China alters ending of Minions: The Rise of Gru

• Censors had inserted a number of subtitled still photos into the credits sequence.
• Credits describe how Wild Knuckles was apprehended and imprisoned for 20 years.
• DuSir, a well-known movie blogger, branded the modifications as “outrageous”.

Minions Gru’s development into a supervillain later in the series is set up in Minions: The Rise of Gru, which follows the antihero during his teenage years.

The most recent instalment of the Despicable Me franchise had its world premiere on Friday in China, but as local spectators found out, it had a different conclusion.

There are plot spoilers ahead, so beware.

The Chinese version, however, does not conclude with Gru and his guide Wild Knuckles galloping out into the distance, unlike the original film.

Wild Knuckles is instead imprisoned, and Gru “becomes one of the good guys.”

Censors had inserted a number of subtitled still photos into the credits sequence, according to posts and screenshots of the movie uploaded on the Chinese microblogging website Weibo.

In it, they describe how Wild Knuckles was apprehended and imprisoned for 20 years following a botched theft. Additionally, he develops a “love of acting” and forms a theatre group.

While all was going on, Gru “returned to his family,” and raising his three daughters became his “greatest accomplishment.”

Many Chinese ridiculed the change.

One commenter said, “The real story is in a parallel universe.

Others claimed that Gru’s alternate ending inadvertently endorsed China’s three-child policy, which the nation is attempting to implement in order to increase its birth rate. The quality of the subtitled stills was frequently compared to PowerPoint presentation slides.

DuSir, a well-known movie blogger with more than 14 million Weibo followers, branded the modifications as “outrageous.”

He questioned why only Chinese people required “special guidance and care” in an article.

He questioned, “How weak and lacking judgment do they think our audiences are?”

Despite this, the fifth instalment of the series’ film managed to become a box office hit, earning a record-breaking 21.74 million yuan ($3.2 million; £2.7 million) on its first day in China, according to entertainment website Deadline.

It is not the first time a well-known international movie has had its conclusion changed for China, which has some of the tightest censorship laws in the whole world.

The original ending of the 1999 cult classic Fight Club, in which the protagonist blows up several skyscrapers, was changed to a message stating that the authorities prevailed and saved the day earlier this year in a version of the movie that was made available on the Chinese streaming service Tencent Video.

Backlash to the alterations even prompted replies from the author Chuck Palahniuk, whose 1996 novel served as the basis for the film, and director David Fincher. The revised epilogue was labelled “dystopian” by Human Rights Watch.

Later, Tencent undid the majority of the adjustments, keeping only the cuts to nudity-related portions.

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