Animation wise, I am quite impressed by the new backgrounds as well as the additions to the existing stock footage, especially during the opening. I can imagine, watching it in the cinema and being wow-ed by the scenes of the ships of the Macross Frontier Fleet going past as the camera closes in on the Frontier Fleet's battle Frontier and Island 1.
However, as far as character animation goes, I am a little disappointed. Maybe it was to ensure consistency with the TV serie's character animation quality since the quite abit of stock footage was used from there as well. Of course, that means that the character models maintained the series' quality, which while pretty ok for a TV series, makes this movie look as if it is released direct-to-DVD type of movie. Of course, the good news is that it maintains its consistency mainly throughout the movie, unlike the series, especially episode 8, where the animation quality takes a serious nosedive.
Thus, putting storytelling and pacing aside (which I shall not comment on, not at this time anyway), I feel that although I have enjoyed this movie, this movie will not be the classic that DYRL will be for Macross or what Transformers the Movie (1986) is for Transformers G1 series. Of course, maybe the 2nd moview will improve on this aspect, but it is to become anything near a classic, it will have to depend on solid storytelling to cover what the character animation can't achieve for this movie.
Just my 2 cents.