Walt Dohrn may not be a household name, but he is a multi-talented man in the animation world. He’s a writer – he has written SpongeBob SquarePants and Dexter’s Laboratory episodes and helped collaborate on the Shrek the Third script. He is a storyboard artist, doing storyboards for SpongeBob and Dexter’s Lab and a story artist on Madagascar and Shrek the Third. He has directed four episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants and last, but not least, he has lent his vocal talents to the third and final installments of the Shrek movies.

In the final chapter of the Shrek movies, Shrek becomes discontent in his domesticated lifestyle and makes a deal with the suave Rumpelstiltskin (voiced by Dohrn) to shake things up. But Shrek gets more than he bargains for when his whole world is turned upside down. Dohrn recently discussed his experience working with the crew on the Shrek films and how he created the voice for Rumpelstiltskin.

Daily Titan: You’re very multi-talented; you direct, do voices, write and do art work. Which do you enjoy the best?

Walt Dohrn: You know, I love doing it all. I mean anything – I love animation. But I have to say, the whole journey, the most fun has been doing (this) voice. Because it’s a chance to be, you know, kind of – get in there and do things I usually don’t do like yell at the top of my lungs. So I think it’s really kind of cathartic and it’s been the most fun I think, doing the voice.

DT: How did you get to where you are now?

WD: I went to (Cal Arts) and I met so many amazing creative people. And just kept up that relationship. And, you know, I think you know meeting people at school, funny enough with like college people I think you know that’s how – like with support from fellow students and keeping up those connections, that’s how I really got all the opportunities that have been given to me.

DT: What was the inspiration/process for finding the voice of Rumpelstiltskin?

WD: We had a particular, a little (stew) of characters we like from older films. One was this little girl in this B movie from the ’50s; this (horror) movie called The Bad Seed. And she was this murderer, little, and had this innocence and she would turn and be really evil in one moment. And then also Bette Davis in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” Again, she kind of played this kind of innocent character that had this really evil underside. Those two characters really gave us this youthfulness that could be evil.

DT: What was it like working with the Shrek crew and will you miss working with them, since this is the final chapter of the Shrek saga?

WD: You know, even before I was cast as the role, one of my jobs there was to be the reader with the actors. So I was reading with Mike Meyers, I would play Fiona. Or I would be Donkey to his Shrek. So I really got to learn a lot from all those actors. And how intense and how serious you know they took the role and how you know I would look over at them and I felt like when Mike Meyers was doing it, I am looking at Shrek, you know. Or Fiona would be – you know Cameron (Diaz) would be so intense that you know she would look me directly in the eye and make me feel like crying because I really believed her.

You know, working with Shrek and all of those years, it’s a (change) because it became really real to us. You know, I mean, not only did he pay my bills, but you know, working with them 24 hours a day for like the last eight years, it became so real. In fact you know one story we always tell is like for this film we actually hired marriage counselors for Shrek and Fiona. You know, so I – working on these films for this long, I think you know it’s sad to see them go. It was the greatest honor to be able to play a villain for them.