I’m so proud of GL. Stuck to his vision and took risks.

The amount of hate that goes towards this movie is ridiculous

Its too bad people give Phantom Menace such a bad rep because this was honestly revolutionary at the time. Sure they had some motion capture but so much of this was completely done by hand and rendered pixel by pixel before real time graphics could be pushed anything further than the OG Half Life. Toy Story happened first sure, but that wasn't trying to convince anyone that it could stand next to a real actor and be believed. The pod racing scene, Theed, the underwater city, the giant fish, the trade federation ship battle, seriously... this was some achievement.

I always loved watching ILM talk about and showing off the models they made. I’m of the mind that physical models and CGI can actually help inform one another rather than compete against each other. I’ve noticed that fans forget the great number of practical set pieces were used to make the prequels.

Phantom Menace was the best looking prequel I thought, lots of pretty shots

People hate this movie and complain that the CGI took away the craftsmanship and passion of the OT. When I watch these BTS videos all I see are a bunch of people who have an immense passion for what they do and the incredible technical skill to make things that previously were not possible. These ILM guys paved the way for all the modern movies we enjoy today and all behind the vision and backing of George Lucas. I love the prequels for everything they are and despite their flaws. Episode 3 is my favorite star wars movie.

This is why Starwars movies are favorite and watched again and again generation. These movies are meticulously detailed and well planned that some recent movies are lack of.

The Sequels have left me so starved for Star Wars entertainment, I've been left needing to watch behind the scenes for real Star Wars media.

George, he get's an unfair rep, I mean, the man DID create "Star Wars".

Just because you want to do 2k effects shots isn't a bad thing. George knew that he had to be bold and visionary. I don't think it's funny to make fun of him with the highlighters on the marker board. Remember this was 1997-1999. He was ahead of his time.

It still amazes me this was accomplished in 1999. I understand Terminator 2 was groundbreaking, but haters continue to ignore what the prequel trilogy brought to VFX tech.

This film gets far too much hatred. It really is a product of creative genius. The sad thing is that the creatively void and soulless Force Awakens is the movie that gets the most praise.

When I see people complain about the CGI in the prequels the only thing that goes through my mind is What exactly are you expecting to see? Like come on they're trying to do the impossible so if you expect year 3020 technology it just won't happen. Besides shit looked even more fake in the old ones (not that I don't like the old ones I personally love the old ones just as much as I love the newer ones) but honestly just enjoy it

amazing movie made my childhoodm, still love it today

Avatar really wasn't anything new in terms of visual effects. Star Wars Episodes 1 already had it happening 10 years prior.

And now everyone wants GL back. To bad that he received so much hate for the prequels

I shouldn't have looked at the comments...such sheer animosity and antagonism. I can't believe a fandom can be so divided.

3:03 I wish people would stop ripping on these movies for using So much CG. I know every1s got there opinion but..

Now to animate CG characters just get the actor in pajamas & put dots on their face, then put the character model on the actors with some tweaking. We should be grateful for the prequels because without them, the CG tech in movies would've been developed slower.

This level of control in the animation really makes you realize how intentional darth jar jar and his mimed mind tricks were.

I don’t get why everyone hates on phantom menace it’s really not that bad ya it may not be the best of Star Wars but it’s better than most other movies made during that time

I wanna know the people who drew up the 3,000+ storyboard pics

Everyone should go to IMDB and rate 10/10 Star Wars episode 1, it really does deserve at least a 7.0 rating, I think its better then The Last Jedi.

1:17 That's so cool, you can see that George really made a movie he wanted to make. He instantly scraps the shots he doesn't want have in his imagination but marks those which are in his picture

Anyone else think the prequels are the best star wars films ever? Being a much bigger Harry Potter fan, I don't prioritise star wars to watch, but if I ever watch it I will go to the prequels. The new trilogy is repetitive, and the old good...but natalie portman is great.

The Fans: Ugh, George wrecked Star Wars Disney: Hold allll our beers.

