Believe me guys, it took me a hell lot of time to adjust the movement and controls to achieve this kind of fluid animation. That's the charm of the character.
I know it is a compromise to solve it this way, but the game around it is designed according to those movements (e.g. you don't really need to turn that often, especially not quick). Surely you need to get the hang out of it first, but all test players I saw playing life, got along with it.
Turning around can be adjusted, it is just not easy to do smooth animations for all cases. I will see, what I can do to make turns quicker.
The second issue of space needed for jumps: yes indeed, you can not jump as far, when you are slow, as you can, when you are quicker. Acceleration is adjusted though the way, that a tiny bit of movement (less then a quarter of a tile) to a direction before your jump is long enough to get over those pits in level 2, like a quarter of a tile. Is it not normal to need to run, to accomplish longer jumps? I can adjust acceleration, but accelerating to maximum speed when jumping from standing immediately, is a bad idea too (since you don't manage to make shorter jumps anymore.)
About the head falling off: others made it smile. Sorry, that did not happen to you.
What do you guys suggest? How could the movement model be tweaked the way you would like it?