China appears to censor ending of Minions: The Rise of Gru film to be 'politically correct'
China has been accused of changing the ending of the animated film Minions: The Rise of Gru, in the interests of political correctness.
Cinemagoers in China have flocked to social media to complain after the ending of the Hollywood film was reportedly censored.
Users of the popular social media platform Weibo noticed the ending had been edited for its domestic release in China over the weekend.
It is not the first time Chinese authorities have appeared to change a popular Hollywood movie in a bid to make an internationally film more politically correct for domestic audiences.
Spoiler alert: this story continues with details of the ending of Minions: The Rise of Gru.
Posts and screenshots shared on Weibo reveal the ending of the Despicable Me prequel was altered to show how the main character and thief Wild Knuckles was caught by police and forced to serve 20 years in jail.
Meanwhile, his co-conspirator, supervillain Gru, is shown to have "returned to his family," and "his biggest accomplishment is being the father to his three girls."
In the international version, shown in the UK, the movie ends with Gru and Wild Knuckles riding off into the sunset together after Wild Knuckles faked his own death to avoid being captured by the authorities.
The addendum was mocked by Weibo users, with some saying the tacked-on scenes resembled a power-point presentation.
Online movie review site DuSir noted the Chinese version of the movie was 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," read a piece on the site that questioned why the extra minute was necessary.
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In China, there is a quota on the number of international movies that can be shown in domestic cinemas.
It is commonplace for Hollywood films to have certain scenes removed or changed.
Last year, Chinese viewers noticed the original ending of the classic 1999 film Fight Club, which shows the main character and his alter ego blow up a set of skyscrapers, had been changed on the streaming platform Tencent Video.
A script on the screen said instead that police had "rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding."
Chinese site Tencent eventually restored the original ending of the movie, but not before Chuck Palahniuk, the author of the novel the film was adapted from, issued a sarcastic response on Twitter, saying: "This is SUPER wonderful! Everyone gets a happy ending in China!"
Universal Pictures, Minions' distributor in the United States, and Huaxia Film Distribution Co and China Film Co, its distributors in China, did not respond to requests for comment.
China's add-on to the Minions plotline was not the first time the film's recent release has grabbed headlines.
After it hit UK screens in June, a number of cinemas banned youngsters wearing suits from screenings over claims of rowdy behaviour.
The youngsters had suited up to take part in a viral Tiktok trend involving large groups of teenage boys, who called themselves The Gentleminions, filming each other going to watch Minions in formal attire.
It is not clear where the trend originated but the #gentleminions videos captured large groups of suited young men copying the main character, supervillain Gru, and his signature hand gesture.
Some even took bananas to snack on during the screenings, referencing the Minions' favourite food.