Industry 4.0 revolutionized manufacturing, which digital twin is one of its key enabling technologies revolving around the idea of replicating a system's characteristics and behavior. Digital twin allows evaluating the impact of any decision or change on modern manufacturing system performance. However, there are still significant lacunae regarding digital twin animation in implementation: on real-time data synchronization, effectiveness in training, and integration within the system. This work conducts a thematic review and critically analyzed the available literature relating to digital twin applications within manufacturing and identified the following key challenge: communication barriers between the animated model and the physical system, high costs of implementation, and complexity in integrating animation with automation tools. This research provides practical insight into optimization of digital twin animation in view of overcoming some limitations and facilitating wider adoption in manufacturing.