Madagascar 2 IMAX version getting extended run

IMAX and DreamWorks announced today that the IMAX release of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa has been extended to include the Thanksgiving holiday, and will now run into December. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa will also play for the full run in new IMAX Digital theatres, which began rolling out this summer. These theaters are equipped with the new IMAX digital projection systems.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa joins three other DreamWorks Animation movies previously announced and slated for release in the IMAX format, the others of which, are the studio’s first three 3D titles, including Monsters vs. Aliens (due March 2009), How to Train Your Dragon (March 2010), and Shrek Goes Fourth (May 2010).

The move is directly related to the recent release date shift for the next Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was originally to be released during the holiday season this year, but was pushed by Warners to July 2009, because of production delays related to the writers strike and SAG negotiations. The move left a hole in the IMAX release schedule that needed to be filled quickly.

In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, all of the loveable characters are back, including Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo, King Julien, Maurice and the penguins. Left marooned on the distant shores of Madagascar, the New Yorkers have hatched a plan so crazy it just might work. With military precision, the penguins have repaired an old crashed plane, sort of. Once aloft, this unlikely crew stays airborne just enough to make it to the wildest place of all – the vast plains of Africa itself. Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric The Entertainer and Andy Richter all return to their original roles.