Watership II

Finally. There's a new take on an old animated feature not made by Disney:

... First announced last year by British broadcaster the BBC and due to air in 2017, the four-part CGI miniseries [Watership Down] will now see John Boyega, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult and Ben Kingsley voicing a group of rabbits — led by the brave Hazel (McAvoy) and visionary Fiver (Hoult) — with Netflix also having come aboard to premiere the drama globally outside the U.K.

A co-production between BBC One and Netflix, the new 4x1 hour interpretation of Watership Down is being developed and produced by growing U.K. production and management company 42 alongside Noam Murro’s Biscuit Films. Murro, who helmed Smart People and 300: Rise of an Empire, also is set to direct.

Written by BAFTA-nominated Tom Bidwell, the series also will feature the vocal talents of Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace), Freddie Fox (Pride), Anne-Marie Duff (Suffragette), Miles Jupp (The Thick of It) and Olivia Colman (currently seen on AMC's acclaimed spy thriller The Night Manager). ...

Watership Down's CGI animation team is being led by co-director Pete Dodd (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Frankenweenie) and producer Hugo Sands, along with the animation studio Brown Bag Films, based in Dublin. ...

The talking animal sector of animation continues to expand, and continues to grow worldwide. Kung Fu Panda 3 was produced in California and China; Zootopia got created in California; The Jungle Book was animated in the United Kingdom while Watership Down will be made in Ireland. (Interesting wrinkle: Ben Kingsley, one of the leads in "The Jungle Book", will also be part of the acting ensemble in "Watership Down".)

And funny how all these hit animated features refuse to crowd themselves out of the marketplace simply because movie pundits says that they should. All the released features named above were global hits.