COPENHAGEN (REUTERS) - Award-winning singer, actor and heartthrob Justin Timberlake will star in Trolls, a DreamWorks animated musical about the spiky-haired Danish dolls, the studio said on Tuesday.

Timberlake will play Branch, a "hilariously hardcore survivalist", joining Anna Kendrick as Princess Poppy in the first movie adaptation starring the Danish toys, which have already played cameos roles in Pixar's Toy Story movies.

The blank-gazed dolls with colourful spiky hairdos were inspired by Scandinavian troll folklore.

They were first crafted in 1959 by Danish woodcutter Thomas Dam, too poor to afford a Christmas present for his daughter, and grew in popularity in the sixties.

The movie will be directed by Mike Mitchell, who is well qualified by virtue of his experience on DreamWorks' other troll franchise, Shrek.

It will be released on Nov 4, 2016 by 20th Century Fox.