Nightmare Fuel / Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a subtle deconstruction of cartoon antics and the idea of toons and humans living with each other, even as it popularized the latter idea, so there's quite a bit in the film that's just a bit uncomfortable, even when it's also funny. And that's when it wasn't going for horror outright, with one of the most terrifying and brutal villains in cinema being the main source of all these horrors...

WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.

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Judge Doom

• Judge Doom being one of the most dangerous and monstrous villains ever conceived for cinema, cartoon or otherwise, manages to encompass almost everything horrific about the film, from his almost emotionless murder of anyone who stands in his way, the sheer monstrous scale of his ultimate goals, the subtly off nature of his appearance and his true inhuman traits. Enough to warrant his own section due to how he continues to traumatize people even long after the film has ended once due to the lingering horror of his true nature retroactively making every he did much worse in hindsight and even with the revelation of his true nature, there's still elements of himself left unanswered- making him even more frightening as an eerie enigma with no visible true form let alone reasoning for his actions- making him much scarier for being so.
• The scene where Doom reveals himself as the toon who killed Teddy Valiant.
  Judge Doom: REMEMBER ME, EDDIE?! WHEN I KILLED YOUR BROTHER, I TALKED JUST... LIKE... THIIIIIIS!!!
  • The line above that Doom screams at Eddie. Rather than being just an anonymous murder in his steps for his plans, it's a moment he relished, reliving his ruination of one man's life and being able to do the same thing to that man's brother, something he in hindsight was planning for years by pretending to be someone else to set up for that nightmarish revelation to capitalize on the trauma and terror it would induce for the sake of a joke he found hilarious. It truly emphasizes how much insanity Doom had been repressing up to that very moment.
  • Eddie's reaction. The 'oh shit' look of terror on his face as he's confronted by the murderer that's haunted him for years. Little surprise that he immediately tries to run away.
    • The fact that Doom turned around to reveal his eyes and then pitched up his voice to fit the description of Eddie's recollection of him- to that end, he might've been in the same movie theatre with Eddie to listen in without his disguise to subtly bring up that he could follow him anywhere.
  • The Spanish dub made it worse by having Doom laugh as he's chasing after Eddie with the spring-heeled shoes. It sounds like something an evil clown would make! He also makes a chilling hiss as he demonstrates the power saw slicing through a chain.
    • The fact that Doom can generate springs on his feet to go long distances when beforehand, he had tried to keep low-key by using wires or regular human actions to move, with the revelation, it becomes clear there's no real running away from the monster because not only due to Toon Physics that distance is a non-factor in how he can reach you, but also that he's very intent on killing you horribly anyway.
  • Made even more terrifying by the fact that Doom for the majority of the film, with the occasionally hammy slip-up, was a nigh emotionless being with No Sense of Humor unless it's murdering someone or undergoing Evil Gloating, until his iconic reveal as a toon, undergoing a complete reversal in personality into a now openly psychotic lunatic with unnaturally large eyes, bright red sclera that perpetually morph into deranged shapes like spirals, expanding circles, drills, and knives; speaking in a high-pitched voice that sounds more like a shrill siren than anything humanly possible- in direct contrast to his deeper and raspy voice he had shown up to this point.
  • Speaking of his eyes, Doom initially had a consistent design for his eyes...for a few seconds, until he starts to emphasize the prominent feature of his increasingly higher-pitched voice with one of his eyes bulging upwards before both eyes go into a pattern where the sclera/pupils go pinprick nigh-dots, unnaturally large irises with surrounding sclera to the point they eclipse the whites in complete red and ending with Doom's Nightmare Face with a Slasher Smile before staring transformed daggers at Eddie with the intent to sadistically kill.
  • The evil judge that despised toons turned out to be the very worst of them in terms of both insanity and violence- meaning that he's either a Boomerang Bigot who loathed his own kind in spite of being one of them to the point he wanted to commit complete genocide on his own race for sheer greed and sadism, or else he was only pretending to be a mere bigot and is instead a straight-up sociopath who puts no value in anyone's life other than his own. Either way, by being revealed as a toon, Doom is suddenly infinitely worse than if he were just a bigoted human taking out his prejudice on a species he loathed for petty reasons.
