wow, thanks for the encouragement! I did really spent lots of time on making the animation transitions and experienced lots of frustration and joy in making the flying carpet. The acknowledgement from someone like you who have also tried doing similar things means a lot to me.
I agree that the jump feels long and slow. At this point, I think jumping based on Unity's rigidbody physics does not work very well. Rigidbody simulates real-world physics, in which it takes as long to rise as to fall. Super Mario for example, falls more quickly than he rises, which makes the jump feel more snappy. I will probably write my own jump script next.