This has been randomly bugging me- in the OT Lucas wanted all of the tech and the planets, etc to have a 'used' or 'lived-in' look to them which greatly added to the 'reality' of the characters and situations. Then along come the prequels, and everything is in bright shiny and/or colorful brand new condition- even the 'slums' of Coruscant for the most part. That alone made me feel like I was watching cartoons or something.

Has anyone seen or read anything in which Lucas or the production team explains why this is per the story, or do I just chock it up to 'no time to age stuff, we need to digitally clone more droids'?