Star Wars: 10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About The Prequels

Another criticism of the Prequels that is objectively false is the idea that all of the effects were CGI. In fact, per the official Star Wars Twitter account: each Prequel used more models and miniatures than the entire Original Trilogy put together.

We could spend all day playing “Real or CGI” with these movies but you all have lives. A few instances that really deserve credit though are the Podrace, which used puppets, scale and full size Podracers, and sand made in a cement mixer that was precisely calculated to the right scale (Which presumably got everywhere).

And Mustafar, which included an ironically named miniature measuring roughly 1000 square feet that was shot for four months, and second unit footage of Mt Etna filmed while it was erupting. The dedication is strong in this one.

This misconception is probably one that gradually built up over time, because of a mix of some of the more experimental CGI looking a bit ropey and conspicuous, and George Lucas discussing the use of new digital technology while not talking about the practical side of things.

Which is understandable on some levels since, at that point, model-work and miniatures were pretty much part of the furniture while CGI was the new filmmaking frontier.