'Minions' gets an alternate ending in China
August 22, 2022
In China, even an animated antihero can't be allowed to get away with his dastardly deeds — or so censors want moviegoers to believe.
Social media users across the country noticed over the weekend that censors had altered the ending of the latest film in the "Despicable Me" animated franchise, "Minions: The Rise of Gru."
In the international version, the film ends with Gru and his mentor, Wild Knuckles, riding off into the sunset after the latter faked his own death to evade capture.
But not in mainland China, where a series of subtitled still images inserted into the credits sequence informed cinemagoers that Wild Knuckles had been caught and locked up for 20 years.
He then puts his con artist skills to positive use in prison, where he follows his "love of acting" and sets up a theatrical troupe.
As for Gru, he "eventually became one of the good guys," devoted to raising his family, the Chinese ending says.
"It's only us who need special guidance and care, for fear that a cartoon will 'corrupt' us," DuSir, an online movie review publisher with 14.4 million followers on social media platform Weibo, wrote on Saturday.
He noted that the Chinese version of the film runs one minute longer than the international version.
Other online commentators mocked the addendum, saying it resembled a PowerPoint presentation.
Chinese censors love change
Western films often have certain scenes omitted or altered in China.
Last year, fans of the 1999 film "Fight Club" saw a very different ending when it appeared on a popular Chinese streaming platform.
Viewers were told police had foiled a plan by the protagonist and his alter ego, played by Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, to detonate a set of skyscrapers.
In China, Pitt's character, Tyler Durden, was also not just a figment of Norton's character's imagination but was sent to an asylum and later discharged.
LGBTQ plotlines from hit US sitcom "Friends" were also removed before it was streamed earlier this year.
Disney's latest animated film, "Lightyear," was not even released in China as the company refused to remove a scene showing two female characters kissing.
lo/rt (AFP, Reuters)