{alltv} Jesse McCartney Gets Animated As Young Justice's Boy Wonder

Friday, January 21, 2011

{alltv} Jesse McCartney Gets Animated As Young Justice's Boy Wonder

Pop star Jesse McCartney is proving he's not just another pretty face by expanding his voice-over résumé. The 23-year-old heartthrob has already racked up several video game credits and provides the high-pitched squeals of Theodore in the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies. Now he's now suiting up as Batman's crime fighting apprentice, Robin, in Cartoon Network's Young Justice. The new series (which had a sneak preview in November and now airs weekly), features a team of second-generation heroes from the pages of DC Comics, including Superboy, Aqualad, Kid Flash and Miss Martian (who is the focus of this week's episode, "Welcome to Happy Harbor").

"I remember watching these characters when I was a kid and it's pretty cool now to be voicing one of them," says McCartney, whose next album, Have It All, is due out in the first half of this year. "I used to watch every episode of Justice League, I went to all the movies, I had the Superman lunchbox. I was enamored with animation in general and always wanted to somehow be a part of it."

In Young Justice, McCartney plays precocious 13-year-old Dick Grayson, who is the team's youngest member, but also the most confident. "At this point, early in the first season, he's this prepubescent, cocky kid who thinks he's got it all going on," McCartney says. " And of course Batman puts him in his place. You'll see by the end of the season that he proves himself to be a natural born leader. He knows he has to cut back on the cockiness and realize that he has lives in his hands now, and he's gotta be a young Batman."

Young Justice airs Fridays at 7/6c on Cartoon Network.