  • His appearance once he's revealed to be a toon invokes the Uncanny Valley of his now Humanoid Abomination status more apparent. Eddie's words about him implied that he had pure red eyes and and a squeaky, cutesy voice, but The Reveal has him have regular white eyes with red sclera to offset his pale complexion and pale blond hair....except they're both too large and exaggerated to be normal human eyes, but also too hyper-realistic to be regular toon eyes. And are not even consistent in design or size even during a single scene unlike the other toons. And in spite of having a cartoonish tuft of hair on the top of his head, he gives off an abnormal paradox of human and toon at the same time. With a voice that's more like an inhuman screech.
  • In an early draft of the script, he was going to have other scary features, including RED HANDS WITH LONG NAILS.
    • On top of looking and sounding terrifying, Doom can weaponize Toon Physics to change his body, notably his hands, into any weapon he chooses to kill his victims with; including an anvil to punch Eddie across the room and then a buzzsaw that he elongates and enlarges in order to attempt to saw the detective in half.
    • Just before going for the attempted kill, Doom unleashes his ultimate gleeful expression contemplating how he'll enjoy killing Eddie with his eyes becoming spirals then a pattern of interchanging reds and whites expanding outwards; showing that beneath his hypocritically corrupt and greedy exterior; is a monster that lives for sadism and murder.
    • The way Doom sadistically taunts a half-winded Eddie with his buzzsaw. First, he extends his arm and ENLARGES the saw with each extension. Then he severs large metal chains to demonstrate what his toon saw can do to non-toon objects. His behavior was as if he was saying “Hey, Eddie, look what my toon buzzsaw did to those chains. Let's see if your flesh fares any better.”
    • Which is terrifying on another level as all the toons, heroic or villainous, usually relied on guns or regular combat skills like regular people except for their Toon Physics being limited to extreme reactions or using Toon Town to bend logic to Rule of Funny. Doom on the other hand, becomes much more dangerous then he would be as a normal criminal by being capable of applying those traits to being a killing machine. Doom is not only a terror to experience, but is also extremely deadly in a manner that is very unnatural to what had been a low-key realistic story with fantasy elements.
  • With cartoon villains, like the Evil Queen, Maleficent, Cruella De Vil, etc., there's always a subconscious reassuring feeling that terrifying villains like them can't harm the viewer because they're not real. With Doom, on the other hand, it feels he could exist in our world, and given he disguised himself so seamlessly, you wouldn't know the truth until he exposed himself. The sheer wrongness of a toon/human hybrid invokes an eerie sense of bizarre terror as from the time he's revealed to when he finally dies for good, it all feels like a very real nightmare where reality as you know it is crumbling around you.
  • Instead of being consumed with vengeance or justice, poor Eddie is so struck with fear that he runs away like an innocent child who saw his worst nightmare. Not only is Doom nightmarish to the audience, but even The Hero fears him once he realizes what exactly he's up against again.
    • Made worse by the fact that Doom immediately generates springs on his feet, not intending to let Eddie get away to save the Rabbits and escape with their lives. He grabs and pushes Eddie to the ground as he sadistically turns on the Dip Mobile again to intentionally kill off the Rabbits- killing Eddie with no hope of survival and letting him die knowing that the couple will die horribly due to his failure.
    • The tonal shift once Doom is revealed to be a toon, it goes from Eddie trying to rescue the Rabbits with Doom trying to halt him to Doom keeping Eddie around to be a plaything for his sadism. Thankfully, Eddie was able to use his quick thinking to get out of the situation immediately.
    • This line, courtesy of Mickey Mouse, of all characters: "Gosh, uh, I wonder who he REALLY was?"
    • Even when he was revealed to be a toon, the only visual confirmations were his "Uh-Oh" Eyes and his golden shapeshifting hands; Doom's true form under his disguise is never revealed- leaving him a being of completely unknown origins, reasons for his actions, or complete physical description other than being a toon. Given how diverse toons can be- being inanimate objects, animals, people, etc.- it leads to infinite nightmarish possibilities of what Doom might actually be. Thus, you have a formless horror of undetermined shape or size that could potentially hide as anyone, or, if he wished, anything. With this revelation alone, Doom goes from a ruthless judge to a truly scary bogeyman that could hide anywhere.
