Well, I would agree that the animation has it's problems at times for sure. I don't necessarily think it's a lack of effort so much as it is that they haven't quite figured out what they're supposed to do with them yet or how to animate it. I mean, the action scenes in most series Cartoon Network Studios series now are, to put is nicely, VERY different from the ones from the ones 10-15 years ago and they seem to have a different general set of sensibilities. The original PPG had a pretty interesting technique when it came to that where it was like 90% follow through, the actual punch or hit wasn't even always shown but the impact was what sold the thing. Take something more current like Steven Universe or something now that they do for example and the emphasis is actually opposite, they'll put the bulk of their efforts making a nice fluid strike but the follow through is usually not much. But I think they are beginning to figure it out, this clip for example: [video=youtube]
With regard to the storyboarding, looks more like they just straight up changed their minds about what they wanted to do there sometime between storyboarding and animating. The gag in the actual episode was more a "WTF" moment since the bull seemed sort of normal there, from the storyboard it looked like chances are they were supposed to be generally afraid of it.
