Chinese censors change ending of ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’
China has slightly altered the ending to Universal’s animated sensation Minions: The Rise of Gru, with the movie premiering last Friday to the surprise of fans who knew the climax was changed.
The latest in the Despicable Me series sees the antihero Gru in his adolescent years, long before he became the supervillain he is known as throughout the franchise. Featuring the voices of such actors as Steve Carell, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Yeoh, Julie Andrews and Russell Brand, the new film performed well in America and Europe, pulling in $835 million across the world so far.
The change from China comes at the end of the film when (spoilers!) Gru and his mentor Wild Knuckles do not ride off into the sunset like the original version. Instead, Knuckles is jailed whilst Gru is left to become the supervillain he’d always wanted to be.
Screenshots from the film’s end showed that censors had added subtitles to the start of the credit sequence that explained Wild Knuckles was locked up for 20 years after a failed heist, meanwhile, Gru “returned to his family” before naming the raising of his three young girls his “biggest accomplishment”.
Such changes have been met with both confusion and outrage in China, with many believing that the altered ending promotes the country’s new three-child policy as it tries to raise its birth rate. A similar act of censorship occurred when China released a new version of David Fincher’s Fight Club in which the protagonist and his team were unsuccessful in bringing down the establishment and instead went to jail for their crimes.
Take a look at the trailer for the movie below that caused a cultural stir upon its release earlier in 2022.
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