  • The worst part is, normal toons always cause Amusing Injuries because they don't try to harm anyone and are in it for the laughs; Judge Doom, on the other hand, can and does harm people using Toon Physics- as demonstrated when Eddie visibly bleeds from the mouth and nose after being punched by Doom’s anvil hand. It's a good thing Eddie dodged that buzzsaw when he did.
    • Remember also Roger's comments that toons can only use this power by Rule of Funny. Which implies Doom thinks all of this is hilarious under his guise of complete contempt of humor.
    • The graphic novel sequel, Roger Rabbit: The Resurrection of Doom offers this◊ as Doom's true toon form, known as Baron Von Rotten, complete with a Slasher Smile just to ensure a sleepless night for the reader.^note Though he looks a bit Grinchy, doesn't he? And when he's resurrected, his toon form looks exactly like his disguise, confirming that he's devoid of anything lovable or entertaining about toons.
• The substance Doom creates, a cocktail of solvents known as the Dip. Any toon that comes into contact with it dies a slow and agonizing death as their body dissolves, permanently erasing them.
  • The first time we see the Dip (and Judge Doom) in action, it's when Doom kills a friendly toon shoe slowly with it, while it whimpers and screams piteously. If you pay attention, Lieutenant Santino, who was talking to Eddie at the time, looks away during the execution, unable to bear watching the toon die. Even In-Universe, this is horrifying to the two detectives.
    • Made even worse in the original script where it's a talking gopher that accidentally bumps into Doom and is subsequently dipped, while pleading for its life, no less!
  • Even Eddie, who hasn't trusted toons since his brother's murder, finds it absolutely horrendous. He may hate toons, but not that much.
  • The nickname that Judge Doom gives the Dip in the original script is "The Final Solution."
  • What makes the above scene scarier is that the shoe is now nothing but red paint on Doom's glove. If not for what we saw, anyone would have mistaken that for blood. Even knowing that it's dissolved red paint, it's still quite symbolic of blood.
  • "Remember how they always thought there wasn't a way to kill a toon? Well, Doom found a way; Turpentine, acetone, benzene. He calls it 'The Dip'." It's the tone that Santino says it in that sells it.
  • Jessica Rabbit is normally calm, cool and suave, but her horrified reaction upon seeing the Dip is quite an alarming change.
    "Oh my God, IT'S DIIIIIIIP!!!"
  • And then there's Doom's ultimate plan, which is to flood the whole of Toontown with the stuff. Toontown is home to all toons, no matter the animation studio. When you realize it, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird, and all the other beloved toons would be dead forever had Doom succeeded. Actually, to put it more precisely, they wouldn't merely be dead forever - they would have never existed at all. Your childhood and that of everyone else would've literally dissolved and be forgotten, and it's like the invention of Western Animation never happened.
    • Even worse, this could probably mean that pretty much anything in animation history from 1947 onwards would never happen. Basically, imagine a world not only without modern Disney or Warner Bros. cartoons, but also without Pixar, Nicktoons, DreamWorks, Blue Sky Studios, Illumination, Sony Pictures Animation, Cartoon Network, Rankin/Bass, PBS Kids, [adult swim], Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, Ruby-Spears, the WildBrain library, Fox cartoons, or United Feature Syndicate.
    • It would also have likely sent ripples around the world, meaning Aardman Animations, National Film Board of Canada cartoons and Anime may have never happened, or at least would have never gone to the US.
    • It might have also been possible that Web Animations and Object Shows would have also never happened.
    • What's more terrifying is that, animation is considered an art form. Doom wasn't just attempting to eradicate a race of animated characters to build a freeway, he was trying to destroy man's artistic creativity.
  • And given how disturbing the shoe died from just being dipped in a single container, the machine would've wiped Toontown horrifically from the face of the earth from the buildings to the residents. And the runoff would've gotten any toons that managed to get out of the way. Eddie luckily managed to stop a genocide that no one would've been aware of until it was too late.
  • Doom's big speech about paving a freeway over Toontown sounds both magnificent and one of the most horrifically remorseless speeches about gentrification for business construction. Especially disturbing is the fact that he makes no mention of the agony and suffering that would occur if his plan succeeds- he’s that monstrously apathetic.
