I just watched "Labrynth" and the sequence where the puppet-monsters took off their heads. It was effects by ILM using men in black velvelt suits and old school double exposures and optical matting, but it got me thinking about Yoda.

Imagine for a moment, if in AOTC, instead of a CGI Yoda, we had a fully realized puppet capable of all sorts of amazing things the original puppet was not capable of, because ILM would digitally erase puppeteers from the frame!

Yoda could be simultaneously manipulated from below, above, and boths sides, allowing an unimaginable range of movement and expression for a puppet, while keeping that intrinsic heart and reality a puppet carries.

If only.