I did a search but I did not see what I was looking for, though I am sure this was brought up at some point or another on these forums.

I still hold a special spot in my heart for the first three produced films. I really did not care for any of the three later produced films and felt no emotion at all when viewing them in the theater/home.

I believe what really killed the later three and what still makes the first 3 so well loved by all are characters/creatures and what methods were employed to bring them to life. The puppets (or Muppets since Henson's workshop was involved) had to have life brought into them by the operator(s) to make them even remotely passable on the screen. This of course was done exceptionally well and you really felt something for quite a few of the "fake" characters.

Likewise viewing computer generated everything with the last three, I think it killed the heart and soul of what helped make the first films so damn special to us. Sure visually you have something amazing, but it had no heart, no life put into these characters later on to make them truly a somebody you could care about. You had to rely on computers to bring any sort of emotion to the screen and in doing so it just failed miserably in my eyes

Am I the only one who thinks this way or does anyone else believe that even if you had cgi for towns, planets and vehicles, the non human characters should have been utilized using puppets and not cgi. I think it would have added a certain charm back into the films (and perhaps some soul) because the later three desperately needed it.