This production has set many records in being the first 3D animated full length feature from India, but from an international perspective this film has also become the worst animated movie of our times. This was supposedly, the crew’s first crack at animation. Hence several flaws were noticed. Glaring errors just kept jumping at you while you try to keep pace with the very fast pace of this story. The lip sync, character animation and motion dynamics were all out of sync in many places. There are absolutely no shadows falling on the ground in most scenes. You also see horses and elephants running with no mud thrown about. Light is distributed evenly, giving a very unreal appearance to the scene.
The animators also seem to be completely oblivious of the Motion Blur feature available in most desktop 3D packages. The lack of this key effect gives a very choppy feel to fast action scenes. The quality of animation in this film is comparable to the first version of popular 90s computer games: Doom and Wolfstein 3D. The modeling crew has put in a lot of good work in making the palaces, buildings, forests etc, but they still need to see a lot of Disney and Pixar movies in order to convincingly make the characters talk, walk and express emotions. The music was very thin and did not convey the much needed atmosphere. We can draw on our experience of watching hundreds of animated movies that have graced the screens from all over the world. Pandavas face scrutiny from DreamWorks, Pixar/Disney, and Fox animation studios. Perhaps Pentamedia will come up with something better next time. The Mahabharata is a true epic. Summarizing the life of it’s lead characters into an 80 minute feature should not have been the first project of this otherwise fine production company. By making this rather elaborate blunder of a film, we the audience may also have lost the opportunity to see a glamorous Disney version of the Mahabharata. Animation is more than technology, its creativity, experience, and a little sense of humor, none which you will find in this movie.