I think that it's to TPM's credit, though, that there's no darkness in it. Lucas absolutely didn't want Anakin to be anything other than an innocent kid, the point being that anyone can go bad in life, it doesn't have to be there from the start - and with him, the capacity to do so much wrong in later life only came from an admirable quality in youth: attachment to the ones he loves. So the only darkness is really in the character of Palpatine, who's manipulative tactics are only appreciated in retrospect once we've seen episodes two and three.