What’s small, yellow, loves bananas and promotes the rule of law? A Minion, at least according to an edited version of the latest animated film featuring supervillain Gru and his army of tiny sidekicks being screened in China. 

The fifth instalment of the lucrative “Despicable Me” franchise, “Minions: The Rise of Gru”, premiered in China this month, several weeks after the film opened in United States cinemas.

But while the international version of the kung fu-filled family-friendly romp set in 1970s San Francisco tells the story of how the dastardly Gru cut his teeth as a tween criminal, filmgoers in China are treated to an alternative ending in which the good guys win.

And the highly anticipated return of US sitcom “Friends” to Chinese streaming platforms in February prompted fury among fans after viewers noticed a LGBTQ plotline was cut.

It is unclear if the “Minions” ending was altered due to censors’ demands or if producers considered it a more palatable conclusion for the Chinese market.

Universal did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.

Social media reaction to the Chinese “Minions” ending was mixed, with one person on the Twitter-like Weibo social media platform saying they had gone to the cinema specifically to see the new ending but was disappointed that it was “just subtitles”.

Other fans were upset by the discontinuity between young Gru’s virtuous transformation in the new film, a prequel, and his continued villainous behaviour in the other films, set in the present day.

“We can only say that the Gru of the main films lives in another parallel Minion universe,” one Weibo user complained.