Muscle Beach Tom
| Muscle Beach Tom | |
|---|---|
| Tom and Jerry series | |
 Title Card | |
| Directed by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Produced by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Story by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Music by | Scott Bradley |
| Animation by |
Lewis Marshall Kenneth Muse Ed Barge Irvin Spence |
| Layouts by | Richard Bickenbach |
| Backgrounds by | Robert Gentle |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) |
 September 7, 1956 |
| Color process |
Technicolor CinemaScope |
| Running time | 6:45 |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Busy Buddies |
| Followed by | Down Beat Bear |
Muscle Beach Tom is the 101st one-reel animated Tom and Jerry short, released in 1956, directed and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The cartoon was animated by Lewis Marshall, Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge, and Irven Spence (erroneously credited as Irvin Spence), with backgrounds by Robert Gentle and layouts by Richard Bickenbach. The cartoon's music was composed by Scott Bradley. It was released on September 7, 1956 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Plot
It is a busy day at Muscle Beach; Jerry is sunbathing while several cats are working out with weights. Tom and his girlfriend arrive and Tom dumps their beach equipment on top of Jerry. Jerry crawls out from the equipment and moves his beach towel further down the beach, but then Tom happens to pick where Jerry is lying to plant his beach umbrella. Jerry digs himself from out of the sand, but rips his beach towel in the process. He lies back down, but Tom has started carelessly throwing garbage his way. Jerry angrily marches up to Tom and slaps him with a banana peel and Tom responds by filling Jerry up with helium from a balloon and then letting go. Jerry therefore spins in circles in the air and rockets off into the distance.
Tom then turns back to his girlfriend, but she is now paying attention to Butch, who is impressing her with displays of weightlifting. Tom confronts Butch, but Butch brushes him off. Tom tries to confront Butch again, but Jerry returns and interferes, leaving Tom relatively crabby.
Still determined to win his girl back, Tom engages Butch in games of one-upmanship which ultimately prove futile. In a last-ditch effort, Tom stuffs his bathing suit with helium balloons to make it look like he is heavily muscled. The balloons make Tom float over the ground, so he ties an anchor around his waist to hold himself down. Tom returns to where Butch is showing off for his girlfriend and vanquishes him with a well-placed swing of the anchor.
Tom flexes his "muscles" for his girl but is annoyed by the sound of Jerry eating noisily nearby. Tom flips the picnic basket's cover and, by crashing on his head, it's force silences Jerry. Jerry then exacts revenge by untying the anchor from around Tom's waist. Tom has to hold onto his beach umbrella to keep from floating away, but Jerry inflates Tom's suit like a balloon with a helium canister and then pricks him with a safety pin, causing Tom to spin in the air and float away high into the sky. Jerry then also attempts to impress Tom's girlfriend by lifting a barbell made with two tomatoes, but he struggles and like Tom earlier in his attempt to impress his girlfriend, Jerry ends up flattened between the weights.