Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick bring ‘Trolls’ to big screen

In the new animated “Trolls” film, a central theme is how the adorable little creatures are constantly in danger — since their mortal enemies, the much larger Bergens, believe they can only experience happiness by eating a troll.

The film’s executive musical producer — Justin Timberlake, who also voices the key character of Branch — has some tamer ways of achieving bliss in real life.

“Mostly it is eating. That’s one of my favorite things to do! … Son, wife, pizza are all part of my happy place. But with the pizza, that means a lot more cardio,” the actor and singer quipped.

Timberlake was joined by actress Anna Kendrick to chat about the film — and delve into this project, which clearly both of them found to be a true joy.

For Timberlake, combining his musical and acting talents was something “that doesn’t really happen all that often, so I was thrilled to be able to do that here.” As for the approach that he and co-directors Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn took to working on the film’s music, Timberlake explained, “It is an animated musical film. So, we decided to make it an animated modern musical. We wanted to make the whole movie feel like one big pop song.

“There’s an amazing score as well, of course, but there’s nothing wrong with making people want to bop their heads and even want to dance, as they hear certain songs like [Timberlake’s hit] ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling.’ ”

As for another key song that’s heard in “Trolls” — Cyndi Lauper’s classic “True Colors” — Timberlake noted “that incredible tune was a choice [to include] before I came on board as executive music producer — but I totally supported it.

“What’s fascinating is that it’s kind of crazy that song was written for a completely different reason, and at such a different time. But, when you hear it in ‘Trolls’ it makes perfect sense for this moment — and in the plot of our movie.”

Kendrick and Timberlake also talked about the appeal of “Trolls” for both the target audience of younger kids as well as the adults who will be taking them to the theater.

“Both Justin and I talked about that a lot as we worked on the film,” said Kendrick. “We both had in mind a scenario where after it was finished — and later released on DVD — parents would come up to us and say, ‘Our kids really love ‘Trolls,’ but we wish they would stop playing it over and over again!’

“In other words, I’m glad the story works great for the kids, but the parents and other adults who see it will take something else away from it and laugh at jokes and comments the characters make — for different reasons than their kids.”

Noting he and Dohrn had worked together on the “Shrek” films, Mitchell pointed out, “I think adults will find something a bit unexpected here, as was the case with ‘Shrek.’ There is some really strange, weird and irreverent comedy in ‘Trolls’ and that’s entirely done on purpose. We want this to emotionally resonate with kids of all ages.”

When it was mentioned that this new film might give the Trolls a new “lease on life” in popular culture, Mitchell and Dorhn were quick to point out the tiny characters have been around for quite some time.

“They really have stood the test of time,” said Mitchell, as Dorhn added, “They started out in the ’60s and were popular in the ’70s, and then came back around the ’90s.”

Kendrick agreed. “I think every generation thinks the Trolls were their thing — their nostalgic thing. I remember how much we loved the little Trolls pencil-toppers in class when I was a kid.”

That said, Mitchell also loved that he and Dohrn were given a lot of freedom when they set out to create the “Trolls” film. “Frankly, we just started with the little dolls with the outstretched arms waiting for a hug — who had that long, upswept crazy hair in all colors of the rainbow.

“It really was a blank slate. That inspired Walt and I. We were allowed to create an entire world for them to live in.”

Dohrn nodded in agreement. “The fun thing for us was we got to create our own fairy tale.”