Perhaps that's because you haven't been watching much children's entertainment in the last 30 years?

See eg https://www.netflix.com/sg/title/81154166

> Weren't 1940s animation shorts aimed at adult cinema goers?

Tom and Jerry were invented in the 1940s, but eg the 1960s episodes used the same format. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_and_Jerry for a timeline.

See https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MimeAndMusicOnly... for many more examples, though far from exhaustive.

As an 'intermediate example': Pucca has dialogue, but also very strong visual story-telling that means you can understand what's going on without the dialogue.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Animation/Pucca says:

> Pucca became popular worldwide because it relies on visual and gag humor rather than language, much like The Pink Panther, the Road Runner and other pantomime cartoons. Though the series has since picked up dialog, translation has worked well enough and the series remains mostly silent. Both show leads, Garu and Pucca, are Heroic Mimes, though they do laugh, sigh and make other sounds.