Censorship is not a new concept in China. Censors often adapt the storylines of controversial video games and filmsto reflect good morals.
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However, an alternate ending to the animated movie, Minions: The Rise of Gru, has taken Chinese viewers by surprise.
The film follows young Gru as he pursues his dream of becoming evil with the help of his minions. However, when he auditions to join his supervillain dream-team, the Vicious 6, things don’t go quite as planned. With the help of the gang’s former leader, Wild Knuckles, Gru and his minions manage to get out of trouble, and the film ends by showing the unlikely friends driving off together.
Happily never after?
Before this happily-ever-after, however, Wild Knuckles fakes his death in order to escape imprisonment for theft.
Chinese censors weren’t too fond of the message this sent to viewers. According to screenshots from Chinese social media cited in The Guardian, they added an addendum in which Wild Knuckles was arrested and served two decades in prison.
In the addendum, the censors also made it a point to mention that Gru became a family-man and wrote:
His biggest accomplishment is being the father to his three girls.
A ‘politically correct’ ending
CNN says that the film-editing was an attempt to make the storyline more ‘politically correct’ and reported that the movie review publisher, DuSir, wrote the following explanation for the alternate ending:
It's only us who need special guidance and care, for fear that a cartoon will 'corrupt' us.
In fact, China limits the number of international films to be shown on big screens across the country. When Chinese audiences lamented the alternate ending of Fight Club in 1999, however, censors revived the original ending.
Will the new Minions movie’s happily-never-after be restored to happily-ever-after?
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