Am I the only one who noticed the scared confused looks on the creative teams faces in the beginning when Lucas was sharing storyboards?

hey! I like episode 1!

My mind was blown that Rick said his "It's so dense" dialogue at least more than once.

george pushed vfx to what they are today

I'm sorry for you loss. My condolences.

Suprised at how many practical sets were used

If I ever met George Lucas I'd ask for his autograph or a photo opp.

The Prequels are amazing The Prequels make The OT waaaaaaaay Better

The most hyped movie ever created.

Still a better movie than "The Last Jedi".

The movie is better every time I see it

Awesome!

AMAZING!!!!

7:41 Its so dense....

"... jammed into each frame of this movie..." "...you're bombarded with it..." "... its so dense..." "...there's so many things going on in each frame..."

Strange how they were able to figure out that digital characters need to be able to "act" properly, while Disney can't even bring in live actors/actresses that can act...

6:40 terrified me

Denis Muren looks like an older Dwight shrute from the office

hard work

What about the lightsabers? Did they just rotoscope them, like in any other youtoube video, or what? If they rotoscoped, they did a srsly great job :p must have taken ages..

I love this.

episode 1 was ahead of episode 2 and 3 in terms of how realistic the visual effects were, probably due to the fact that it used a lot less blue and green screens and used more real props and blended them with cgi

@tmMcHugh thx for sharing your overinterpretation.

Although I don't doubt a lot time and work went into the making of the special effects, I just wish they spend more time with the script.

3:10 RIGHT TURD AHEAD (The ILM artists tried to warn us)

I wish so badly that the prequels could get the special edition treatment. It would be so easy, given today’s technology. They could finally scrub out the awful 90s CGI. However, I’m not sure if Ewan’s horrible reshoot wigs and beards can be fixed. Lol

Come on give us the juice on Jar Jar..was he Snoke?! Was he banished because he is a Sith Lord?!

and it didn't win a VFX Oscar. Ridiculous.

5:19 is like a case of missing the big picture. I think George should've spent more time on the script and less time thinking about Jar Jar's eye movements per each frame

George olvidó que la historia de las pelis 1,2,3 sucedió casi o mas de 30 años atrás y se ven muchísimo mas adelantadas que la IV,V y VI que sucedió casi o mas de 30 años después,pero se engolosinó con los efectos por computadora y perdieron la ubicación de la historia en el tiempo.

Yeah. Jar jar screams subtlety

5:40 I'd hardly call jar jar dignified

today's young producers rely on too much CGI . That makes movie tasteless.

3:08 right turd only

"special effects are just a tool, a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing" 20 years later: "With the new digital technology whatever I can visually imagine I can do"

Just a question, how do you get into a field like that?

They worked so hard on the prequels to make it good.......but then Jar Jar was thought of.

"Flim is 24 frames per second" Which is why watching a film on a 120fps TV sucks. Jitter stutter and soap opera effect.

This movie is about special effects. Not about story. ...wait a minute.... didn't George Lucas say ar one point that movies where about story... not special effects?

its actually 3:10

Dennis Muren was the inspiration as to how Yoda should look like.

If Lucas just hired a decent scriptwriter or a decent director then the prequels could have been better.

its so dense...

0:39 "we basically had more freedom than ever" This movie is proof that without constrains the creative process can lose focus

This video reminded me about why I disliked the movie, and why I have only seen it once with no plans to see it twice. But behind the scenes information is always interesting.

Such a pity... getting rid of Jar-Jar not only would've improved the film but saved them lots of work 🤣

7:40

Everyone involved with this should hang their heads in shame

It may be the worst Star Wars, which i agree, but it's still a great movie! Haters are a joke...

The world would have better off without the creation of JarJar Binks.

