Granted, while I haven't watched the prequels in a very long time (and may not until the Fink finishes his work) I do have a large group of friends who love talking about the cut scenes.  Ever since I read the Star Wars Storybook back in '77, I've always had a high interest in what ended up on the cutting room floor.

That said, I was a bit disappointed that they prequel cut scenes didn't get the same treatment as on the earlier DVD's.  McCullam made such a big deal of George's ''bold'' idea of completing the cut scenes with full (albeit kind of cheap looking) special effects.

TPM:  I wanted to see that scene of R2 using his rockets.  

That clones one:  I was hoping to see the scene of puppet Threepio greeting Hayden and Natalie in the desert as well as being finished in the Owen garage.  Not that it was a great scene, and while it certianly suffers from a chronic case of galactic shrinkage, the homestead garage is so iconic, it was fun to see.  A little more couldn't have been bad.

The "NOOOOOOOOOOOO" one:  Sad that the No scene never was cut.

So... more cgi, more garage.

I believe it was also hinted at in the novelization, which by the way is significantly better than the film.  I know that Star Wars in general is designed to be appealing to children as well as adults and that perhaps that took things too far (heck, I don't like trashy crap in movies), but it would have made more sense in the plot for his hatred towards Obi-Wan and increasing paranoia.

Gosh, I guess we'll just have to wait till the holographic set comes out to get the remaining missing scenes and lost cut.

Part of the question I wish to make more explicit (and the reason I started this topic in this forum as opposed to the General Star Wars Discussion forum) is how might you incorporate the deleted scenes into an actual edit?  I know you guys answered this somewhat, but beyond being an interesting novelty, what would you actually include?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDzPW-dSDfQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUn4EH67H4o

I know the PT isn't everyone's favorite thing, but I really do enjoy the Maul/Jin/Kenobi duel.  These clips show a little bit of what we missed out on while on Naboo, and these blue screen shots show that Maul actually jumped onto the Queen's ship's ramp and continued to press his attack against Qui-Gon before he gets kicked back down to the desert floor.  There is so little character development for Maul, and I wish that if they couldn't have broadened him as a villain, they could have at least given him more screen time doing the cool stuff that he does.

Heh, that'd be fun.  If you had to have Jar Jar, it'd be nice to give him some darker, more serious scenes.  I do feel bad for Ahmed Best...you never hear of him ever doing anything else.

But yes, I wish there were far more deleted material.  I bet that the PT could get such surgery that it might be more in line with what people were hoping for were fan editors to get their hands on much of the still missing material.

So since I haven't yet purchased the blu-rays, I'm clueless to a number of details about them.  With regards to the deleted scenes, are the scenes from the PT DVDs included on the BDs, or are they only previously unreleased scenes?

Only the unreleased scenes.

Muchas gracias :)