I liked the original wide shot of the Federation bridge, but it made it appear as if Viceroy was speaking with TC-14 (who now has no purpose in the scene). This new edit makes it look like the two Nemoidians are speaking to each other. The downside is that the scene is a little shorter. Both versions have their pros and cons. I'd prefer to keep the wider establishing shot, but I'm trying to sway towards logical scene setups. I also have a shot in TPM that I feel is poorly animated, as if they never finished rendering the shot. It's in the Gungan/Droid battle after a billow of smoke clears and a group of the hover tanks apear. Just looks like a video game graphic with zero detail.

Also, I get now what Lucas said about plot elements being too intertwined to be able to cut out any of the storylines in the climax. I did cutout the Gungan/Droid battle entirely as just a sequence, but realized that if you remove the Gungans from the end battle, you also have to remove Padmé stepping forward to reveal herself as the true Queen when pleading to Boss Nass.

When compared to the quality in the following two films, much of the CGI in The Phantom Menace is not too good in a few areas. I would not mind George updating it with more detail just so the vfx are more consistent from film-to-film. I've also always been put off by the extra filmic look in TPM which seems to mute a lot of the colors throughout.

-NJM