[olhddfna] Entertainment for children

Why is all children's entertainment so similar, various incarnations and variations on cartoons?

Is the entertainment industry actually producing what children want to see?  On one hand, yes, children do seem to enjoy children's entertainment.  On the other hand, children have plastic minds so likely can find a great many things entertaining, very different from typical children's entertainment.

Inspiration was a thought that a child might find random patterns of color just as entertaining as a cartoon.

We strongly suspect adults -- parents -- have a strong influence in the market for children's entertainment, but exactly what effect is it?  Perhaps children's entertainment is the narrow intersection of what children find entertaining and what adults, with their narrow, no-longer-plastic minds, can understand.  Adults, for example, require coherent plot.