 Animation historian Paul Wells described Lusitania as " a seminal moment in the development of the animated film " for its combination of documentary style with propagandist elements , and considered it an example of animation as a form of Modernism . Steve Bottomore called the film " [ t ] he most significant cinematic version of the [ Lusitania ] disaster " . A review in The Cinema praised the film , especially the scene in which the first torpedo explodes , which it called " more than reality " . 
