Making 'Happy Feet' no walk in the park

November 03, 2006 (He started his career as a doctor.) Miller's foot-tapping, CG-animated musical "Happy Feet," about singing and dancing Emperor penguins, finally reaches theaters Nov. 17. The seemingly simple and satisfying hero's journey was actually devilishly tough to create and expensive to produce, at a cost of nearly $100 million. Miller studied the structure and interplay of camera, character and music in classic film musicals as well as such darkly moral Disney classics as "Pinocchio" and "Dumbo" as he crafted a story that combines family dysfunction, romance, dazzling vistas, dangerous action, musical numbers and global environmental politics.

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.