    "I see a place where people get on and off the freeway. On and off, off and on, all day, all night! Soon, where Toontown once stood will be a string of gas stations; inexpensive motels; restaurants that serve rapidly prepared food; tire salons; automobile dealerships; and wonderful, wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see! My God, it'll be beautiful."
    • Which makes his reveal as a toon that much more disturbing as he’s willing to do that to his own kind and likely would enjoy it, given his true nature as a sadistic psycho, he's probably secretly relishing their potential terrifying demise.
  • "They're not kid gloves, Mr. Valiant, but this is how we handle things down in Toontown." That line suggests that Doom and his cronies dip innocent toons in Toontown at any given time.
• Doom in general, seeing as how he was intentionally meant to invoke Uncanny Valley (makeup was used to make his skin look unnaturally white and flawless, his teeth are too immaculate to be natural and he never blinks onscreen — giving his eyes a dead look like a mannequin).
  • After causing Benny to swerve into a lamppost, Doom goes to mock Eddie and Jessica. The most notable feature is that unlike in the bar and in the factory, where his skin was pale, but realistically so, Doom is unnaturally pale white in natural lighting (almost corpse-like) as well as making unnatural, exaggerated facial expressions compared to the usual stilted motions he usually does. This is the first real stark visual feature that Doom is not just a creepy eccentric and something inhuman underneath.
  • Whenever Doom invokes his Scary Shiny Glasses that completely obscure his eyes in a white light, once when he begins his speech on the freeway and next when he pushes Eddie's magnet against him. It makes him look that much more inhuman.
  • The scary thing is that he's played by Christopher Lloyd, possibly most famous for playing Doc Brown (he even sounds like him in some scenes, like his description of the freeway project) so you would expect he was Crazy Is Cool and good-hearted; instead, he's Ax-Crazy and capable of any monstrous act he could get a shot at doing. It's the same kind of feeling a Whovian gets when seeing David Tennant portray Barty Crouch, Jr. or Kilgrave. Or fans of the Spider-Man Trilogy seeing J. K. Simmons portray Terence Fletcher. Or fans of Free Willy seeing Michael Madsen portray Mr. Blonde.
  • In addition to his grotesque appearance and mannerisms, Doom is also A Nazi by Any Other Name who uses his Fantastic Racism to commit genocide on any toon that crosses his path, or pursue one for no good reason. His company starts buying off major businesses in Los Angeles, creates the Dip (the only thing able to kill toons), then reveals his plan to use the Dip to destroy Toontown so he can build a freeway, a simple freeway that he murdered two people for, and for no other reason. What a dick.
    • This leads to Trans-Toon Treachery when his true nature is revealed, which makes his actions much worse in hindsight as he's murdering his own kind for money and sadism rather than being an outsider.
    • Which leads to what Doom is in real life terms when you remove the Humanoid Abomination and Toon Physics aspect. Doom is essentially a mass murderer who kills people through a specific calling card of Black Comedy who uses the pretense of delusional goals, racism and the law as an excuse to live out his fantasies of gleefully committing genocide on his own people without getting punished because he can make the rules ones that serve his whims.
    • With Eddie held at gunpoint and Roger and Jessica tied up, Doom orders his Weasels to make Eddie helplessly watch Roger and Jessica get dipped and shoot him afterwards. Before killing him, Doom wanted Eddie to see his friends die. Why he decides this and not kill Eddie on the spot is especially monstrously shallow-because he was in a bad mood from slipping on fake eyeballs, which caused one of his fake eyes to fall out and almost expose his toon nature and the Weasels laughing on the job. While the eye thing was justified in keeping his identity a secret, the rest of it is ridiculously disproportionate. What an inconceivably sick and petty bastard.
    • You could only imagine what could've drove Doom, and the Weasels for that matter, to not only develop a deep-seated hatred of, but also happily attempt genocide of their own race. Especially when toons, supposedly, only want to be funny. The graphic novel sequel mentioned above explains that Doom was originally a toon actor until an on-set accident knocked him out and he later awakened believing he was a true, bona fide villain. However, the canonicity of the graphic novel is debatable ^note the movie established that toons are immune to mental trauma unless it's Played for Laughs, so the real in-universe reason behind their evil nature is left a mystery, making them that much more horrifying.
