JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE TAKES ON ANIMATION

Justin Timberlake lends his voice to Artie in Shrek The Third.

Pop star Justin Timberlake is lending his melodious voice to Shrek The Third as Artie, the nephew of King Harold who is next in line to the throne of Far, Far Away.

This is the first time Justin has done a voice-over for an animated film which he says was very different to his normal day job.

“I thought he was cool. He looked exactly how he was described to me. But yeah it was interesting to hear my voice in the film. The first time I was like, ‘oh no I gotta go back and do that again, that’s just terrible.’ That’s the great thing about doing something like Shrek as well is you get to keep going back and chipping away at it. If there’s something you don’t like you can go back and fix a line here and there.”

In Shrek The Third Artie is not as cool as Justin Timberlake in real life, often getting picked on by his school mates at Medieval High. Justin talks about the important message that comes through the film.

“I think you have to be comfortable with who you are. That’s always the message that I got from the Shrek films. And again we find ourselves in Shrek The Third in a whole new type of predicament. The kingdom’s gone awry and there’s all these elements to Shrek The Third but that simple message, they always find a way, you Shrekker people; they always find a way to get that message through that at the end of the day we have to be comfortable with who we are.”

Justin was chosen for the role of Artie because of his memorable hosting episodes on Saturday Night Live mocking Robin Gibb on The Barry Gibbs Talk Show.