“Minions: the origin of Gru” -“Minions: a villain is born” in Latin America- premiered this month in China, after which some viewers began to comment on the country’s social networks about the abrupt ending of the film, different from that of the international version.
In the fifth installment of the film series “Gru: my favorite villain”, as it is known in Spain, or “My favorite villain” in Latin America, released several weeks after the rest of the world, one of the characters has a different outcome to that of its worldwide distribution, highlighted some Internet users on the Weibo social network, equivalent to Twitter, which is blocked in the Asian country.
The animated film, set in 1970s San Francisco, tells the story of a young Gru, who went from being a coward to a criminal supported by a character who, in the version released in the Asian giant, went on to live a alternative ending.
While the rest of the world was able to see how the main character’s mentor, named Willy Kobra, escaped from the police by faking his death, in China he was caught by the police and imprisoned for 20 years.
The change is explained with a series of still images inserted into the credits sequence at the end of the screening.
In addition, the Chinese distributors wanted to highlight that the main character, Gru, despite being a villain by profession, “eventually became one of the good guys, dedicated to taking care of his family,” according to a message at the end of the film. .
The alteration of films is relatively common in China, where the authorities or sometimes the platforms and distributors themselves tend to censor nudity, political content considered sensitive or sexual scenes.
It is not clear if the ending of the Minions movie was changed due to the censors’ request or if the producers considered it a more acceptable conclusion for the Chinese market.
David Fincher’s 1999 classic “Fight Club” received similar treatment when Chinese video platform Tencent Video uploaded a version in January in which police arrested the protagonist’s plan to end modern civilization.