• The fact that rather than simply stabbing Eddie to death while he was pinned down with his sword, Doom decided it was better to run him over with a steamroller- which backfired immensely. Doom wanted to ironically kill a toon-hating detective with a toon cliche; another hint at Doom's true nature.
• Watching Doom- even with being a greedy and genocidal murderer crushed by a steam roller as he screams for his life, incoherently like a toon is a really nasty way to go if he were actually human. Leading into...
  • Judge Doom peeling himself off the floor and tottering around, giggling madly in an unnatural application of Paper People Toon Physics animated like Stop Motion to make it extra unnerving. What is normally Played for Laughs when done to a character in animation suddenly becoming terrifying when applied in a realistic situation with a seemingly flesh and blood person using those physics. For those who didn't see The Reveal coming, seeing what was assumed to be a human-albeit a very repulsive one- coming back to life in such a way is utterly horrific. It's not helped by how he walks over to the air tank to re-inflate himself, something that feels inherently wrong due to the fact that a normally humorous gag is being Played for Horror as his fake eyes pop out and he turns around to reveal to Eddie who he really is. The whole scenario invokes an incomprehensible sense of wrongness completely disjointed from the relatively low-key animated/live action story it had been up to that point. The only comfort is that we never get a good look at his face when it's flattened.
    • Given that Doom is actually a toon and not in any actual danger outside of the Dip, it might've been possible that Doom had engineered the entire scenario that led to him being run over to make The Reveal of being a Toon that more shocking and traumatizing to Eddie when he reveals what toon he actually is since it would make for a good joke to himself.
  • Then screaming as he melts from his own Dip. Of course, considering how horrid Doom was (such as killing that innocent cartoon shoe earlier), he pretty much deserves it.
  • It gets worse. At least in the original movie, Doom just squirms and screams until he melts into nothing. The Brazilian dub of the film has Doom's voice gradually decrease in pitch as he dies, so we get the luxury of listening to Doom slowly begin growling and choking like a demon straight out of Hell.
• His letimotif, starting with an ominous ringing of a menacing bell, low bass strings/woodwinds accompanies eerie sharp strings that signifies a pitiless enforcer of the law mixed with unfettered evil.
  • The leitmotif of his true toon form starts off with a carnival-esque, eerily calm sounding set of notes with sinister undertones that feel unnaturally off, much like how Doom ultimately appears.
• Doom's human disguise after he's melted almost looks like an actual corpse. What's even worse is the red paint running out of his eye sockets, which makes it look like he bled out of his eyes as he was dying!
• What makes Doom a horrifically realistic villain is that there are some insane people from Real Life who gain control of political power in order to commit genocide for such heinous reasons.
• In a sense, the scene in the theater is one for Roger: As soon as he hears a toon killed Eddie's brother, he is silent and clearly horrified. Anyone would be when hearing about a tragedy, but Roger's purpose is to make people laugh. The sheer notion that a toon would ever hurt someone is against everything he and the others stand for. One can only imagine how it felt for him to hear there was someone out there like Doom.
• A subtle one compared to Doom's Dip, Uncanny Valley nature, and his infamous One-Winged Angel. When R.K. Maroon is about to spill the beans on the freeway plan, Doom shoots him down through the window with a gun. While the death is surprisingly realistic and violent, the manner of which Doom does R.K. in is a subtle assassination done in cold blood without any of the theatrics he would usually do. It becomes clear that Doom is not just a creepy, inept law-enforcing villain who's only a threat to Toons, but a very efficient killer willing to dispose anyone- regardless whether or not they're human/toon if they stand in his way- and his plan soon after establishes just how murderous and ambitious he truly is.

Toons in General

• Many scenes in Toontown, demonstrating how actually dangerous and insane the seemingly perpetually fun and happy place that doesn't obey the natural laws of physics actually is for normal people, where everything is alive/can potentially come to life at any moment to potentially endanger you with their insane antics.
  • The sequence where Eddie meets Tweety Bird, Bugs Bunny, and Mickey Mouse (while falling from a skyscraper. They're less than helpful, even though Mickey felt sorry for Eddie. And Bugs did warn Eddie he wouldn't want the "spare").
