It's interesting just how significant the difference is, and I like it.
When I read about the production of Disney's Tangled, one of the details mentioned was the development of a new animation technique. Part of the problem with animating 3D models is that much of it is done by the computer, while with traditional animation you have very deliberate frames with intentional poses. Disney wanted to mimic that look with 3D animation, and I think they did a fairly good job.
I'm often peeved at companies marketing games based on graphical prowess only to see improvements in polygon count, shading, and tons of other brute force improvements that are hardly noticeable. I'd like very much for art techniques like this one to become a fad that companies start publishers want to market and beg developers to focus on.