The Perfect Combination of Artistic Features with Fun Features. Also proved that the 2D is still alive and never
(Because I study 2D Animation and it's been a great passion of mine for almost 6 professional years. So It was a big deal for me.)
First I downloaded the demo version of the game from Xbox live. (Which was a great Idea BTW). Turned out the answer to all of those questions were nothing but positive answers.
Of course we've seen other revolution in 2D game history like Shank Series or Machinarium or Limbo. But this was something which mostly was dealing with advanced 2D animation and Art design. (The limbo Art direction was amazing BTW). Rayman Origins took another level of 2D platform game which was the essence of platform game. As the Director of the game Michel Ancel mentioned in his interview, the classic platform games like Earthworm Jim 2 surprise its gamers with lot of actions (including the variations in character animation) in the gigantic worlds in different situations in spite of its simplicity looks. 2D is still perfect for platform games but we still can take another level with artistic imagination and appealing characters and of course perfect animation. I'd rather watch Rayman characters millions of times for their surprising actions than watching Chris Redfield with his Boring looking neutral expression on his face.