Lucas defended his Star Wars prequel films against the haters, arguing that critics have forgotten that Star Wars was never meant to be a grown-up movie. “It was supposed to be a kid’s movie for 12-year-olds that were going through puberty, who don’t know what they’re doing, and are asking all the big questions: What should I be worried about? What’s important in life?” he said. “And Star Wars has all those things in there. They’re buried in there but you definitely get it, especially if you’re young.”
The negative response to his Star Wars prequels, Lucas argued, came from “critics and fans who had been 10 years old when they saw the first one” and didn’t want to watch a children’s film. The public trashing of Jar Jar Binks — one of the first figures to be canceled on the then-nascent internet — reminded Lucas of the original response to C-3PO. “Everybody said the same thing about 3-PO, that he was irritating and we should get rid of him,” said Lucas. “When I did the third one it was the Ewoks: ‘Those are little teddy bears. This is a kid’s movie, we don’t want to see a kids’ movie. I said: ‘It is a kids’ movie. It’s always been a kids’ movie.'”

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/george-lucas-cannes-honor-star-wars-films-1235907998/