MUMBAI: Nine-time Grammy and four-time Emmy Award winner Justin Timberlake has signed on to star as Branch, a hilariously hardcore survivalist who hides his surprising true colors, in DreamWorks Animation's upcoming musical comedyTrolls.

Joined by Academy and Tony Award nominee Anna Kendrick as Princess Poppy, the two embark on a hair-raising adventure as the globally iconic Trolls make their motion picture debut. The film will be released on 4 November, 2016, by 20th Century Fox.

Directed by Mike Mitchell, co-directed by Walt Dohrn and produced by Gina Shay, the film for the first time tells the story behind the beloved Trolls and their gravity defying and coloUrful manes.

Continuing to this day, the Troll doll phenomenon was born in 1959 when Danish fisherman and woodcutter Thomas Dam, too poor to afford a Christmas present for his young daughter Lajla, carved a doll for her based on the legendary Scandinavian troll. This modern-day Geppetto couldn't have imagined that the Troll dolls would soon become one of the biggest toy crazes of the 1960s. The Trolls experienced a resurgence in the 1990s and their uniquely endearing faces and shocks of coloUrful hair continue to capture the hearts and imaginations of fans around the world.