Despicable Me supervillain Gru is a family-loving hero after all - or at least that is the impression Chinese audiences are getting from an edited ending.
Minions: The Rise of Gru follows the Steve Carrell-voiced character’s teenage years and descent into villainy seen in the rest of the franchise. Or at least, he does in cinemas outside of China.
The Despicable Me prequel, the fifth in the franchise, has already attracted headlines in the UK and beyond with a TikTok trend seeing tropes of youngsters dress up in suits for screenings. This ‘Gentle minions’ movement has led to some cinema chains banning formal outfits or holding special showings.
The established ending sees Gru ride off with mentor and bad-influence Wild Knuckles as the sun goes down. But such darkness is absent from the Chinese version, where a credits sequence reveals an alternative ending. In China, Wild Knuckles is caught and jailed for 20 years - taking up acting in prison - while Gru becomes a family man and describes raising three daughters as his “biggest achievement”.
Chinese censors have been derided for apparently promoting the government’s freshly-announced three-child policy. Birth rates have fallen in the country after years of the one-child policy, with the trend continuing despite couples being permitted to have two children from 2016.
Thousands have flocked to see the film in China, with The Rise of Gru making £2.7million on its first day - one of the highest post-pandemic openings in the country.
Commentators have taken to Chinese social network Weibo to attack the edit.
Leading film blogger DuSir told his 14million followers "How weak and lacking judgement do they think our audiences are?", adding the move was “outrageous”.
The cut was, however, not as severe as an edit to the version of 1999 film Fight Club available on Chinese streaming service. In this new take, Edward Norton’s anarchist movement’s triumph of destroying buildings at the conclusion is replaced with a message saying the authorities had taken back control.
The sixth Despicable Me film has already been announced for 2024 and will almost certainly pick up Gru as his usual villainous self - perhaps giving Beijing’s editors their greatest creative challenge yet.
