In my view, the Roland and Rattfink series is an uneven one and it is not too difficult to see why it is not one of DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' most popular or best known theatrical series. None of the seventeen cartoons made between 1968 and 1971 are unwatchable, at the same time none of them ever leaped out at me as classics. The general standard tending to be between mediocre and decent. It started off relatively promisingly with 'Hawks and Doves', but there was a lot of room for improvement.
One does sort of hope that a series grows and improves with each installment, and also not taking too long in doing so. The second Roland and Rattfink cartoon 'Hurts and Flowers' doesn't really do that. Actually not only think that it is an inferior cartoon to 'Hawks and Doves', even having a couple of that cartoon's faults still, but somehow it doesn't feel like a Roland and Rattfink cartoon other than having the two characters. Have absolutely no problem with anything that tries to do something differently in comparison to the previous cartoon and what came after, but it is more of a problem when it strays too far and not for the better which is the case here.
'Hurts and Flowers' is a long way from being a must-avoid, it has its moments, but it is one of the few Roland and Rattfink cartoons where there is uncertainty on what my overall stance is while thinking that the drawbacks stick out more. There are good things here. Some of the visual slapstick is animated well. The music is, as was typical for the studio's ouput, light-hearted and playful without being done in an over-bearing manner. The theme tune is another memorable one for the studio.
There are a few amusing (never hilarious though) moments, with some amusing slap-stick and the best line actually not coming from either Roland and Rattfink in an atypically relatively dialogue-light cartoon. The line in question being the bad trip one at the end of the penultimate scene. Have no problem with Roland in characterisation, well-meaning and rootable.
Unfortunately cannot say the same for Rattfink, 'Hurts and Flowers' goes well overboard on his treatment of Roland. Which comes over as far too viciously cruel, not quite sadistic but still not particularly tasteful. A big problem is that the cartoon mostly is not very funny to put it lightly, taking what was actually one of the series' more logical scenarios much too seriously and not really having much fun with it at all. 'Hawks and Doves' had this exact same problem too, but at least that was not mean-spirited like 'Hurts and Flowers' was. Just my stance on this.
Again, the story is very slight, too much so, and while it gets to the point much quicker than the previous cartoon did the pace doesn't really come to life properly. Even the animation isn't great, not the character animation or animation for the slapstick as such (the latter coming off the best) but it's the colour of the backgrounds (here very non-budget Saturday morning television standard) standing out as especially unattractive, the equivalent of very dark bogie snot.
Overall, not a too difficult watch but didn't have a particularly good time watching it sadly. 5/10