The Toon Patrol are the secondary antagonistic faction of the 1988 Disney/Touchstone hybrid film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. They are a gang of five toon anthropomorphic weasels who serve as the henchmen to their boss Judge Doom.
They are based on the weasel thugs from Disney's Wind in the Willows (which is based on the 1908 children's novel of the same name by the late Kenneth Grahame); the first half of Disney's 11th full-length animated feature film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, except that those weasels were patterned on early 20th century British thugs, while the Toon Patrol are caricatures of 1940s American gangster movie types.
Smartass was voiced by the late David Lander, Greasy and Psycho were both voiced by Charles Fleischer, Wheezy was voiced by the late June Foray and Stupid was voiced by Fred Newman.
History
The Toon Patrol are the law enforcers of Toontown, although they behave more like vigilantes and mercenaries who abuse their power out of sheer sadism just like their boss. Judge Doom has hired them to arrest Roger Rabbit for the murder of Marvin Acme, so that he can execute Roger Rabbit by dunking him in dip. Their vehicle is a "real" black 1937 Dodge Humpback panel truck which serves as a paddy wagon. The vehicle is fitted with official City of Los Angeles "Toon Patrol" decals on the front doors.
Like all of the other Toons in the film, The Toon Patrol are invincible to physical body harm except from a ghastly green chemical blend called "The Dip". A combination of powerful solvents, The Dip dissolves the ink and paint which comprise the toons.
In the case of the weasels, it is shown that prolonged laughter is also lethal to them (though instead of dissolving them completely, they instead become ghosts); while Eddie Valiant jokes around in front of them during the climax of the film, all of them, except for their leader Smartass the Weasel die from laughing at him; Smartass meets his demise after Valiant kicks him into a vat of The Dip. His boss himself would meet this fate shortly afterwards.
Members of the Toon Patrol
- Smartass - Doom's second-in-command. He dresses in a light pink jacket and fedora and uses a revolver as a weapon. He speaks with a tough-guy city accent, and uses frequent malapropisms. He is also the most ruthless weasel of their despite caring about their well being. Being the smartest, he plays a more active role when pulling off his boss' schemes. His name is sometimes censored to Smart Guy or Wise Guy.
- Greasy - Smartass's subordinate. He wears a green zoot suit and speaks with a Mexican accent. He uses a revolver and a dagger as weapons.
- Psycho - Wears a white straightjacket and uses a straight-razor as a weapon.
- Wheezy - Always seen smoking multiple cigarettes and breathing secondhand. He uses a tommy-gun as a weapon. He is the only weasel to have grayish-blue fur instead of brown.
- Stupid - Presumably the group's muscleman. He wears a red beanie which signifies his dimwitted personality, and uses a baseball bat with a nail as a weapon.
Gallery
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Videos
Trivia
- The Weasels' names are parodies of the Seven Dwarfs from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- The design of the Toon Patrol and their switchblades was inspired by the weasels in the 1949 Disney cartoon, The Wind in the Willows.
- In a scene that was deleted from the movie, the Weasels take a captured Eddie into "downtown Toontown" on the Judge's orders. They use "Toon" paint to create a giant pig's head to cover Eddie's real head before releasing him.
- Originally, there was going to be seven weasels rather than five, possibly as a nod to the Seven Dwarfs. The other weasels were named Slimy and Flasher. Slimy was a navy blue weasel who had a Greasers attire and carried a blackjack as his weapon, and he got his name from the green slime that he puked. Flasher was a brown weasel who wore a green cap and a dirty trench coat but did not seem to carry a visible weapon. Although these two characters were drawn, no voice work for them was done so they got scrapped.
- In the comic book, The Resurrection of Doom, Flasher and a heavily redesigned Slimy appear alongside a third weasel, Ragtag. The three manage to resurrect Judge Doom from an animation cell and help him with his revenge plan. In the end, the weasel trio are dipped along with Judge Doom.
- In the comics for the series, it is shown cartoon weasels are generally evil and villainous such as Winnie Weasel.
- In the third draft of the film's screenplay, the Toon Patrol members were planned to be supporting antagonists, with Judge Doom's pet vulture Voltaire acting as secondary antagonist and his second-in-command. When Voltaire was scrapped from the film, the weasels were given most of the actions originally intended for Voltaire.
- Their names were never mentioned in the film.
