Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
Plot: Elvis trades in his jumpsuit for a jetpack when he joins a secret government spy program to help battle the dark forces that threaten the country.
Review: While I haven’t seen Baz Luhrmann’s biopic Elvis, I’m very much aware of how well received it was. And the reason I’m bringing that up is simply because I have no idea who asked for an animated version of Elvis as a secret spy working for a shadow government agency, but I’m guessing it’s the same people who voted for Luhrmann’s movie to win as many awards as it could.
The animation style will easily bring another animated spy to mind, Archer, but points have to be given to Mike Arnold (who also created the titular Archer on the long-running FX series) and fellow creators John Eddie and, strangely enough, Priscilla Presley, for ensuring Agent Elvis wasn’t just a lazy rip-off of that series. Surprisingly, this is a bit more raunchy, violent and off-kilter than Archer is, and Agent Elvis plays like a weird mash-up of 60’s-70’s era music and celebrities meets James Bond meets loads of blood and guts.
Fans of Elvis would most likely be of a certain age (although music is timeless so no judgement if you’re a young fan) so it’s hard for me to imagine they would be okay with all the R-rated shenanigans Elvis, his drug loving pet monkey Scatter (Tom Kenny) and his genius redneck bestie Bobby Ray (Johnny Knoxville) get up to here. Younger viewers will probably just find themselves comparing it to Archer and trying to decide “who wore it best,” while hardcore Elvis impersonators will probably feel personally insulted by the fact Matthew McConaughey does absolutely nothing to sound like Elvis and instead just lets his unique southern drawl do its thing.
Personally, I’ve always thought of McConaughey as a kind of modern-day Elvis so the voice never bothered me. Niecy Nash as Bertie and Don Cheadle as The Commander had me in stitches and Kaitlin Olson as Elvis’ reluctant partner CeCe was a character I liked from the very first episode. I also never noticed how much Johnny Knoxville kind of sounds like Matthew McC, so that’s something I would’ve never realised if it weren’t for this show.
Agent Elvis might just be the weirdest animated show I’ve seen this year. The colour palette and artwork is really nice (it does look a bit like the Saturday morning cartoons of that era) and, while the adult themes and a constantly foul-mouthed Elvis does feel weird, it’s the weirdness and the dark humour that makes this worth checking out at least once, if just to see a version of Elvis tripping on acid and karate kicking the crap out of Charles Manson. Like I said, you’ll need to see this one for yourself.
Score: 6.5 out of 10
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Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
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