First we had Baz Luhrmann’s biopic and then Netflix’s adult cartoon, but it turns out that Elvis Presley’s close family couldn’t stand either. Billy Smith, The King’s cousin and last surviving original Memphis Mafia member who is one of the only people left alive who knew the real man, has watched Agent Elvis’ first few episodes and had to turn it off.
Agent Elvis is created by The King’s ex-wife Priscilla Presley, who voices herself in the tongue-in-cheek cartoon. The adult animation is set between 1968-73 and imagines the singer as a secret agent going on missions that wouldn’t look out of place in an Austin Powers movie.
The critics loved Agent Elvis, but many loyal fans took to social media upon its release on Netflix to share how much they couldn’t stand the cartoon, which is full of swearing, crude humour and bloody violence. Speaking on his YouTube channel Elvis Fans Matter, Billy couldn’t agree more with those fans.
Billy, who lived at Graceland with Elvis and was with him hours before he died in 1977, said: “I watched three of the little episodes and I couldn’t take no more. It jumped around all over the place.
“Just blood splattered here and there… It’s more like they’re downing Elvis…I’d sooner watch a Buffalo run through sage grass…the movie was bad and this was just worse.” His wife Jo, who knew The King incredibly well too, felt the show was just mocking the late star and worried that younger fans would think that’s what he was really like.
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Jo Smith said: “It’s like a mockery; making fun. To me, I thought it was the silliest bunch of crap I’ve ever seen in my life. I didn’t like it at all. I’m surprised Priscilla was even involved in something like that…Elvis would be so ashamed. I think he would be angered to be portrayed like that… I don’t see how Lisa would like that…I can tell you one thing… knowing Elvis the way [we] knew him he would have shot that TV out in a minute.”
Although a fan of Matthew McConaughey, she didn’t like him voicing Elvis and on the swearing added: “That to me is just nasty. Not that he didn’t cuss and say the F-word at all that, but he didn’t do it every time we went out.”