Muscle Beach Tom

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. It was 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.

Plot
Several cats are working out with weights on a busy day at Muscle Beach. Tom and his girlfriend arrive on a date and Tom carelessly dumps their beach equipment on top off a sunbathing Jerry, forcing Jerry to move his beach towel. Tom then carelessly sticks his beach umbrella through Jerry's beach towel, causing it to rip, and carelessly throws garbage onto Jerry, causing Jerry to angrily march up to Tom. Jerry slaps Tom with a banana peel and is rewarded by being filled up with helium from a balloon by Tom, making Jerry inflate into a balloon, before Tom lets go, causing Jerry to spin in the air and rocket off into the distance.

Tom then turns back to his girlfriend, but she is paying attention to Butch, who impresses her by lifting weights. Tom flicks Butch's elastic string into his face, but Butch puts the string onto an anchor and puts the other end around Tom's neck, sending Tom flying into a beach umbrella, which crashes into a pole. Jerry then sticks the string, still around Tom's neck, onto the pole, resulting in Tom struggling to reach Butch and crashing back into the pole before it squashes him, turning Tom into a crab.

Butch impresses Tom's girlfriend with more weightlifting displays before Tom interrupts with displays of his own, resulting in both aiming to win her heart through games of one-upmanship. Butch and Tom take turns lifting progressively heavier weights until Butch fails to lift a barbell. Tom then barely lifts it, but struggles as it is also too heavy for him; Tom falls sideways and is flattened between the weights.

Music starts playing and Jerry dances with a banana peel, while Butch and Tom continue to fight over the heart of Tom's girlfriend. While Butch is dancing with Tom's girlfriend, Tom builds a sand pit and pulls Butch into it, but Butch then pulls Tom into the pit in return. Tom then uses a crab to pinch Butch's shorts and send Butch flying upwards, but Butch lands back on the ground immediately and dances with an unaware Tom before throwing Tom into a trash bin.

In a last-ditch effort to win his girlfriend back, Tom stuffs helium balloons into his bathing suit to look muscular; Tom ties an anchor around his waist to keep from floating away. Butch declares his love for Tom's girlfriend, but Tom hits Butch on the head. Butch then hits Tom, causing the balloons to shift underneath Tom's waist and make him float upside down. After Butch hits Tom again, Tom knocks Butch out with a swing of the anchor, winning his girlfriend's heart back.

Tom flexes his "muscles" to his girlfriend, but Jerry is eating noisily nearby on his picnic basket, annoying Tom. Tom flips the basket's cover onto Jerry's head, silencing Jerry. Jerry then unties the anchor from around Tom's waist, causing Tom to float upwards while kissing his girlfriend. Tom desperately holds onto his beach umbrella to keep from floating away, but Jerry inflates Tom's suit into a balloon with a helium canister and pricks him with a safety pin, causing Tom to spin in the air and float away into the distance, like Jerry did earlier. Jerry then attempts to impress Tom's girlfriend by lifting a barbell with two tomatoes, but struggles, and like Tom earlier in his momentarily successful attempt to win his girlfriend's heart back, Jerry falls sideways and is flattened between the tomatoes.

DVD

 * Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 4
 * Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 2, Disc Two