Could you upload a screenshot of the theme looks on your screen to get a better idea of what you're facing?
1. It's possible to define in the theme what font and fontcolor is used when art is not available or even if text is shown at all. The missing manufacturers are probably pulled from the _common collection. It should be included in the full version from this website as well as the base pack from EmuMovies. The background images are probably expected to be in the fanart directory; I have a decent set available in the MEGA set as well as the MAME collection pack on EmuMovies. It's far from complete though. The videos can be found in the MEGA set as well as the MAME video pack on EmuMovies.
2. You can add/remove keys for the favorites set, and use them from within RetroFE. Alternatively, you can simply create/edit the text file in the playlists directory of the collection.
3. A theme can display the name of the playlist. I'm just not sure the Animatic theme does that at the moment. It can be displayed as text or as image, depending on the theme.
Downloading your complete pack solved most of my issues
The animatic theme does not:
- display a font (for game name) if a graphic isn't found
- Doesn't look like the image of the theme (see attachments)
- Doesn't display playlist name (other than star for favorite)
An update would certainly be appreciated