Making of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

LucasFilm has made the entirety of the documentary film, The Beginning, available online. The film was produced for the DVD release of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace and follows the entire production of that film from preproduction to casting to visual effects to editing and its theatrical release.

It’s great to follow George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and the stars and filmmakers as they work through so many aspects of the film from staging the podracer scene to casting young Anakin Skywalker and they guy who played Jar Jar during the shooting who, of course, was later replaced by a completely CGI character. We also get to see the great Frank Oz as the puppeteer behind Yoda whose work was so famously replaced by a CGI Yoda in the Blu-ray release.