Why do Kids Love Cartoons?

Take a look at this drawing by a four-year-old... it is so simple -- it's got a boat shape, a single line for the water, sails, and a skull. That's it. Pirate ship.
At the same time, it's got a whole lot of personality.
This drawing is a clue as to why kids like cartoons and comics so much.
I've been wondering this for some time - why do kids gravitate so much toward cartooned or drawn images? My own kids just love animated stories like The Iron Giant. They seem to relate to them much better than a lot of live action, unless the live action has lots of, well, action.
I think there are two things going on here:

1. Kids are in the full-time business of "reading" the world and finding out important stuff from it. They are learning how people act, what things sound like, causes and effects... it's a complicated world out there. Sometimes all that information can be overwhelming. Everybody's seen a cranky, over-stimulated kid. Not pretty.
Cartoons tell a story by the simplest means possible. There is no extraneous information. So kids don't have to filter what they see. They don't have to figure out what to pay attention to. This gives their brain filters a rest, and lets them just enjoy. This has got to be awfully appealing.

2. The vast majority of the time, animated or cartoon images are kid-friendly. This means it's easy for a kid to determine what shows to watch. Again, less information to filter. Now Adult Swim on CN is a big exception, and I've had my kids object when I've quickly turned off animated stuff that they weren't intended to see (oops). They don't quite understand that one, because to them cartoons are kid things. Their things. And that's true, a lot of the time.

So in short, cartoons and comics are easy on the kid brain. Nothing but story. What a great thing.