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 Irven Spence |
| Layouts by | Richard Bickenbach |
| Backgrounds by | Robert Gentle |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) |
|
| 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 on September 7, 1956 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and animated by Lewis Marshall, Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge and Irven Spence (erroneously credited as Irvin Spence), with backgrounds by Robert Gentle, layouts by Richard Bickenbach and music by Scott Bradley.[1]
Plot
Tom and his girlfriend arrive at Muscle Beach on a date. It is busy; several cats are working out with weights and Jerry is sunbathing. Tom is carrying the equipment, but his attention on smiling at his girlfriend causes him to carelessly dump it on top of Jerry. Jerry, annoyed, moves away, but Tom then sticks his beach parasol through Jerry's beach towel, ripping it. Tom then begins eating and unknowingly throws his litter onto Jerry, causing Jerry to march up to Tom and slap him with a banana peel thrown at him. Jerry is rewarded when Tom releases the air out of a helium balloon into Jerry's mouth, causing Jerry to inflate into a balloon. Tom then lets go as the balloon sends Jerry on a wild ride. Jerry whooshes through the air and rockets off into the distance.
Tom, delighted after seeing Jerry float away, turns back, but sees Butch impressing his girlfriend with weightlifting, trying to steal her from Tom. Tom confronts Butch, but Butch brushes him off by using elastic string. Tom tries to confront Butch again, but Jerry then returns and puts the string onto a pole to stop Tom in his tracks. Tom tries to grab Butch, but Jerry's interference sends Tom crashing back into the pole. With Tom knocked out, the pole splits and crushes him. Tom is left to waddle as a crab, much to his annoyance, scaring a real crab out of its wits.
With weightlifting the way to the girl cat's heart, Butch and Tom engage in games of one-upmanship, both determined to win her love. A weightlifting contest ends in a draw; Tom manages to lift a barbell that Butch is unable to lift, but only barely. Tom falls sideways as the weights flatten him between them. Radio music then plays and Butch steals Tom's beach ball to dance with the girl cat while Jerry dances with a banana peel. Tom manages to dance with the girl cat as well by pulling Butch into a sand pit. After Butch does the same to Tom in return, a crab helps Tom send Butch flying upwards, but Butch catches Tom off guard, landing in front of Tom before grabbing him and launching his rival into the trash bin, defeating Tom.
In a last-ditch effort, Tom detaches balloons tied to a rail and stuffs them into his bathing suit to look heavily muscled. The balloons make Tom float over the ground, but he manages to grab an anchor. After Tom ties the anchor around his waist to hold himself down, he returns to Butch and the two fight. Butch punches Tom and makes the balloons flip Tom upside down. Butch then asks Tom for a return punch, but instead, Tom knocks Butch out with a swing of the anchor. With Butch dispatched and buried under the sand, Tom wins his girlfriend back.
Tom is flexing his "muscles" to his girl, but is annoyed by Jerry eating noisily nearby on his picnic basket. Tom flips the basket's lid onto Jerry's head to silence Jerry, crossing the mouse once more. Tom then starts kissing his happy girlfriend, but Jerry unties the anchor from around Tom's waist, leaving Tom desperately holding onto his beach umbrella and allowing to Jerry inflate his bathing suit into one large balloon. With Tom's suit about to burst, Jerry pricks it with a safety pin, causing to Tom spin in the air and float away into the distance, like Jerry did earlier.
With Tom out of the picture, Jerry attempts to steal his girlfriend's heart by lifting a barbell of tomatoes, but the weight is too much for him, and like Tom earlier in his successful but short-lived attempt to impress his girlfriend, Jerry falls sideways and ends up flattened between the "weights".
Availability
DVD
- Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 4
- Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 2, Disc Two