WA's famous (fictional) octopus hits Netflix with 'Remarkably Bright Creatures' movie 3%
By Katie Campbell0%
5/10/2026, 3:00:26 PM
Topics: Books
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Negativity Bias, and Anecdotal, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 30.5% saturation with 215 hits. Analysis detected 955 faulty-reasoning hits from 704 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 15.3% and a BS Rank of 3% (16,372 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 97.40% of the article peer group.
Shelby Van Pelt is the author of the hit novel "Remarkably Bright Creatures" about a giant Pacific octopus who develops a relationship with the cleaning lady at the aquarium where he is held captive — that's how he sees it anyway.
The octopus, Marcellus, is kept in the fictional Sowell Bay Aquarium, which sits on Puget Sound.
And he’s not happy about it.
He considers the aquarium a prison, and he’s all too aware of the limited time he has left in his life.
Marcellus may not be warm and cuddly like other animal narrators before him, but he does set the audience up for tears.
Now, the sentimental cephalopod is hitting Netflix, which released a film adaptation to streamers on Friday.
Van Pelt stopped by KUOW while on tour with the film to talk about how the octopus came to life on the page and now the screen.
"He's kind of a grumpy old man in octopus form," Van Pelt joked.
"Yeah.
Um, I was very aware when I was writing [the book] that human-animal stories can sometimes be a bit saccharine.
But I think Marcellus being this kind of curmudgeon made it easy to stay away from that for the most part."
I would agree, and I happen to be a curmudgeon like Marcellus when it comes to cutesy characters.
That's not Marcellus.
He's one of three narrators in the novel, coming across more like a prisoner counting his days than a Disney-like sidekick.
He does also happen to be a source of wit and humor, though.
Throughout the novel, and presumably the movie — I haven't seen it yet — Marcellus escapes his tank to visit others in the aquarium, picking up human detritus and a snack of sea cucumbers along the way.
His antics might have crossed into silly territory if it weren't for the fact that Van Pelt based them on real octopus behavior in captivity.
"I really was inspired to kind of harness [his] voice after just watching videos online of octopuses sort of misbehaving or doing interesting things in captivity," she said.
"Escaping the tank, collecting objects, having very strong preferences for particular people."
Strong preferences like the one Marcellus has for the aquarium's cleaning lady, Tova.
With his time running out, Marcellus decides to help Tova connect the dots of a personal tragedy that has dogged her for decades: the death of her son when he was just 18.
This octopus is remarkably bright after all.
He's grieving his own life, its impending conclusion, but he wants to do something to ease Tova's grief before its too late.
"A lot of times when we talk about grief, it is about someone dying or that type of loss.
But we feel grief every day in other forms," Van Pelt said.
"You can grieve a road not taken.
You can grieve an opportunity lost. ...
I wanted to just kind of unpack how we carry these things.
And how can we carry them more effectively?"
Now, that conversation about grief will be shared with Netflix viewers.
The film was directed by Olivia Newman and stars Alfred Molina as the voice of Marcellus, Sally Field as Tova, and Lewis Pullman as Cameron, Tova's eventual protégé at the aquarium.
"Sally actually read the book before it was even published, and she wanted to do this," Van Pelt said.
"I think that's what makes me feel the most warm and fuzzy about it.
It's not like she was recruited.
She kind of proactively said, 'Hey, I wanna play this role.
I really connect with this character and this story.'"
The film tour gave Van Pelt another way to reconnect with the story, too, bringing her back to Washington state where she set the novel and where she grew up.
"Growing up in Tacoma, I've been just around aquariums a lot.
I used to go to the Point Defiance Aquarium a lot as a kid.
The Seattle Aquarium, obviously amazing," she said.
"Octopuses felt very familiar to me.
I wasn't, like, a marine biologist or anything like that."
"Not a cephalopod nut?"
I asked her.
"Well," she said.
"I am now."
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