Is Jay's onscreen bark as good as his football-pitch bite?

The much-anticipated animated film “Khun Thongdang: The Inspirations” is almost here, so we’re picking up more details. The cartoon, which is inspired by stories of His Majesty the King’s favourite pet dog, hits theatres next Thursday

Adding to the already keen public interest is the fact that football superstar Chanathip “Jay” Songkrasin is providing the voice for one of the characters, albeit a minor one, a pooch named Boonlong that appears in the segment titled “Mah Wad” (“Mid-road”). 

Imagimax Studios made the segment about a stray dog named Jorn (short for mah jornjad, meaning, erm, “stray dog”) that’s adopted by an elderly monk. Despite being the new mutt on the block, Jorn eventually manages to train his fellow temple dogs to protect the monks from thieves.

Boonlong is part of the gang living at the temple and the first to confront Jorn when he wanders in. “Boonlong is a playful character, just like me,” says Jay, whose aptitude on the pitch belies his compact size. Just back in the game after several months of injury downtime, Jay was picked to speak for Boonlong because he’s got the perfect Ner accent common to Suphan Buri, Kanchanaburi and a chunk of Nakhon Pathom, Jay’s home province.

Jay says he feels honoured to have been part of the project, though he was initially worried about being good enough for the role.

“If you ask me which is more difficult – playing football or doing a movie voice – it’s definitely being a voice actor. I’ve played football since I was a kid, after all, whereas I only had a very short time to rehearse the voice!”

Jay says he hopes his fans like the film, “but I promise it’s just a one-off – I don’t take show business all that seriously. I still love football.”

Well, it’s just a bit of monologue in a recording studio, but okay, some footie fans will be relieved to hear his pledge. We seen loads of athletes leap off the pitch, the track and the boxing ring into less arduous forms of entertainment like modelling and acting, and it invariably distracts them from the careers that made them famous in the first place. 

And Jay isn’t the only football hero being wooed by showbiz. Several members of the newly prestigious national team have been lured into lucrative moonlight deals as models and commercial-product presenters, and fans fret that they’re sporting performances might suffer as a result.

Starring as Jorn in “Khun Thongdang: The Inspirations” is heartthrob actor Jirayu “James Ji” Tangsrisuk, just back from two months in Japan doing more of the same song-and-dance training he underwent in South Korea.

Also in the “Mid-road” segment are singer-actress Sarunrat “Lydia” Visutthithada (as a cat) and TV hosts Patcharasree “Kalamare” Bejamard (as Boonrod, another dog) and Katesepsawat “Na Nake” Palakawong Na Ayutthaya (as Boonting, yet another). 

And Pen Pisute, one of the big-screen actresses of the 1980s and now married to project creator Vinij Lertratanachai, makes a comeback of sorts in the dual canine roles of Boonnoi and Boontham.