Tom and Jerry: Toon by Toon: Muscle Beach Tom (1956)

Nine years after Salt Water Tabby (1947), Tom and Jerry return to the beach in this short film. The storyline between the two cartoons is even quite similar. Both involve Tom trying to find a little romance at the beach, only to get into a fight with Jerry. Tom even wears the same bathing suit (yes, I know he wears a bathing suit to the beach, despite normally not wearing clothes) in both films.

In this short film Tom is taking his girlfriend to the beach. When Tom carelessly places his things down on top of Jerry, the two get into a big slapstick fight. However, this is not the only obstacle that Tom has to face as Butch (the black cat) is trying to steal Tom's girl.

This is an excellent cartoon and one of the duo's best CinemaScope outings. This is the rare film from this time period that can hold its own against the duo's 1940's output. Like the duo's 40's output, this cartoon offers one great sight gag after another. Some of these gags made me smile, some made me chuckle and some made me laugh out loud. Some of these gags are even quite clever (the one with the crab sticks out to me). The opening even makes a clever use of the CinemaScope format with a long pan across the beach with a series of cute little gags featuring cats working out. Due to the CinemaScope format, we can see multiple of these gags at once, making the scene all the more charming. Another gag that makes perfect use of the format involves Butch dancing while Tom has is digging a ditch for Butch to fall into. Giving this gag a larger portion of the screen helps make it all the funnier as we have room to watch Butch dancing and Tom impatiently waiting for Butch to fall in at the same time. This is a rare Tom and Jerry short of this period that makes full use of CinemaScope to do what the filmmakers couldn't do in earlier films. The film also benefits from a great Scott Bradley score that is simply a joy to listen to.

Scott Bradley's score includes as snippet of the song I Got Out of Bed On the Right Side from the feature length movie, Dangerous When Wet (1953), which featured a cameo by Tom and Jerry. The lyrics to this song (which we don't get to hear here) were written by Johnny Mercer (I'm an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande, Too Marvelous for Words, Blues in the Night, On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, Moon River). The music was written by Arthur Schwartz (I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan, Dancing in the Dark, That's Entertainment!).

The credited animators on this film are Lewis Marshall, Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge, Irven Spence. Robert Gentle is the credited background artist here. Robert Gentle would not only work with William Hanna and Joseph Barbera on these theatrical shorts but also many of the Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons. He worked on such Hanna-Barbera shows as The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Yogi Bear Show, Quick Draw McGraw, Top Cat, The Flintstones, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo Where Are You, Super Friends and many more. The credited layout artist is Richard Bickenbach. Richard Bickenbach not only worked on William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Tom and Jerry shorts but also on their later TV work. He would work on such Hanna-Barbera TV series as Quick Draw McGraw, The Huckleberry Hound Show, Top Cat, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo Where Are You and many more. He would also work on the Hanna-Barbera feature films, The Man Called Flintstone (1966) and Charolette's Web (1973) as well as the Loopy the Loop theatrical shorts. A clip from Muscle Beach Tom would appear in the background (on a TV) in the made for TV Tom and Jerry short, The Mansion Cat (2001). This marked the 101st Tom and Jerry short overall.

This film is available on the DVD sets, Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 4, Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Vol. 2, Tom & Jerry's Greatest Chases Vol. 4 and Tom and Jerry's Summer Holidays as well as the new Blu-ray set, Tom and Jerry: The Complete CinemaScope Collection and the Laser Disk set, The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume II.

The Tom and Jerry Wiki states that the female cat here is Yvonne Jockalong, a love interest for Tom that appeared in three episodes of TV's The Tom and Jerry Show (The Ski Bunny (1975), Beach Bully (1975), The Tennis Menace (1975)). While the cat here has a very similar design, I remain skeptical about this being the same cat.

The Ski Bunny

A cartoon called Muscle Beach Droopy (1991) would appear on an episode of TV's Tom and Jerry Kids. This short would not feature Tom and Jerry but as the title suggests would star Droopy instead. In that cartoon Droopy and his son Dripple would take a trip to the beach, where loudmouthed bodybuilder Hunk Hardbody is trying to impress the ladies. However, the ladies are so charmed by Droopy that Hunk gets very jealous.