Obviously he didnt deserve the harassment he got regardless. Like even if he was dogshit he wouldnt have deserved that. But I just rewatched Phantom Menace for the first time in awhile. Young friend of mine are going through the star wars movies because she was a sheltered homeschooled kid and hadnt seen them. Already did the OT, starting on the prequels.
Other than the obvious “oh wow, the racial stereotypes of literally three different alien species in this movie is insane”, the main takeaway my rewatch gave me is “wow ok, Jake LLoyd is average at worst”. He was just like, a regular kid actor? Nothing to write home about like say, young Maise Williams or something. But absolutely fine?
The pod race stood out to me too the last time I rewatched this. So much of the film is really bland and flat, but during the race things are set up and paid off, stakes are competently shown to the audience, and there’s the buildup and releases of tension that any action scene wants to have.
I have a theory that the entire Prequel trilogy exists so that George Lucas could shoot the podrace scene. It makes sense, given that we know George really likes drag racing, and in fact there was a deleted scene in A New Hope about Luke racing through Beggar’s Canyon that could be the scene that George had in his head for forty years before he finally got to do it in Phantom Menace.