Ice Princess

"The tree lights up and I push the button... no, no, wait, wait. I press the button, and then the tree lights up!"

- The Ice Princess

Biography
The Ice Princess was a Christmas-themed beauty queen honored with the role of switching on Gotham City's Christmas lights during the annual Tree Lighting Ceremony. Unfortunately, this happy occasion was interrupted by the Red Triangle Gang's rampage on Gotham Plaza.

Later, the Penguin, challenged the current mayor of Gotham City to authorize a new tree-lighting ceremony, apparently as a means of testing his competency, but in effect part of his plan to frame Batman and discredit the mayor thereby enhancing his own mayoral bid. Consequently, the Ice Princess was called again to preside over the tree-lighting honors.

The Ice Princess was rehearsing the ceremony when Bruce Wayne invited Selina Kyle to Wayne Manor to watch the ceremony on television. Later that evening, the Ice Princess was in her dressing room mentally struggling to go over the simple instructions for lighting the tree when the Penguin and the Poodle Lady burst in. Although the Ice Princess was initially alarmed, since she had no clue who the Penguin was despite his various appearances in the news over the previous few days, she was instantly reassured once the Penguin introduced himself as a talent scout. After mistaking Batman's Batarang, retrieved by the Poodle Lady's Poodle during the Red Triangle Gang's fight with Batman, for a camera, the Ice Princess gladly posed for a picture at the Penguin's request. The Penguin then threw the Batarang into the Ice Princess's dressing table mirror, thus framing Batman for her kidnap.

Bruce and Selina were sharing a moment of intimacy at Wayne Manor when a flash news report appeared on television informing the public of the Ice Princess's kidnap. Although an at-the-scene James Gordon was hesitant to blame Batman, a bloodied Batarang seemed to point to his part in the kidnap. Bruce had to prematurely end his date with Selina in order to rescue the Ice Princess. Selina also left abruptly shortly afterwards.

Batman soon spotted the Ice Princess, gagged and bound to a chair in an abandoned building, and raced to her rescue. Before Batman had finished untying the Ice Princess, Catwoman swung in and kicked Batman away from the hostage. Catwoman cut the binds holding Ice Princess to the chair and wrapped her whip around the Ice Princess' throat, choking her. "Gotta go, girl talk!"

- Catwoman

Catwoman then fled to the roof with the gagging Ice Princess, barely able to breathe. Batman followed, but when he got to the roof Catwoman was nowhere to be seen. The Ice Princess was alone standing on a ledge, but before Batman had a chance to help her down off the edge of the roof, the Penguin appeared and threw an umbrella that burst open to release a swarm of baby bats. The Ice Princess panicked and tried to swat them away. However, she lost her balance, fell off the roof and plunged to her death, crashing onto the very button she would have pressed to light up the Christmas Tree, had she lived. Yet, instead of activating the tree lights, the impact of the Ice Princess's body landing on the control box released several hundred bats hidden inside the tree, creating little doubt in the Gotham public's minds that Batman had pushed her off the building moments earlier.

Personality
The Ice Princess was not exactly the brightest bulb on the tree. She was rather gullible at times. She foolishly believed that the Penguin was a talent scout and that a stolen Batarang was a camera. However, apart from being rather naive, she was also extremely beautiful, curvaceous, bubbly and sexy.

Appearance
Appearance wise, the Ice Princess's costume consisted of a shiny, silver white-fox-fur-lined corset, fur-lined silver and black gloves and black boots, and she possessed the golden blonde hair, blue eyes, and buxom figure of a typical 1950s beauty queen.

Behind the Scenes

 * In the original screenplay and novelization of the movie, the Ice Princess is depicted as shoving an elderly woman to the ground during the Red Triangle Circus Gang's attack on Gotham Plaza, contrary to the seemingly charming and sweet image she presents during the lighting of the tree. Cristi Conaway, the actress who plays the Ice Princess, confirmed as much in a 1992 interview with Entertainment Weekly when she described her Batman Returns character as the type "to push an old lady down and try to fix her nail at the same time".