Singer Justin Timberlake, the star attraction at the Sydney premiere of Trolls at the weekend, says his goddaughters were the reason he signed on for the hit new Dreamworks animation.
He admits that he was initially reluctant to lend his voice and song-writing skills to the film, which opens here on December 1, because he thought there was more “frivolity than substance”.
But when he related the storyline to his two young goddaughters, Justin says he had a change of heart.
“I looked at the story and I was like, ‘Wait hold on, we have a female protagonist, that has a belly, crazy hair’. I was thinking about my two goddaughters, what women must go through from such a young age of being ashamed of their body and ashamed of their appearance.
“We have a troll [in this film] and for young females to get to see that, that’s not frivolous at all, it’s so important, and what a cool way in getting them into the theatre to be like ‘I want to be like Princess Poppy, not Barbie.”
The star attraction at Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter for the local premiere says he loved every minute of the production.
Trolls tells the story of Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Justin’s character Branch, who embark on a journey to save their kind against evil creatures called Bergen.
“You don’t have to wear a wardrobe and makeup,” he said of voicing the character.
“You know what’s weird about voice acting is you actually use your body more because you subconsciously think people won’t see you so you have to make sure they feel the presence of the character.
“The beauty is you get to do it 100 different ways. Sometimes with live action you get done with a scene and you are like, oh man, I just thought of something that could have been interesting but you’ve already moved on.”
Singer Dami Im was among guests walking the rainbow carpet in Sydney – she voiced the character of Grandma Rosiepuff, the grandmother of Justin’s character.
Other guests included The Wiggles, Tove Lo, Danielle Cormack, Miranda Tapsell and Ben Mingay.
