I remember it and it made sense to me. I remember Lucas saying he started where he started because it had a planet blowing up.
If I’m a film maker, and I have this massive story I don’t know if I’m going to be able to tell the whole thing, I’m going to want to start with blowing up a planet.
Of course, after Return of the Jedi, I wanted it to stop there. I hated the whole “cute puppy” things and I wasn’t too thrilled with the redemption of Darth Vader. And after suffering through the first three episodes, I don’t really think he deserves redemption. Especially not such a hokey redemption
Lucas had “cute” things in Star Wars from the very beginning: R2D2. But I agree that he started to go overboard after introducing Yoda in ESB.
The Ewoks were too much for me, and of course, Jar Jar was inexcusable. Seems like there were fewer “cute” things in Eps II and III, but by then, the damage had been done.