Judge Doom

Judge Doom is a fictional character and the main antagonist'', portrayed by Christopher Lloyd. He is depicted as the much-feared, cruel and evil judge of Toontown, who later in the film is revealed as the mastermind behind the framing of the titular character and the murder of protagonist Eddie Valiant's brother.

Judge Doom is an original character from the script of the film created by screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. Many actors, such as Tim Curry and Christopher Lee, were considered for the role before Lloyd was cast as the character. Judge Doom later appeared in ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' media, becoming the final boss of video game adaptations of the film and in a graphic novel sequel explaining his backstory and revival. Merchandise of the character was also sold.

Judge Doom has had many comparisons with characters from other fictional media, and his motives and actions have drawn parallels with real-world historical events.

Christopher Lloyd's role as Judge Doom has been praised as a film villain, with the character appearing as one of the greatest film villains of all time by '' Wizard'' magazine and appearing in other related film villain media lists. The character and his plot twist reveal as a toon are commonly rated as some of the scariest moments in a family-oriented non-horror film.

The character has been widely acknowledged in popular culture, being referenced in a song, a documentary and a 2021 viral Twitter joke regarding NFL player Tom Brady.

Creation and concept

Writing

During the writing process in summer 1986, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman were unsure of whom to include as the villain in the plot of ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit''. They wrote scripts that had either Jessica Rabbit or Baby Herman as the villain, but they made their final decision with the newly created character Judge Doom. Price and Seaman based the scheme of Judge Doom of destroying Toontown for a freeway on a planned unproduced sequel of ''Chinatown'' entitled ''Cloverleaf'', which would be the name of Judge Doom's company in the film. Doom was supposed to have an animated vulture sit on his shoulder, but this was deleted due to the technical challenges this posed. Doom would also have a suitcase of twelve small toon kangaroos that act as a jury, by having their joeys pop out of their pouches, each with letters, which when put together would spell "You are guilty". This was also cut.Who Shot Roger Rabbit, 1986 script by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman Doom was originally intended in the script to be revealed as the offscreen anonymous hunter who killed Bambi's mother (referred to as "man" in ''Bambi'' and also named as such by the American Film Institute) but everyone at Disney rejected the idea.

Casting

Tim Curry originally auditioned for the role of Judge Doom in August, 1986, but while during his audition, the producers found him too terrifying for the role. Christopher Lee was also considered for the role, but Lee turned it down. Several other actors were also considered for the role of Judge Doom, including John Cleese, Roddy McDowall, Eddie Deezen, and Sting.

Christopher Lloyd was cast because he previously worked with Robert Zemeckis and Amblin Entertainment on ''Back to the Future'' in his most famous role as Emmett Brown. Lloyd shaved his hair for the role and also avoided blinking his eyes while on camera to perfectly portray the character.Robert Zemeckis, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, Ken Ralston, Frank Marshall, Steve Starkey, DVD audio commentary, 2003, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
According to Lloyd:

"I just felt a toon doesn't have to blink their eyes to remoisten their eyeballs. They're not human, so I just felt Judge Doom should never blink. It makes him even more ominous, scarier if he's just looking like that. It wasn't really difficult, I'd just keep my eyes open as long as I could, try to time it out with the next take and all that. It was cool. I just like to find little things that make him even eviler, and that was that.

Lloyd used the black-colored spy in '' Mad'' magazine's comic strip '' Spy vs. Spy'' as a rough guide of what the character would look like during development.

Depiction

Character overview

In ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', Doom is the much-feared Judge of Toontown. Despite presiding over a city of Toons, Doom is totally without mirth or redeeming qualities and passes capital punishment on Toons who break the law, placing them in a chemical vat of turpentine, acetone and benzene which he dubs "the Dip" to kill them permanently.

Doom wears a black ensemble which includes a caped overcoat, fedora, gloves, and rimless yellow-tinted glasses; he also carries a pocket watch, as well as a cane which is revealed to be a sabre in disguise, for use in emergency situations. This appearance is reminiscent of agents of the real-life Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany.

Doom employs his toon weasel henchmen, the Toon Patrol, to assist him in hunting down Roger Rabbit for the murder of Marvin Acme.

Role in film

When Judge Doom is introduced, Lt. Santino confides to Eddie Valiant that Doom bought the election as judge of Toontown. Doom threatens to act as executioner to Roger Rabbit with a mixture of turpentine, acetone, and benzene he dubs "the Dip". Doom showcases the chemical's purpose by killing a toon shoe in front of Eddie. Roger realizes he is in trouble with Doom after him, and begs Eddie to hide him. 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. 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 do so, he is killed by an unseen assailant who nearly shoots Eddie as well.

Upon chasing the assailant to Toontown, Eddie catches Jessica Rabbit, thinking she is the murderer, but she 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 to destroy Toontown using a giant, mobile vat of Dip linked to a high-pressure water cannon, and then build a freeway in its place. Doom then plans to retire from being a judge and control all the profits from the new road system. Doom also reveals that he is the sole shareholder of Cloverleaf Industries, and confesses that he bought the trolley network for the sole purpose of putting it out of production. He then orders Jessica and Roger 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 to make them 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. During the fight, Judge Doom is run over by a steamroller but does not die as expected, being flattened into a flimsy paper-thin shape and revealing him to be a toon wearing an assortment of fake props to disguise himself. Doom reinflates himself at an oxygen tank revealing his red toon eyes and his high-pitched voice to Eddie, who recognizes Doom as an escaped bank robber from Toontown long ago, thus explaining how Doom managed to buy the judicial election and the trolley network. Eddie also recognizes Doom as the toon who murdered his brother, Teddy Valiant, by dropping a piano on his head.

Doom attempts to use his toon abilities to finish off Eddie, but the latter manages to defeat him by dissolving him to death in his own Dip concoction. A crowd of various toons then surround the remnants of his disguise and wonder what kind of toon he was. The toons seem to agree that they do not need to know and decide to live happily ever after when Marvin Acme's will suddenly appears in Roger's possession, granting full ownership to the citizens of Toontown.

Role in graphic novel

Judge Doom appears in the graphic novel '' Roger Rabbit: The Resurrection of Doom'', which takes place after the film and establishes his origin.

In the graphic novel, Roger and Jessica Rabbit watch a documentary which explains that Doom was originally a toon named Baron Von Rotten who took up the role of playing the antagonist

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases