I felt the same. I remember when it was released in theaters. I remembered the trailers. It’s look like some fun fantasy film. I never actually caught it in the theater. But saw it on tv a year or two later. I don’t even think I saw the beginning of it, I wasn’t paying attention to the movie. But got drawn in, felt so bad for the kid because of his situation, not having friends. He meets this girl and finally develops a new friendship. And then…I was just like, was that real? I don’t cry while watching movies but it caught me off guard. And then I again felt even worse for the boy because he finally made a connection and it was taken from him.