/p>\n

But she needs time by herself, to collect her thoughts, and decide for herself if she should marry someone she does not like.<\/p>\n

Alice is not sure if marrying him will make her happy, so she endeavors to find an answer that will make her happy.<\/p>\n

At their engagement party, Hamish proposes, but Alice runs away, and follows a rabbit down a hole, which leads to \u2018Underland\u2019.<\/p>\n

Underland\u2019s subjects are also searching for happiness, like Alice is searching for happiness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Mad<\/a>
Mad Hatter (Pictured), played by Johnny Depp. The Hatter was happy, but lost his dance steps because of the Red Queen. Image sourced via google images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Under the rule of the merciless Red Queen, life in Underland is dark, drab and unhappy. The Mad Hatter can\u2019t do his dance anymore.<\/p>\n

Alice must save this land and make it happy again and answer the perennial question should I or shouldn\u2019t I marry him?<\/p>\n

She will learn how to answer it as she endeavors to save Underland though she is scared and frightened.<\/p>\n

Fighting her fears and insecurities, the answer to Hamish\u2019s proposal of marriage\u2014the answer that promises her happiness\u2014should become as plain as day.<\/p>\n

And when the answer is as plain as day, you go from the valley of darkness to the world of light.<\/p>\n

As a film, Alice in Wonderland<\/em> is delicious, a visual and storytelling delight.<\/p>\n

* * * * (Out of * * * * *)<\/p>\n

\n

Warnings<\/strong>\u2014scary scenes<\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong>\u2014Starring Mia Wasikowska (Alice), Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter), Helena Bonham Carter (Red Queen).\u00a0Lewis Carroll\u2019s Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland was an English children\u2019s book published in the mid-1800s. It was subsequently made into several films. The 2010 version was\u00a0adapted for the screen by Linda Woolverton and directed by Tim Burton<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>
Image sourced via google images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First there was Alice in Wonderland (2010, USA). Then, Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016, USA). The story of Alice in Wonderland is, from a point of view, a search for true happiness. Alice is promised the hand of marriage to Hamish, who is a lord, but the nineteen-year old can\u2019t make up her mind…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":602,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,53,320],"tags":[15,130,131,8,10,9,45,16,7,11],"class_list":["post-593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-films","category-fantasies","category-spiritual","tag-adventure","tag-alice-in-wonderland","tag-alice-through-the-looking-glass","tag-film","tag-film-commentaries","tag-film-reviews","tag-good-versus-evil","tag-life","tag-movies","tag-visuals"],"yoast_head":"\nA search for happiness - Life at the Movies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The story of Alice in Wonderland is, from a point of view, a search for true happiness. 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A 3 star rating out of 5 stars is above average from me.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.peteswriting.wordpress.com","https:\/\/x.com\/peteswriting"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/author\/pveugelaers"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/602"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1476,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions\/1476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}