George Lucas takes the stand in support of Jar Jar, according to this story from the Associated Press...

Jar Jar Binks' slapstick antics and grating singsong in 1999's "The Phantom Menace" made him one of the most reviled characters in movie history, even among admirers of the "Star Wars" franchise.

The computerized creature has a lot less screen time in the new "Attack of the Clones" ? only about three scenes ? but "Star Wars" creator George Lucas denies that was done to placate critics.

"People have the tendency to think that you just put characters in for the fun of it," Lucas said in an interview at his Skywalker Ranch in northern California. "Ultimately, their personalities have to revolve around the plot."

In "Clones," Jar Jar's gullibility does advance the plot: Now a fledgling politician, he becomes an unwitting pawn of evil galactic forces.

In the earlier movie, the duck-billed Jar Jar's bumbling made him an outcast from his water-dwelling Gungan race, which helped him unite the human inhabitants of the planet Naboo with his society in a fight against invaders.

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