Judge Doom was the main antagonist of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He was both portrayed and voiced by Christopher Lloyd.
Character
Judge Doom is the much-feared Judge of Toontown. Despite presiding over a city of Toons (in actuality, he is a Toon), Doom is totally without mirth and passes capital punishment on Toons who break the law, placing them in a chemical vat of turpentine, acetone and benzene (oil, paint thinner, and film dissolver) which he dubs "The Dip." This concoction will dissolve Toons and is the only way of actually killing a Toon. The Judge employs Toon henchmen (the "Toon Patrol") to assist him in hunting down Roger Rabbit for the murder of Marvin Acme.
When the film first introduces Judge Doom, Lt. Santino confides to Eddie Valiant that Doom bought the election in order to be elected a judge. Later, at the Terminal Bar, Doom uses the "Shave and a Haircut" trick to lure Roger out, then prepares to execute him. After a brief scuffle inside the bar, the Judge orders the weasels to capture Roger and Eddie Valiant. Roger realizes he's in trouble with Doom after him, and begs Eddie to hide him. When Eddie learns that studio head R.K. Maroon is connected to the plot to frame Roger, Eddie interrogates him, but Maroon pleads that he is "a dead man" if he confesses. Just as Maroon is about to spill everything, he is killed by an unseen gunman who nearly shoots Eddie as well.
Doom threatening Roger
Upon chasing the killer to Toontown, Eddie catches Jessica Rabbit, thinking she's the murderer, but Jessica reveals that Judge Doom was the one who killed Acme and Maroon. At the film's climax, Doom traps Eddie, Jessica, and Roger in the Acme Factory to explain his scheme: Erase Toontown from the map using a giant, mobile vat of dip linked to a high-pressure water cannon, and then build a freeway over it. Doom then plans to retire from being a judge and control all the profits from the new road system owned by him. Doom also reveals that he is the sole stockholder of Cloverleaf Industries, and explains that he bought the "red car" (the Pacific Electric Railway) for the sole purpose of putting it out of commission leaving people no choice other than to use the new freeway for travel. He then orders Jessica and Roger Rabbi
Judge Doom disguised
t to be tied up and raised into the air via skyhook to be sprayed by the dip cannon.
Valiant distracts the weasels using hilarious antics (partly while singing The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down to the accompaniment of an orchestrion-like instrument playing the tune) to make them literally laugh themselves to death, then attempts to rescue Roger and Jessica when he is interrupted by Doom. The two men then square off, dueling with various ACME props, including a singing sword, a massive magnet and a wooden mallet that shoots a spring powered boxing glove. During the fight, Judge Doom is run over by a steamroller, but does not die as expected. As the steamroller crushes him, Doom's body is flattened into a flimsy paper-thin shape, revealing himself to be a Toon wearing an assortment of fake, but live props such as fake eyeballs, false teeth and a rubber mask in order to disguise his Toon body. After he reinflates with an oxygen tank, he shows his red toon eyes and talks in a high squeaky voice, and Eddie recognizes Doom as the bank robber from Toontown long ago who murdered his brother, Teddy Valiant, thus triggering his hatred towards Toons and explaining how Doom managed to buy the judicial election and the trolley car company.
Judge Doom's true form
Judge Doom's Demise
Being a Toon, Doom turns out to be capable of sprouting an anvil and an extendable buzzsaw from his hand, with which he attempts to kill Eddie. In the end, Eddie proves to be too clever, using his own dip concoction to dissolve him, leaving behind his human disguise. Doom melts and burns away screaming before he dies. A crowd of various Toons then surround his burned empty suit in a middle of the puddle of yellow paint and melted face mask with it's cheeks painted in red (his eyes must be painted in red while the rest of him is with yellow paint) and wonder what kind of Toon he was. It hasn't been revealed what type of Toon he was, or if he was one specific type of Toon at all, but the Toons seem to agree that they don't need to know, and decide to live happily ever after when the will of Marvin Acme suddenly appears in Roger's possession, granting full ownership to the citizens of Toontown.
Judge Doom after he melted
Graphic novel version
In the graphic novel Roger Rabbit: The Resurrection of Doom, it is explained that Doom was originally a Toon named Baron von Rotten, who took up the role of playing the antagonist in movies, until an accident in which Von Rotten suffers a concussion, and awakens believing he is a real villain. Von Rotten thus begins his crime career, robbing the First National Bank of Toontown, then killing Theodore 'Teddy' Valiant by dropping a piano on his head, and spreading the stolen money all over the town in order to buy the election for Judge of Toontown, assuming the new name of Judge Doom.
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 has evil red eyes and a squeaky voice, and is able to produce an arsenal of tools from his body which he can employ as weapons, including a buzzsaw and an anvil. He uses springs in his feet to jump far distances, and (like most toons) can survive anything but his own dip, which dissolves him to his death.
Trivia
- When he dissolves in dip, Doom screams the line originally quoted by the Wicked Witch of the West in MGM's 1939 film, "The Wizard of Oz".
- Doom is one of four male villains to shapeshift into a second form, the others being Jafar, Oogie Boogie, and Turbo. He is also technically the first male villain to shapeshift, although some would argue that his Toon-Form already existed, making Oogie and Jafar the only male shapeshifters. The same deal goes with Turbo.
- In a deleted scene, it is revealed that Judge Doom is Man from Bambi, but this was cut for unknown reasons.