A Kick in Time

A Kick in Time is a Color Classics animated short produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures on May 17, 1940. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works from 1940 required a renewal filing with the US Copyright Office during their 28th year of protection to extend copyright into a second term. For this film, the renewal window occurred in 1967 or 1968. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no renewal registration for this specific title. While many Fleischer/Paramount cartoons (such as some Popeye or Superman entries) were renewed by successor entities like NTA or Paramount, many standalone shorts fell into the public domain due to administrative oversight. The film is widely recognized in the animation industry and by copyright researchers (including citations in the 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain') as having failed to renew. It is frequently included in public domain cartoon compilations and is hosted on the Internet Archive without restriction or takedown by any rights holders.