Judge Doom

"I didn't come here to harass. I came here to reward."

- Judge Doom

Baron von Rotten, better known as Judge Doom, was the main antagonist of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He was the (former) judge of Toontown and the weasels' boss.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
For the majority of the film, Doom poses as a high-ranking judge. However, he employs tactics that are at odds with traditional views of justice, such as the employment of a mob of weasel gangsters (whom he has hired as his new henchmen) and the execution of toons through a chemical paint thinner solution called the Dip, which is said to be the only way to truly kill a toon forever.

Judge Doom wishes to destroy Toontown in order to build a freeway over the entire area. He is happy to commit genocide to do so, building a huge machine by which to literally erase Toontown from existence via the use of high-powered cannons filled with Dip. His plans are in danger of being foiled if anyone finds the will to Toontown, which gives the toons rightful ownership of the land.

In an attempt to prevent this from happening, Doom murders several prominent figures who could potentially end his scheme, namely Marvin Acme and R. K. Maroon, framing the troubled Roger in the process. In desperation, Roger seeks help and advice from Eddie, despite his reluctance to get involved in another case involving a toon since a toon once murdered his brother. The event had hardened the once fun-loving detective and made him extremely cynical of toons.

For the majority of the film, Judge Doom is portrayed as being almost xenophobic and merciless towards toons and regards them as vermin (despite hiring some as henchmen). However, by the end of the film, Doom turns out to be hypocritical, revealing that he is a toon himself(perhaps seeing himself higher than a toon), a toon gone bad. one that is murderously insane and the one responsible for the death of Eddie's brother Teddy a few years back.

At the end of the film, Doom and Eddie battle in the Acme Factory where Doom is squashed flat by his own steamroller. Since he is a toon, he survives this and manages to re-inflate himself before revealing his true appearance to Eddie. After failing to kill Eddie with a cartoon circular saw, Doom meets his demise when Eddie activates the Dip machine which douses the evil judge in his own concoction. As he begins to melt, Doom shows more of his "toony" nature as he can't resist doing a parody of the Wicked Witch of the West's death throes (screaming in pain, "I'm melting! Melting!"). He finally melts into the Dip-soaked floor and dissolves, leaving behind only his clothes and a rubber mask. When the other toons come to investigate, they all wonder what Doom really was and what he actually looked like under the mask; however, they soon realize that it doesn't matter what Doom was as they are now safe from his wrath forever and celebrate their epic victory.

The Resurrection of Doom
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.

He was revived by another gang of weasels who, using an old cell and a multiplane camera, were able to revive him, proving it is possible to revive a toon. Doom disguises himself as a director, forcing Roger to purposely tone down his acting, in hopes to ruin his career, and has other designs in mind for his revenge.

Personality
Judge Doom displayed two very different personalities in the film, both equally menacing to his enemies.

Judge
Judge Doom is a calm and reserved man without mercy and brutally executes those who he perceives as guilty or stand in his way. He is also cruel to the Toon Patrol and mainly abuses them with his cane although he only hits two members. First he hits Smarty round the head with his cane after he continued laughing and then he hit Greasy round the head after his hand was caught in a hunting trap. He has an ambition to erase Toon Town in order to create a freeway due to its profit and potential benefits; buying then dismantling the "red car" to avoid competition and taking money from his theft at the bank to launch the project. Judge Doom also possess cunning as he lures out Roger Rabbit with the "Shave and a Haircut" trick. He had a Hitler complex which he tries to deny to the extent of disguising himself as a human to try to rid the world of Toons, despite being one himself. However when he was being run over, he acts like a Toon (screaming incomprehensible noises in fear) and does not deny it once the jig was up, but "not just any Toon"...

Toon
After Judge Doom re-inflates himself and reveals himself as Teddy's killer with reunion with Eddie he tells him why he should not remember his eyes, but his voice (which grows higher until it reaches a horrifyingly high pitch) and his eyes turn to daggers ready to kill him. Though he doesn't talk again until his demise, he pursues Eddie when he was running away, turns on the cannon to melt Roger and Jessica once he was pushed to the ground, punching Eddie with an anvil, turning it into an buzz saw to demonstrate how lethal it was and the swirling eyes with a wide grin as he was gradually getting closer to kill Eddie. All these traits show he was a deranged and sadistic psychopath who enjoys making his victims watch as their friends die and loves to kill them slowly in the most agonizing way. He does have a fear of death, as he instantly panicked as soon as the Dip hit him and screamed as he dissolved.

Appearance
When the film first introduces Judge Doom, Lt. Santino confides to Eddie Valiant that Doom bought the election. 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.

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. 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. He then orders Jessica and Roger Rabbit 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. 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 re-inflates 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 in 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.

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 "I'M MELTING! MELTING!" before he dies. A crowd of various Toons then surround his burned empty suit and melted face 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.

Trivia

 * On several occasions, Doom is shown to detest laughter. Seeing as it is a toon's role to be funny, too much laughter may have blown Doom's cover.
 * Along with Frollo, Shan Yu, Jafar, Maleficent, Chernabog, Scar, and Percival C. McLeach, Judge Doom is regarded as one of the most cruel and evil Disney villains.
 * Doom appears to bear some resemblance to Roland Freisler, the notorious Nazi figure who was also a ruthless judge.
 * Doom's death when he gets dipped is a reference to the Wicked Witch of the West's death in The Wizard of Oz, and they both melt and shout "I'm melting!"
 * The Nostalgia Chick, of thatguywiththeglasses.com, listed Judge Doom as #7 on her "Top 10 Evil Nostalgia Characters" list.
 * Doom looks similar to Arthur Slugworth from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
 * In early drafts for the film, he was revealed to be Man, as in the early drafts Eddie mentions offhand to Roger that the person who killed his brother was probably the one who killed Bambi's mother. however this dialogue was cut from the film for reasons yet-unknown.
 * In the Bonkers  series, The Collector is the reverse of Judge Doom, he is a human disguised as a toon, but shares a similar personality and glasses.
 * King Candy, the main antagonist of Wreck-It-Ralph, shares several similarities with Doom.
 * It should be noted that whenever Judge Doom is shown on-screen, he never blinks. Maybe hinting that he is wearing a mask.
 * It can be noted that five things give away the fact that Doom is a toon:
 * When he first uses the Dip, he wears a rubber glove to protect himself.
 * After the Dip gets kicked over by Eddie Valiant, he backs away from it
 * When he decides to get Benny off the road so he can capture Eddie Valiant and Jessica Rabbit, he kicks the Dip and keeps a distance from it.
 * When he slips on some fake eyeballs, he doesn't fall directly but slips a few times until he suddenly falls. Normally, a human would fall directly after slipping once.
 * When he gets back on his feet after falling, he hides one of his eyes, not because it's in pain, but so as to conceal his actual red toon eyes with the fake eyeballs he's wearing.