China Censors ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’: Now Gru Gets a Happily Ever After
Editor’s Note: Spoilers ahead for the ending of “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”
China has continued its rise of alternate endings due to censorship.
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Reuters first reported that Chinese national censors seem to find the original ending to “Minions: The Rise of Gru” as “Despicable” for rewarding gang-related mischief. In China, according to social media users first to notice the alternate ending, the animated Universal Pictures film has received a title card reading that Wild Knuckles, a main character in the heist film, was caught by the police and served 20 years in jail.
Meanwhile, in the new ending, Wild Knuckles’ mastermind co-conspirator Gru has “returned to his family.” The title cards say that, years later, his “biggest accomplishment is being the father to his three girls.” Screenshots of the title cards were uploaded to social media site Weibo, per Reuters.
In the original film, Gru and Wild Knuckles ride off together after Wild Knuckles faked his own death to escape the authorities.
DuSir, a movie review influencer with 14.4 million followers on Chinese platform Weibo, also reported that the Chinese version of the film runs one minute longer than the international version. “It’s only us who need special guidance and care, for fear that a cartoon will ‘corrupt’ us,” DuSir captioned.
IndieWire has reached out to Universal Pictures for comment.
Of course, “The Rise of Gru” also caused somewhat of an uproar on an international scale due to the TikTok trend of Gentleminions, officially endorsed by Universal Pictures. The Independent reported that in the U.K., theaters had to issue refunds due to disruptive fan responses during screenings.
Earlier this year, David Fincher’s anarchist 1999 film “Fight Club” was edited with an entirely different ending that showed law enforcement thwarting the Narrator (Edward Norton) from blowing up his city. Streaming site Tencent Video instead included a caption to explain what happened to the Narrator: “Through the clue provided by Tyler, the police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding,” the title card read. “After the trial, Tyler was sent to lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012.”
Sound familiar?
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