  • The singing trees, even with their genial natures and goofy faces they're a little too happy and almost human-like.
  • Lena Hyena. Starting off as a seeming carbon copy of Jessica, she quickly morphs to her true Gonk self that's a pure Yandere causing Eddie to flee in horror from this loved-crazed loony that's bent on taking him for her own desires.
    • Add to that the implications of what would have happened had Lena actually managed to keep a hold on him. Eddie managed to escape because of luck and quick thinking using his experience of toon Genre Savvy to bend the rules of Toontown in his favor. It’s pretty clear from the implications that Lena had way more plans for Eddie than just kissing him, likely ending in an unhappy marriage against his will enabling her to force herself upon him.
    • In a squicky example, albeit in a very darkly humorous way, we see that Lena before charging at Eddie was sickeningly licking her lips and adjusting her saggy breasts. Talk about Dirty Old Woman. Eddie is very lucky to have just been kissed and nothing more.
    • On top of all of that, Lena’s still out there. What happens the next time some poor schmuck runs into her and doesn’t have Eddie’s luck or quick wit? Are those wedding bells or a funeral march?
• Roger's reactions to shots of strong alcohol (rocketing into the air while shrieking like a steam whistle, shattering everything breakable in Maroon's office and later the bar).
• The opening cartoon. It plays out exactly like a slapstick cartoon from the Golden Age... except that it's highlighted with horrifying, tense music and dramatic, dizzying camera angles. The whole thing is just nerve-wracking.
  • Roger's Freudian Threat when a meat cleaver hits the wall in between his legs, narrowly missing his manhood will make any guy cringe.
  • Don't overlook the threat that Baby Herman's mother utters just before leaving him in Roger's care. The rabbit isn't getting fired if he screws up, he's going back to the science lab, with the implicit suggestion that it's not so he can work there washing test tubes. (Roger is a white rabbit, i.e. your typical research animal, after all.)
  • Probably one of the darkest moments in the movie pops up right in this opening. When Baby Herman is crawling across the sink full of dirty dishes, he slips a little and his face goes underwater for half a second. Child drownings, anyone?
• The piano duel between Donald and Daffy. It's on the funny moments page, too, and for good reason, but there's an edge to it that leaves it feeling uncomfortable. For one, it's a knock-on, drag-out fight far more vicious than anything the two normally got up to in their respective cartoons, Amusing Injuries or no, and there's nothing to suggest that any of it is an act: they really do just hate working together^note Though a deleted scene revealed that they're actually friendly with each other off the clock. Similar to the opening cartoon, the violence is underlined by the music and cinematography, set to a manic piano piece, and shot with a variety of disorienting quick cuts and fast sweeps. The fight then ends with a cartoon cannon putting a very real hole in one of the pianos, proving the danger real, at least for the non-Nigh-Invulnerable. Replace the cartoon characters with flesh and blood people and the scene would basically be the nightclub setting up a Bar Brawl between the staff for entertainment, a low-key Blood Sport... and everyone laughs at it. Given the Fantastic Racism that's implied in the film, and the basis of the club on the Cotton Club (which did not feature fights but was certainly exploitative, being compared by one of its few black patrons to a zoo), the Mood Dissonance between the uncomfortably half-cartoon half-real brawl and its laughing audience likely was intentional.
• Roger chewing out Eddie over the idea of finding a new girl after seeing the Patty Cake pictures is kind of creepy.
  R.K. Maroon: Roger, I know this seems pretty painful now, but you'll find someone new. [to Eddie] Won't he, Mr. Valiant?
  Eddie: Good-looking guy like that? Heh. Dames will be breakin' his doors down.
  Roger: Dames? What dames?! [angrily grabs Eddie by the lapels] Jessica's the only one for me! You'll see! We'll rise above this piddling peccadillo! We're gonna be happy again! You got that?! HAPPY! Capital H-A-P-P-I!!! [runs through window]
  Eddie: At least he took it well.
• Doom draws Roger out of hiding by repeatedly rapping the first part of "Shave and a Haircut," as toons have an irrepressible instinct to finish it. Roger desperately tries to resist in what's basically the old "Try not to cough while the killer's looking for you" times a thousand while he twitches and his eyes swirl in an unsettling manner from trying to suppress a primal urge built into his system. The implications that a toon is physically compelled to act on Rule of Funny even if it's against their genuine interest of self-preservation is unsettling in its own right.
