Lots of rotoscoping done in Premire me thinks.
In the old days when we just had regular 8 film, I used to put small scratches with an needle on the film to make laser beams. Things have come a long way since then.
I used to make all the models for my films, out of old car and model plane kits, which sadly the films have been destroyed. My Father was in photography and understood the blue screen technology as he used them in his titles. My Mother was a matt painter, and also did colour on B/W film and negatives. Kind of like Albert Whitlock used to do on glass.
I used to do stop animation with clay models, but for some odd reason I ditched the hobby to concentrate on video games.

But one day I'll have to remake one of them with my DV video camera and PC.

Here is the link for rotoscoping I found on the net.
The sabre sound effects can be created with an amp, and a sampler.
Its not hard to do, but takes a lot of timing and patience and multicoloured tape.

And some real violence!!
http://alienryderflex.com/rotoscope/