MUMBAI: Nickelodeon has greenlit 26 additional episodes of the CG animated comedy series The Penguins of Madagascar, a co-production with DreamWorks Animation SKG.
The pick-up will bring the total order to 52 new episodes of the show, which will premiere on Nickelodeon following Nickelodeon‘s 22nd Annual Kids‘ Choice Awards on Saturday, 28 March 28 at 9.30 pm. The series will then move to its regular timeslot on Saturdays at 10 am, beginning 4 April.
The Penguins of Madagascar is based on the penguin brothers in DreamWorks Animation‘s feature films Madagascar ($532 million worldwide gross) and Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa ($519 million worldwide as of January 2009).
The series is being produced at the Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California.
"Our partnership with DreamWorks Animation has yielded a true gem in The Penguins of Madagascar. We‘re excited to be bringing these characters to our audience with the same level of excellence they have come to expect from the hit Madagascar feature films," said Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group president Cyma Zarghami.
The Penguins of Madagascar is executive produced by Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, (Disney‘s Kim Possible and Hercules, Sky High) and reprises the voices of Tom McGrath as Skipper and Andy Richter (Late Night with Conan O‘ Brien) as Mort. Additional voices include Jeff Bennett (Enchanted) as Kowalski, James Patrick Stuart (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) as Private, John DiMaggio (Futurama) as Rico, Nicole Sullivan (Mad TV) as Marlene, and Danny Jacobs (Futurama) stars as Julien, King of the Lemurs.