China’s Censors Turn Minions Into a Real-World Crime Drama
When Minions: The Rise of Gru hit Chinese screens, the surge of… came not just from the shenanigans of the cartoon nephews, but from a freshly rewritten ending that sent fans scattering all over Weibo.
What the Censors Did
- Added a post‑script that says Wild Knuckles gets cuffed and spends 20 years in jail.
- Featured Gru returning to his family and boasting that his “greatest accomplishment” is being a dad to three girls.
- Rose the film’s length by a full minute—why extra time was needed remains a mystery.
Where the international version leaves the two bumbling thieves riding off into the sunset—Wild Knuckles having faked his own death—China’s version walks the other way, with a police escort in sight.
Why Fans Are Shaking Their Heads
- Online critics compared the added script to a PowerPoint presentation, laughing at the mechanical tone.
- Viral movie‑reviewer DuSir (14.4 M followers) asked, “Why the extra minute? If only we need more guidance to avoid being corrupted by cartoons.”
- The Universal Pictures team stayed silent, and local distributors stayed even more silent.
History of Hollywood Censorship in China
It’s not the first time Hollywood has been tailor‑made in China. In 2023, fans of the 1999 classic Fight Club discovered that the original ending—where the protagonist and his alter‑ego set off a bomb—was replaced with a script claiming the police “quickly arrested all criminals.” That gag was eventually reversed by Tencent, showing the original ending again.
These edits illustrate the FCC‑style curation of foreign films that China allows in theaters; the studio needs to go through a content‑approval process to keep the story “politically correct.” Though the action remains for the average movie‑goer, the adjustments can turn a simple splashy adventure into a hard‑wired government mandate.
Bottom Line
If you watch this Minions in China, remember, you’re really seeing a censored version that’s been “polished” for the kingdom’s sense of civic responsibility—and a little extra time for the “extreme” redemption arc. The world outside the CROKR is still laughing at their own hat‑trick of wackiness, while the Chinese version sticks to the essential rule: “Cartoons must not corrupt.”