• The Singing Sword with Frank Sinatra's vocals. Even if he's not dangerous, there's something creepy about how almost humanlike his features are while have exaggerated features like enlarged ears and a dead look in his eyes with a perpetually dissonant expression of happiness. Eddie was genuinely (and justifiably) horrified when he realized he had pulled this out and not just because it was useless against Doom.
• The Pistol Packin' Possum. Even without physically appearing, his sole poster in Maroon's studio paints an image of a possum wearing dark gangster style clothing wielding a pistol, and giving a Slasher Smile — indicating a very violent character that deals in Black Comedy. A rather dark piece in the otherwise colorful collection of Roger Rabbit posters. It's not helped by the fact that his gun reflection blends with Doom's own before the latter shoots down Maroon. And there's the fact that on close inspection, he has red irises in his white sclera eyes....kinda like Doom's own true horrifying toon eyes.
  • There's some subtle foreshadowing in the film that might be an explanation: in Maroon's office is a poster for a cartoon called The Pistol Packin' Possum, and the poster shows that the possum has the same red eyes as Doom, and uses the same gun Doom uses to kill Maroon. Additionally, in the first scene where Valiant talks to Maroon about taking on the snoop job, behind Maroon are posters of cartoons on a rotating wall. The one on the right is a poster of the "Pistol Packin' Possum". When Valiant and Maroon walk over to the desk to discuss more business, the rotating wall is closed and the poster (along with the gun the possum is holding) is always pointed towards Maroon with his back turned to it. We never see the character himself, but its possible he was fired and went on this rampage as revenge, as the film, and even Roger, reveals that Toons aren't treated as equals to humans.
• The Toon Patrol's deaths. They had it coming, but it's still disconcerting to see them dying of prolonged laughter. Especially since they not only continue to laugh after Stupid and Wheezy die, but Smart Ass' death makes Greasy and Psycho laugh even harder. So hard in fact it that it proves to be the tipping point for both, killing them. Greasy just from the cackle, Psycho from laughing all the way down into the machine, flattening him.
  • When Wheezy is dying, his angelic soul floats out of him. Coughing, he desperately reaches out for it, but it flies away and he dies.
    • He doesn't just reach out for it, he outright grabs it and makes repeated attempts to pull it back into his body, all while his laughter becomes more like frantic panicked gasping. If you watch closely, you can even see the "angel" (which still has its lower half in Wheezy's chest) actually kick itself free as Wheezy finally gives up the ghost.
  • The straitjacketed weasel Psycho is practically a Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant. Just listen to him coo, "Time to kill the raaaab-biiiiit..." He even turns the Dip on Jessica and Roger AFTER HE'S DEAD. His ghost was that invested in killing them.
  • Though he's far more deserving of it than the innocent cartoon shoe, Smart Ass dying from Dip is still highly disturbing. The other weasels at least got to fly away as ghosts, but Smart Ass doesn't implying he's completely ceased to exist.
  • When Psycho topples off the machine due to his insane laughter, there's a prominent shot of his open cutthroat razor flying into the air and falling after him. Sure, we don't see anything but the implications of what ultimately killed him are pretty horrifying to think about, especially since it's later established thanks to Doom that merely being flattened on the roller wouldn't be enough to do the deed on its own...

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Other Elements

• The "Pighead" deleted scene.
  • Eddie breaks into the Ink and Paint Club in order to get the will from Jessica, only to be knocked out by Bongo before he can get too far, with him realizing he messed up.
  • Eddie then wakes up to see Judge Doom looming over menacingly over him as he then orders Bongo to pick the detective up — and sees Jessica in the room. After making snide remarks about Jessica and Bongo while suggesting that Maroon's flunkies were looking for the will (unaware that it's actually Doom in that very room who wanted it for himself); the Hanging Judge tells Bongo that he'll handle Eddie downtown. Eddie initially assumes it's at the offices with Santino, until Doom clarifies it to be Downtown Toontown, much to Eddie's shock as the doors open to reveal the Toon Patrol grinning in anticipation for what they'll do to the detective, with Smart-Ass giving off a sinister grin and his pupil flickering in a maddening way as he tells Eddie that he should've stayed out of the case.
