ACK & FORTH

BATMANIA
Batman’s back. So is his deadliest enemy. The second instalment in Christopher Nolan’s contemporary bat-series, The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale as the caped crusader and the late Heath Ledger as The Joker (below), opens worldwide this week and promises great action, stomach-crunching suspense and superior performances. This is the sixth modern Batman film; here’s the action so far.

1989: After the original 1966 bat-comedy starring Adam West, the screen saga of the comic-inspired nocturnal alter ego of Bruce Wayne was revived with Warner Brothers’ Batman, directed by Tim Burton, starring Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger and Jack Nicholson as the unforgettable psychotic Joker.
1992: Burton’s follow-up was the darker sequel, Batman Returns, with Keaton as the shadowy superhero who must once again deliver Gotham City from the clutches of evil—this time the Penguin, inspired by Werner Krauss’s Dr Caligari and played to perfection by Danny DeVito. Michelle Pfeiffer was Catwoman, the love-hate interest.
1995: Joel Schumacher directed the next movie, Batman Forever. Van Kilmer played the winged saviour, rescuing the world—and Doctor Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman)—from fantastic new villains Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) and The Riddler (Jim Carrey). Chris O’Donnell was sidekick boy wonder Robin in this flick peppered with setpieces and little puzzles.
1997: Packed with baddies, Batman & Robin starred new bat George Clooney, besides muscleman Arnold Schwarzenegger as the cheesy Mr Freeze, Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy the kiss-of-death specialist, and Jeep Swenson as Bane the hulk. O’Donnell shared a bittersweet chemistry with the daredevil knight and Alicia Silverstone was Batgirl.
2005: Christopher Nolan gave the franchise a new lease of life and told the backstory in Batman Begins, tracing Batman’s vigilante origins to the death of the Waynes. Christian Bale took over as the ninja-trained superhero with an uber-cool Batmobile, and Cillian Murphy played the freaky Scarecrow in this epic flick also starring Liam Neeson, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman.

GREEN HORNS
Just when world leaders were discussing emission targets at the G8 Summit in Japan, WALL-E, a robot cleaning up an abandoned Earth, took the Pixar route to great applause. But it’s not the first green animation to hit the spot.

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Princess Mononoke (1997)
Hayao Miyazaki’s anime classic pits man against nature. A prince travels to a forest teeming with angry gods and friendly forest spirits to find a cure for his disease. He ends up mediating between an exploitative town with a thriving iron-works business and a brave wolf-girl, with whom he falls in love.

Happy Feet (2006)
After Mumble the penguin is blamed for the depleting stock of fish in Antarctica—his tap-dancing is thought to have brought on their god’s wrath—he sets out in search of the truth, which lies at the human end of the eco-tether.

Over the Hedge (2006)
Based on a comic strip, starring RJ the racoon, Verne the wise tortoise and his family of assorted animals, the movie has them foraging for snacks in a suburban house, where cruel traps and pest-control equipment await.

Open Season (2006)
Abandoned in the forest with a clingy one-horned mule, a pet grizzly becomes the motivated leader of one wild rampaging bunch of animals when a bevy of hunters threatens their lives.

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The Ant Bully (2006)
Lucas a.k.a. Peanut is one frustrated kid. When he floods the anthill in his lawn with a water gun, it’s instant karma and poof, he becomes ant-sized. Julia Roberts, Nicholas Cage and Meryl Streep lend their voices to this adaptation of a children’s book big on life’s lessons.

Bee Movie (2007)
Barry the bee ventures into a farm where he finds his species slaving to produce honey for the humans. Assisted by his flower-seller-friend Vanessa, he wins a lawsuit, returning the honeyto the hives. But what about cross-pollination? Aha.
– V. Shoba