"Young Anikan couldn't they find a good kid actor? "
Yes they could, they actually had a dozen who were way better and they picked the absolute worst one of the bunch.
Instead of watching this horrible movie, watch the bonus features of the "making of" (especially the part about the casting of the kid): it's very revealing and a lot more interesting than the movie.
Basically it's a lesson on what NOT to do when making a movie: every film student should watch it.
They found a better kid actor (Sam Michael), but Lucas wanted Jake Lloyd for some reason.
Perhaps the reason was that the other actor looked like a young Mark Hamill, but Lloyd looked more like a young George Lucas.
As it was, all of the final three final casting choices were too young. Casting director Robin Gurland did not do a great job there, and Lucas should have known that such a young kid, Jake Lloyd being the youngest of the three, would not go over well as a future suitor for Padme. Of the three, Michael was by far the best from what the public has been allowed to see, and he looked the oldest.
Actually it turned out that Phantom Menace had more real sets than any of the original Star Wars movies, yeah I didn't believe it either until I found that webpage that catalogs all of the real sets & props.