SMB Power Up Animation - Player Position Issue

Hi everyone,

I'm replicating the Power Up animation from the original Super Mario Bros., and I'm having a little trouble with the positioning of the player. I'm using the built-in Mechanim animation system. In the animation, the player's sprite changes quickly between Small Mario and a bigger Mario (not quite Big Mario). If I don't modify the position of the player at all, I get this:

As you can see, the player's sprite is larger than his collider, so he goes through the ground. The Y position of the player here is 0. I've moved the player up by half his height (0.08) so he appears on the ground when he's the bigger Mario, and this is the result:

That looks great. However, the problem occurs DURING the animation. The player moves from a Y position of 0.08 to 0 over a time span of 0.2 seconds. After those 0.2 seconds, his sprite will change back to small Mario, and the animation will repeat. As we know, the Mechanim system will gradually move the player from 0.08 to 0 over those 0.2 seconds. This means that, during the animation, the player will be bigger Mario and will be positioned below the blocks.

So I suppose my question is this: Is there any way to disable the gradual change of the Mechanim system for a particular animation? If I can do that, the player will be positioned correctly on the ground throughout the animation.

Or is there a different way I can approach this whole thing?

Thanks in advance for any help!