China changes ending to Minions movie turning Gru into a good guy

Chinese censors have changed the ending of Minions: The Rise of Gru to make the famous supervillain turn into a good guy according to reports.

The beloved Despicable Me prequel hit Chinese theaters running one-minute longer than the US version according to Reuters.

In the one-minute longer ending, censors in China changed the ending to make Gru 'return to his family' where his 'biggest accomplishment is being the father to his three girls' and his co-conspirer Wild Knuckles going to jail for 20 years.

The original version ends with Gru and Wild Knuckles riding off together after successfully heisting and Wild Knuckles faking his own death to evade authorities.

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On Weibo, a Chinese social media platform similar to Twitter, users posted about the censored ending according to The Guardian.

Reportedly, the ending resembled that of a PowerPoint presentation.

DuSir, a film review publisher with 14 million followers of Weibo, criticized the changed ending saying, "It’s only us who need special guidance and care for fear that a cartoon will ‘corrupt’ us."

Other people expressed disappointment in the ending since it does not line-up with Gru's character in the other movies.

Minions is not the only film to get a censored treatment. Many other Hollywood films and TV shows have been altered or omit certain scenes.

Last year, viewers noticed the ending to Fight Club had been changed so the protagonist's plan to blow up a set of skyscrapers was stopped by the police.

The hit show Friends returned to Chinese streaming platforms only to cut out an LGBTQ plotline. A similar instances happened with Fantastic Beasts 3.

It is unclear why China censored the Minions ending but some have theorized it may be because it promotes villainous behavior.

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