"King Kong ('33) is less influential than Tron?"
As awesome as Tron is to me, it is a very unique film in many regards. King Kong had effects that were used in many films afterwards. While Tron used a great deal of CGI, I don't think it was the first (for example, the "Genesis effect" in Star Trek II that same year.) The Last Starfighter came out two years later, but it was being worked on at that time (and Lucas turned down an offer from the company doing that animation to use some in the SW films.)
"as Jar-Jar's animation was pretty groundbreaking for 90's special effects work"
Not only was the animation of Jurassic Park (#5) sufficient, but the other reason why Ep. I isn't there for character animtion was actually answered by this question:
Not sure what THE TERMINATOR brought to the table that wasn't already there.
I know it seems old to us now, but this was the shit back in the day.
"Yeah, PHANTOM MENACE should definitely get a mention. It broke alot of new ground."
Not much more than variations on a theme. There were plenty of films with effects from plenty other effects houses (sometimes even better) coming out before and after the PT. Evolutionary vs. revolutionary.
BTW, I'm really grateful to see "A Trip to the Moon" there. That's awesome.
