Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is known for pushing forward CGI technology, and no matter your opinion of Jar Jar Binks he at least broke new ground in having a fully digital character interacting with real-life actors. These days the prequel trilogy has a reputation for over-using CGI, something they tried to rectify in the sequel trilogy by focusing on practical costumes, sets, and puppetry.
But there’s one The Phantom Menace character that fans agree should have been CGI all along: everyone’s favorite pint-sized swamp-dweller Yoda. In the theatrical cut, Yoda was a frankly bizarre-looking puppet that only bore a passing resemblance to the original trilogy character. George Lucas clearly wasn’t happy, going back in 2011 and replacing him with an Attack of the Clones-style CGI Yoda.
For once, fans agree that Lucas was right to go back and fix things with CGI:
The original is described as a “nightmare”:
Maybe not the best look for Yoda:
Don’t feed him after midnight:
Harsh but fair:
Just this once fans don’t want the puppet around:
Clearly, a consensus has been reached:
So for once, it seems every Star Wars fan is on the same page. We can only join them in agreeing that the original The Phantom Menace puppet is a bizarre-looking thing that should never have made it to the screen. Fortunately, as is Lucas’ style, if you want to see it in action your best bet is hunting for an early-2000s-era DVD release.
It should be underlined this is a one-off: almost every other physical creature effect in Star Wars is superior to a CGI version. Sure, we can tell they’re puppets, but having something tangible for actors to interact with goes a long way.
