The Making of Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Can't believe this movie is already 11 years old. Interesting now so many years out to read about all the ground they were taking in digital technology. Knew it then, but now with photo realistic video games and animated movies everywhere.. Phantom Menace was really one of the keystone moments in developing the technology we have now... and this is a good history of what they were doing... but seriously George.. Jar Jar!! sigh...

As a long time fan of Jody Duncan's behind the scene books, I was not disappointed with this one. A great insight into the making of The Phantom Menace, this Jody Duncan Making Of is a great addition to my Star Wars collection.

This a great Star Wars Book on the making of star wars episode 1 the phantom menace. Their is so much great stuff on the making of episode 1. Say what you will about star wars episode 1 the phantom menace but this book is a great making of book on a star wars film. Very good book and well written.

A great book about a very good movie

Beautiful book, hardcover was worth the money. Lots of full color photos that bring the behind the scenes to life! A must buy for Star Wars fans!

Good follow up to the movie and how it was made a little dry in verious areas but all in all a good book.

Lots of photos and information. Very nice!

Well,to begin this review I must say that this is an incredibly interesting behind the scenes (BTS)look at one of the most successfull films of the 90`s.I don`t think I've ever been looking forward to any film as much as this (may be except the Lord of the Rings),and it was really a pleasure to watch it,although I was a little bit disappointed on the childishness of the movie.But with the incredible special effects,I was more than pleased to see how they were done. And I bought this book and became very happy. It contains nearly all you need to know about SW Episode I. It follows the movie as it developed from beeing just an idea to the most impressive CG effects movie I'd ever seen by that time. In the introduction,George Lucas says how he had to develop an entire new world,which is an interesting read about how he created the new characters and locations. Anakin needed a mother,Obi-Wan needed a master and Palpatine needed an apprentice. The first chapter contains some great preproduction artwork and notes for every drawing. They are really nice,and definitly worth having (some of them does not appear anywhere else). It also has some notes when looking for good cast. They needed a man who looked like a new Alec Guiness for playing Obi-Wan and they needed a 8-year old boy who could really act to play Anakin. That wasn`t easy to find.There are also some pics of the fantastic clothes featured in the film,as Amidala`s dresses.The second chapter is mostly about the shooting itself. It is interesting to see how the stunts were performed and how they built up all the locations on Tatooine. There are also some good shots of the cool masks that people wore during the podracer sequences. In this chapter,there are also lots of interviews with the crew,especially George Lucas.The third chapter is about the special effects and it`s named "I could do whatever I wanted". If you didn`t knew this already,I can say that Lucas was planning this film already in '77,but he waited until now,because now he could create all of the fantastic characters and environments with the help of today's computers. There are lots of interesting BTS images here,such as the podracer arena - one before,with just about 50 people,and one when after the CG adding,with thousands of people. And it looks terrific!At the back of the book,there is a complete list of all people that were ever involved in the project,taking up approx. 15 pages!Over all,this is a great Behind the Scenes look at Episode I.It has everything you could ever want from such a book. So if you have any interest in Star Wars,behind-the scenes of cool movies,or just special effects,then this book is definitly something. And if you think there is too little artwork,don`t worry - there is another book named "The Art of Star Wars". Buy both of those and the Visual Dictionary and your Phantom Menace collection will be complete!

Libro que va contando el diario de producción de la película. La verdad es que esperaba más fotos. No tiene muchas y además, son de tamaño no muy grande.A cambio, el texto (en inglés) te cuenta muchos detalles y anécdotas.Como siempre, recomendable si te gustan los entresijos de las películas.Saludos