As of 14w18a items no longer fly towards you when being picked up. They simply disappear. Same for XP orbs and arrows.
Linked issues
duplicates
Comments
qmagnet
Tested; I'm still seeing an animation when I pick up an item, but it is very quick and the animation stops before its completed. I'm not experiencing this at all with XP orbs.
Possibly related to https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-48577
Duplicate of MC-48577
Confirmed.