  • Eddie then is driven against his will into Toontown, the place of his trauma; and the next morning, Eddie is left outside of Toontown as the Weasels walk away proud of their work. Eddie uncovers the bag to reveal that he was "toonarooned"- which is to say a toon pig head has been forcibly painted on him. One that grins constantly and is in constant subtle motion.
  • The traumatized Eddie goes back to his office screaming all the way, using turpentine to erase the pig head off his head, leading to a creepy shot of the pig's eyes and nose in a puddle of bloody flesh-like ink sinking into the shower drain.
• The scene in which Eddie brutally interrogates Maroon is pretty unsettling, as Maroon is clearly fearing for his life and knows full well what kind of monster they're both dealing with, and is resisting Eddie's advances to save his own hide. Eddie then begins strangling him by running his tie through the Moviola, but before Maroon can reveal what's to become of Toontown if the will doesn't show, he's brutally gunned down. As much of a jerk as Maroon could be, his torture and murder can be pretty difficult to watch.
  • That one bleak still shot of his corpse. Even compared to previous examples, there's no cartoon elements or nature to balance it out, just a film noir-esque live-action murder.
• When Eddie causes the Weasels to die laughing, their souls leave their bodies. When he kicks Smart-Ass into the Dip, his soul doesn't. The Dip destroys their very souls.
• Here's a frightening bit of Reality Subtext for you: Those chemicals used to create the Dip? Those were used in the earliest days of animation studios that would cut costs by washing off painted cels after they'd been photographed to be reused in future films. As a result, physical artwork from many of those films have been lost forever. In-Universe, it's suggested that toons are made of ink-and-paint, meaning that, once dipped, they are as well.
• If you notice the Acme Factory background at night throughout Judge Doom's capture of Eddie and Jessica and even beyond his demise at the Dip; you notice that there are large, toothy shadows of toons including rodents and a Tyrannosaurus-like dinosaur. None of this is ever commented on or explained in the movie.
  • The Acme Factory itself is creepy in general. While the outside looks like an average warehouse, the interior features various toon props that are both hyper-realistic and very exaggerated in design simultaneously. These include a pink elephant being held up by a net, a large Napoleon Bonaparte bust; assortments of large, eerie human heads; cardboard cutouts of ghosts, skeletons, and insensitive depictions of the Chinese amongst other oddities. The factory feels like a nexus between the real world and the Toon world with the most terrifying scenes occurring there.
• While Roger is talking brightly about it, the fact remains that his words heavily imply that Valiant & Valiant was among the few, if not the only, agencies that would take on toon cases. Two of the newspaper articles of Eddie's old cases were clearing Goofy of being a spy (possibly for the Axis Powers since the clipping was from 1940, so WWII was well underway at that point) and rescuing Huey, Dewey and Louie when they were kidnapped; the thought of no one else being around to ensure those events ended well is... unpleasant to say the least.
• Removed from the Toon stuff, Jessica's situation is eerily realistic. Picture, if you will, the story from her perspective. She's a young, gorgeous woman who's Happily Married. Her husband may not be the best-looking guy, but he's sweet and devoted and makes her laugh, and she adores him. He's also a huge movie star, leading everyone to assume she's a malicious Gold Digger, and no one, save for her husband, gives her much respect. Then, one day, a very powerful man who works in her husband's industry approaches her, and says that if she doesn't meet with a rich mogul who's always had a thing for her and give him what he wants, her husband will never work again. She doesn't know why this is happening to her, just that she has to either engage in an affair she wants absolutely no part of, or watch her husband lose the career he loves. (Hello, Sexual Extortion.) So she grits her teeth and does what she must... and then pictures of her "indiscretion" end up on the front page and her husband's been accused of killing the other guy. When she tries to explain, no one she talks to believes her at first.
• The Dip Mobile-the vehicle made to wipe out Toontown, is a ghastly looking, modified truck with front view window-screens designed to be angered eyes with red lighting; a moveable, pressurized, serpentine water cannon; enlarged cleaning brushes, and a cauldron of dip-making the intended execution both nightmarish and indifferently professional as it would cleanse Toontown like a street cleaner would do to any mess.

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