But, if you've been paying attention to viral animal videos, then you know that an octopus can survive outside of water, at least for a short amount of time. Other than the fact that they tend to have eight tentacles (or appendages, if you will), octopuses are, for many, just another oceanic mystery. There's a lot we don't know about octopuses. What better way than an octopus that could basically squeeze in and crawl over everything?' explained director Andrew Stanton at a Finding Dory event, according to The Hollywood Reporter. And we needed a way for a fish to move across man-made areas if there wasn't water. 'We wanted to try other species that we hadn't seen in the first movie. All of these attributes proved vital to the plot of Finding Dory. Octopuses are known for their ability to camouflage, hide from predators, and their physical ability to move due to their tentacle suckers. This is part of the reason why animators made Hank an octopus in the first place.

The short answer is, yes, octopuses can leave the water for a short amount of time.

Hank's extreme abilities, while fun, do seem a bit extraordinary, causing me to wonder if it's possible that an octopus can live outside of water. In the trailers, Hank is seen doing things that seem almost like super powers - he's camouflaging himself like a chameleon and wandering around the Institute, outside of his tank, at night. One such new friend is Hank, the grumpy octopus who reluctantly helps Dory find her family and navigate the Marine Life Institute. Recent trailers for Finding Dory, Pixar's highly anticipated sequel to 2003's Finding Nemo, introduced fans to a whole new cast of characters and, unlike Finding Nemo, a great number of the supporting cast are not fish, but other oceanic species.

Octopus in findy dory