Minions: The Rise of Gru Ending Altered In China, Showcases Villain Serves Jail Time With PowerPoint-Quality Slides At Post Credit! ( Photo Credit – Still from Minions: The Rise of Gru )
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American computer-animated comedy film Minions: The Rise of Gru, which is the spin-off prequel of the 2015 film Minions, was released in theatres recently after being postponed for two years due to the covid-19 pandemic. While the film is liked by many, Chinese authorities did not seem to be impressed by it.
The animated film is written by Matthew Fogel and directed by Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson along with Jonathan del Val. Steve Carell reprises his role as Gru and Pierre Coffin as the Minions. The film also stars Taraji P. Henson, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, and Alan Arkin in important roles.
As the whole world is watching Minions: The Rise of Gru, Chinese audiences aren’t exactly seeing the same film as the rest of the world. China’s authorities have altered the ending of the animated film for release, thereby giving viewers a different “version” of how the story ends.
The animated film ends with supervillain Gru riding off with his co-conspirator Wild Knuckles who successfully faked his death to avoid being captured. However, the chinese version cut off the sequence and replaced it with a series of of subtitled still images in the credits sequence.
As reported by Bloomberg, the credit sequence showcased that Wild Knuckles was caught after a failed heist and locked up for 20 years. He even found a love for acting and started a theatrical troupe. Gru, on the other hand, gave up crime and returned to his family.
The Chinese version of Minions: The Rise of Gru also showed Gru adopting three daughters and described it as his biggest achievement. This is in contradiction to not only Minions: The Rise of Gru but also the first film in the Despicable Me franchise which shows Gru having a change of heart and giving up crime after adopting three daughters.
Audiences in China criticised the change, and a hashtag referring to it began to trend on China’s social media Weibo. It reportedly garnered around 1.7 million views. Disgruntled users called the changes ‘outrageous’. A user wrote, “The real story is in a parallel universe,” while another popular movie blogger wrote, “How weak and lacking judgment do they think our audiences are?”.
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