Guys, Everyone Knows that the Prequels are bad, but i think "The Phantom Menace" is better than episodes 2 and 3 in VFX, but i think they could of Use a Little Less CGI, the Battle Droids for example, are CGI but they are Lit & Rendered so realistically that they look like they are Physical Machines in the real world, and other characters as well besides in the Late 1990s CGI is starting to get better and more popular to use, they could have used Computers for Compositing & Rendering the Elements all together, George Lucas had to wait for the Prequels to be made, some of the Characters & Elements in the Prequels are so Complex that he had to wait for the Technology to catch up to achieve his Vision.

6:45 These guys aren't just some random computer geeks. Yeah right i can design a backward flying bathtub.

So busy thinking about how unlimited their FX shots could be, they didn't even remember the story..

but is "too much freedom" a good thing? i mean, the reason why Star Wars was good was because it was a space western, not a political, city filled, CGI waste land!

This video is a good illustration of why the prequels look bad, and it has nothing to do with "good CGI" or "bad CGI." Even the best CGI in the world won't be convincing if it's used to depict things that couldn't exist. That's why IMO the worst CG character is Watto. He may be photorealistic, but you just know those tiny little wings couldn't possibly support the weight of his fat belly. There's a reason we don't see golden retriever-sized hummingbirds flying around. Your brain knows physical objects couldn't be behaving the way they're shown to be behaving, so the whole thing ends up looking fake, regardless of the quality of the CGI. McCallum says Lucas, in the writing, didn't let himself be restricted by what scenes or characters would be hard to do, and I believe him, but I don't think it's the whole truth. Rather, I think Lucas expressly tried to write scenes and characters that *would* be hard to do. Like, he let himself be restricted by what would be *easy* to do. Ambition is fine, but in this case it led them to create fundamentally unrealistic locations and characters that can't be redeemed no matter how detailed the surfacing becomes.

Hey everyone, do you hate jar jar binks as much as I do? Well if you do, watch our most recent video, where jar jar binks gets shot and killed multiple times!

Let me get something straight. The prequels are mediocre. They're not bad; they're not good. They're right in the middle.

The main problem with the three films is that regardless of why type of effects was used, they all looked computer animated and fake. The whole atmosphere is wrong. I believe you could go back to the original takes, re-edit them with a different effects approach and you'd get a completely different movie that to me would look way better.

Is George Lucas aware of Jar Jar Binks’ controversy?

RIGHT TURD ONLY

some things are cool, like the music, effects, but it's the worst episode of all...jar jar was an exaggerated character, appears in many scenes, boring

Its so dense...

I love the prequels but, as I've gotten older, I've realised one of the things I dislike is that the amount of CGI takes away the soul of the film.

lmao

You could have had 1 character and it would have been a lot better off.

I think every director needs boundaries, without them you get Jar Jar Binks or badly ethnically stereotyped Transformers.

Jar-Jar Binks is terribly shoehorned in but I do have some sort of ironic love of Jar-Jar from how terrible he is in every way

liar

he forgot the illusion of plot

What a waste of time and effort.

All that talent and money -not create a unfunny cg character that add nothing to the sw universe. I hated tpm when I saw it in theaters. Now not so much but it’s still unwatchable.

Jar Jar was a waste of resources

Notice the fear and distrust in everyone's eyes. Also notice that they never elaborate on how many shots may be pointless. No one had the bottle to go "George, this is unnecessary and totally over the top". Ever see behind the scenes on Jedi? George: Well, I guess once the fighters enter the superstructure of the Death Star, then all the cruisers should fly in too" How many cruisers flew into the tiny, fighter-sized superstructure in that film? None. Because it's a stupid idea, both story-wise and even logistically, that smarter people in the know said, "NO, George. That is STUPID" However, fill your team with Yes Men, imbibe your director with a God Complex, ignoring the fact that Star Wars was a COLLABORATIVE EFFORT, from many smart, skilled and clever people, and you get - The Prequels. Many good ideas, but not with Lucas at the helm. NEVER with him having Carte Blanche over everything. So many producers these days don't seem to understand what made their "acquisitions" great in the first place.

The worst star wars movie ever...