This article originally appeared onDen of Geek UK.

But in among the breathless anticipation all over that article, tiny warning signs can be found.

The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.

Precisely what this means is anyones guess, Kamp interjects.

Ah yes, Jar Jar Binks.

More darkly, some writers suggested that Binks was a racist caricature something Lucas vehemently denied.

So what on earth went wrong?

Ooh mooey mooey I love you!

Of the 1,900 or so effects shots inThe Phantom Menace,461 of them contained Jar Jar Binks.

Would audiences buy the character as a living, breathing Jedi master?

As it turned out, Yoda proved to be triumph of design, technology, writing, and performance.

Theyre both brought to the screen with elaborate special effects.

On land, hes even more prone to getting into trouble.

The Phantom Menaces making-of documentary shows Lucas acting out Binks now-infamous loose-limbed walk.

Best later revealed that he and Lucas watched a lot of Buster Keaton movies whileThe Phantom Menacewas in production.

The work of that silent film star played heavily, therefore, into Binks various pratfalls and mishaps.

He very much wanted him to be more of a Buster Keaton than anything else.

I gave him a lot of stuff.

We can only imagine what the finished film would have looked like had Lucas not changed his mind.

I will say one secret that nobody knows… Goofy was the inspiration for Jar Jar Binks.

But Lucas remained insistent: kids would love Jar Jar.

I only had one audience member to c’mon and that was George Lucas, Coleman continued.

If he was happy with what we were doing with Jar Jar, then I was happy.

The movies are for children but they dont want to admit that, Lucas said.

In the first film they absolutely hated R2 and C-3PO.

We really felt the clang when Artoo fainted after being zapped by a Jawa on Tatooine.

We shared Threepios horror when he was smashed to bits inThe Empire Strikes Back.

Had Jar Jar been invested with that level of nuance, his reception could have been very different.

How wude!

Instead, Jar Jar Binks became one of the most controversial aspects of an already divisive film.

Nevertheless, the fan reaction and numerous anti-Jar Jar articles took their toll.

Even 16 years after his debut, Binks remains a much talked-about part of theStar Warsuniverse.

That the way Best imagined Jar Jar Binks was quite different from the one we eventually got in 1999.

I saw the awkward kid who didnt fit in.

I was definitely the kid who didnt fit in.

Thats why I identified with the character.