Judge Doom

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Judge Doom is the main villain from the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He is the much-feared Judge of Toontown (Eddie Valiant's friend confides to him that Doom bought the election). Despite presiding over a city of Toons, Doom is without mirth and passes capital punishment on toons who break the law, placing them in a chemical vat of turpentine, acetone and benzene(essentially oil and paint thinner), which he dubs "the dip"; The concoction can dissolve Toons and kill them. He has a number of Toon henchman (the Weasels) who assist him in hunting down Roger Rabbit for the murder of Marvin Acme. Judge Doom was played by Christopher Lloyd.

At the Terminal Bar, Doom uses the "Shave and a Haircut" trick to lure Roger out, and prepares to execute him. When Roger gets free from Doom, the Judge orders his henchmen, the Weasels, to capture Roger Rabbit and Eddie Valiant. Roger realizes he's in trouble with Doom after him, and begs Eddie to hide him. When Eddie figures out that studio head R.K. Maroon is connected to the plot to frame Roger, Eddie interrogates him, but Maroon pleads that he's a dead man if he confesses. Just as Maroon is about to spill everything, he is killed by an unseen gunman who almost kills Eddie too. Upon chasing the killer to Toontown, Eddie catches Jessica Rabbit, thinking she's the murderer, but it turns out Judge Doom was the one who killed Acme and Maroon. At the film's climax, Doom traps Eddie, Jessica, and Roger in Acme's Warehouse, and explains his scheme: Dispose of Toontown using a giant, mobile vat of "dip" linked to a high-pressure water cannon, then build a freeway over it. Doom plans to retire from being a Judge and control all the profits from the new road system. He has Jessica and Roger tied up and readied to be sprayed by the dip cannon.

Valiant escapes, then faces Doom, dueling with ACME gadgets. During the fight, Judge Doom is run over by a steamroller, but he doesn't die as expected; Once the steamroller crushes him, Doom is flattened into a pancake, revealing himself to be a Toon wearing a rubber mask. When Doom shows his red eyes and talks in a high squeaky voice, Eddie recognizes Doom as the bank robber in Toontown long ago who murdered his brother, Teddy Valiant (explaining how Doom managed to buy the election). Doom sprouts a cartoon anvil and a buzzsaw from his hand, and tries to kill Eddie. In the end, Doom is destroyed by his own dip cannon and melts away. A crowd of various Toons surround his now empty suit and wonder what he was.

[edit] Graphic novel version

In the graphic novel Roger Rabbit: The Resurrection of Doom, it is explained that Doom's real name was Baron von Rotten, and that he played villains in old cartoons, until one day, he was knocked unconscious, experienced memory loss, and woke up thinking he was a real villain.

In early scripts of the movie, Doom was revealed to be the hunter who killed Bambi's mother, which is consistent to the backstory of the graphic novel.

[edit] Powers and Abilities

In his human guise, Doom uses his skull-headed swordstick and ACME products to fight Valiant. While in his toon form, he can turn his hands into weapons such as buzzsaws and anvils and has a squeaky voice (strangely, any weapon that forms from Doom's hands has a gold, metallic color). He uses springs to jump and like most toons, can survive anything but his dip, which dissolves him.

[edit] Other

Judge Doom was originally going to have an animated pet vulture, but since the weasels came along, they are his "pets." The five weasels are: Smartass (pink zoot suit and spats), Greasy (green zoot suit), Wheezy (messy dress shirt, tie and old style vest), Psycho (straightjacket, wields a straight razor), and Stupid (T-shirt, untied shoes, and baseball bat with a nail through it). In the original production, there was meant to be seven weasels, but two, Slimey and Flasher, were cut out due to being considered unsuitable for the movie. Also the "Toon Patrol" truck is a rare 1936 Dodge LC humpback panel van [1].