Yeah - the Oscars thing, that's it exactly; there's highbrow art, worthy of awards and accolades, which is serious and tortured and dark, and lowbrow art, which pretty much encompasses all genre/sci-fi films and animated films. Many films which win Oscars are very good films, but there's this very strong bias towards "depressing/gloomy/dark = good". The exceptions, like LoTR, are notable because they are exceptions, though it's nice to see (and rather vindicating!).