Muscle Beach Tom is the 101st one-reel animated

Animated cartoon

An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...

 Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...

short, created in 1956

1956 in film

The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...

, directed and produced by William Hanna

William Hanna

William Denby Hanna was an American animator, director, producer, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of people for much of the 20th century. When he was a young child, Hanna's family moved frequently, but they settled in Compton, California, by...

 and Joseph Barbera

Joseph Barbera

Joseph Roland Barbera was an influential American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of fans worldwide for much of the twentieth century....

. The cartoon was animated by Lewis Marshall, Kenneth Muse

Kenneth Muse

Kenneth Lee Muse was an American animator. He is best known for his work on the Tom and Jerry series at MGM.-Biography:...

, Ed Barge

Ed Barge

Edward John "Ed" Barge was an American animator.Barge was born to Alfred Edward and Margaret G. Barge in San Jose, California. In 1916, the family moved to Bakersfield, where his father was employed by the Santa Fe Railroad and Pacific Western Oil Co. before retiring in 1954...

, and Irven Spence

Irven Spence

Irven Spence was an American animator. He is best known for his work on MGM's Tom and Jerry animated shorts. Spence has been credited variously as Irven Spence, Irvin Spence, and Irv 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

Scott Bradley

Scott Bradley was an American composer, pianist and conductor.Bradley is best remembered for scoring the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer theatrical cartoons, including those starring Tom and Jerry , Droopy , Barney Bear , and the many one-shot cartoons.Bradley was a...

. It was released on September 7, 1956 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

.

Plot

It is a busy day at Muscle Beach; Jerry sunbathes 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 pile and moves his beach towel further down the beach, but Tom happens to pick where Jerry is lying to plant his beach umbrella. When Jerry digs himself from out of the sand, Tom has started carelessly throwing garbage his way. Jerry angrily marches up to Tom and slaps him with a banana peel and is rewarded with being filled up with helium from a balloon and let go to rocket into the distance.

Tom turns back to his girlfriend, but she is now paying attention to Butch, who is impressing her with awesome displays of weightlifting. Tom confronts Butch, but Butch brushes him off. Tom tries to confront Butch again, but Jerry 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 his rival with a well-place swing of the anchor.

Tom flexes his "muscles" for his girl but is annoyed by the sound of Jerry eating noisily nearby. Tom silences Jerry, who exacts his revenge by untying the anchor of Tom's waist. Tom has to hold onto his beach umbrella to keep from floating away, so 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 into the sky. Jerry attempts to impress Tom's girlfriend by lifting a barbell made with two tomatoes, but the weight is too much for him; like Tom in his earlier attempt to impress his girlfriend, Jerry ends up flattened between the weights.