Justin Timberlake: only here for the bear

With a name like Timberlake, the singer-actor should seem right at home in Jellystone National Park. Justin Timberlake is the voice of Boo-Boo, Yogi Bear's sidekick in the 3D filmed-in-NZ-live-action-with-computer-animation feature which has brought the early-60s' cartoon out of pop culture hibernation.

It's the second time the former Mouseketeer has added his voice to an animated character - he was Artie in Shrek the Third - and it's a bit of a leap back into family entertainment after his portrayal of Sean Parker in the possibly Oscar-bound The Social Network.

And, yes, he was disappointed that his post-production job meant he didn't get to come to New Zealand for the three-month shoot which stretched between Taupo and Auckland's Woodhill Forest last summer. And neither did Yogi's voicebox, veteran comedian Dan Aykroyd.

"Dan and I showed up to voice these characters, says Timberlake "and they were kind of weird, [they] looked like stencil sketches of the characters ... and then it was our job to find what we thought was funny and arc the characters through the scene and their relationship. I watched and I was like, 'Man, you guys shot this in New Zealand?' I didn't even know it until I showed up to the first recording session. I was very jealous, and then I was in the recording studio for about three hours and then I was done with my work for the day ... I went and played 18 holes and I didn't feel so bad about the fact that I didn't get to go to New Zealand."

Getting Boo-Boo's famously melancholy voice-of-reason was a challenge, says Timberlake. "I had someone on hand with the old 60s and 70s cartoons with the original Boo-Boo voice, and I would sit there and listen to it in between takes.

"I think I wanted [Boo Boo to be like] Buster Keaton to offset that absurdity. Like a Laurel and Hardy type thing. If Boo-Boo was going to be the constant reminder, I thought it would be funnier if he did it in such a dry way to offset how big and larger than life the character of Yogi is."

-TimeOut