diff --git a/doc/CHANGES.md b/doc/CHANGES.md
index 5bf1d19bc..e69f97196 100644
--- a/doc/CHANGES.md
+++ b/doc/CHANGES.md
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ Change log
 
 ## v0.5.2-dev (upcoming changes)
 
+- fix widgets not animating when animate: true is used. on every move, styles were recreated-fix should slightly improve gridstack.js speed ([#937](https://github.com/gridstack/gridstack.js/issues/937)).
 - fix moving widgets when having multiple grids. jquery-ui workaround ([#1043](https://github.com/gridstack/gridstack.js/issues/1043)).
 - switch to eslint ([#763](https://github.com/gridstack/gridstack.js/issues/763)).
 - null values to addWidget() exception fix ([#1042](https://github.com/gridstack/gridstack.js/issues/1042)).
diff --git a/src/gridstack.js b/src/gridstack.js
index ac1e06074..10b09adc1 100644
--- a/src/gridstack.js
+++ b/src/gridstack.js
@@ -1094,14 +1094,15 @@
     if (typeof maxHeight == 'undefined') {
       maxHeight = this._styles._max;
     }
+
+    if (this._styles._max !== 0 && maxHeight <= this._styles._max) { // Keep this._styles._max increasing
+      return ;
+    }
     this._initStyles();
     this._updateContainerHeight();
     if (!this.opts.cellHeight) { // The rest will be handled by CSS
       return ;
     }
-    if (this._styles._max !== 0 && maxHeight <= this._styles._max) { // Keep this._styles._max increasing
-      return ;
-    }
 
     if (!this.opts.verticalMargin || this.opts.cellHeightUnit === this.opts.verticalMarginUnit) {
       getHeight = function(nbRows, nbMargins) {