KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - August 16, 1930, animator Ub Iwerks released “Fiddlesticks,” the first color-sound cartoon. He previously worked with Walt Disney in Kansas City’s Laugh-O-Gram studio.

Jan. 1 marks the dawn of a new era for Popeye and Tintin. It's the day the nonagenarian cartoon characters officially enter the U.S. public domain along with a treasure trove of other iconic works.

Dinner Time is noted as the first sound cartoon short made after Warner Bros.' success with The Jazz Singer and produced even before Walt Disney's first sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie (though ...