Object-Shaped Landmass

A questionable bit of geography.

"Only last month, we came across a moon which was shaped like Felicity Kendal's bottom. We flew around that one a couple of times."

— Holly, Red Dwarf, "Stasis Leak"

Normally, landmasses don't particularly look like anything. However, sometimes in fiction, a landmass is discovered that looks like a particular lifeform or object. There can be several reasons for it:

• It serves as a quick indicator of what can be expected from the island and shows it as having more importance than expected — for example, an island that looks like a Star may be expected to hold stars or some other astral material.
• It can serve as a warning that the island is not a place of safety — for example, an island which looks like a skull can be expected to be a dangerous place.
• It may be shaped to an element thematic to the work, such as a bone-shaped island in a world of dogs.
• It can even act as a deliberate message in-universe, created by some strange force for whatever reason.

Generally, if this trope is in play, expect the island to be named after their shape. To note, for it to count as this trope, it can't be connected to any other landmass, and it can't be a mountain shape — the landmass itself must be that shape. However, a peninsula does count as it provides the boundary between land and water forming a shape, especially if the coastline provides a clear image.

Super-Trope to Crescent Moon Island. Sister Trope to Faceship, which is about vehicles or vessels shaped like the self-image of someone or something. See also Shaped Like What It Sells for when this applies to stores and Monster-Shaped Mountain for when it applies to mountains. Compare to Giant Corpse World for when the reason the island looks like a creature is that it once was a creature and World Shapes for when this concept is applied to planets.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• MamaYuyu: The continent of Persimott is shaped like a plus sign.
• Pokémon: The Series: In an early episode, Ash, Misty, and Brock visit an island shaped like a Squirtle shell, which is the home to a school of Squirtle and Wartortle led by a Blastoise.
• One Piece: Played with. Jaya doesn't look like anything in the present, but it used to be shaped like a skull in the distant past, until an especially strong Knock-Up Stream tore the island in half.

Comic Books

• Agent 327: In "Dossier Stemkwadrater", Dr. Maybe's Volcano Lair is located on an island shaped like his signature symbol: a question mark.
• Dungeon Twilight: One tribe of dragons has a sacred cave they call the Grandmother because it very obviously looks like female genitals. On seeing a nearby outcrop of rock with a very phallic shape, Red Marvin snarkily asks if it's called the Grandfather.
• Emperor Joker: In an extreme form of Rushmore Refacement, The Joker used the Reality Warper powers he tricked Mr. Mxyzptlk into giving him to reshape every continent on Earth to look like his face.
• Superboy (New 52): The series introduces Mystery Island, shaped like a question mark, which is pointed out to be weird as the characters work to solve the mystery of the isle.

Film — Animated

• Clifford's Really Big Movie: Birdwell Island, the place were Clifford lived, is shaped like a dog bone and can be seen both the beginning and the end of the movie.
• The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists: Played for laughs — Blood Island is called that, not because it's a pirate haven with a long history of violence, but because it's "in the exact shape of some blood".

Film — Live-Action

• King Kong:
  • King Kong (2005): This remake portrays Skull Island in the shape of a skeletal hand, due to the island's gradual sinking into the ocean, meaning the current remnants are mostly a series of mountain ranges of a once larger landmass jutting out of the sea.
  • Kong: Skull Island: The Monsterverse incarnation of Skull Island takes the name far more literally than previous iterations (which merely had skull-shaped mountains), making the landmass itself shaped like a human skull seen from above.

Literature

• American Girls: Samantha: In Samantha Saves the Day, Samantha and her grandmother and cousins go on vacation to Goose Lake. Inside the goose's "head" is one island shaped like an eye and another shaped like a teardrop. The latter is called Teardrop Island, and it's where Samantha's parents died. They had been visiting the island by boat and were heading back when they were caught in a storm and their boat was destroyed by sharp underwater rocks, causing them to drown.
• And Then There Were None: Depending on the edition, the island got its name because, from a nearby cliff the profile seems to resemble the head of a Black man, or an American Indian, or a soldier. Downplayed because the actual island shape isn't remarkable, and the resemblance is just from one angle.
• Dave Barry Slept Here: The "Exploring the New World" map shows a landmass to the south of West Africa (visited by the seafaring route of a bold adventurer named Interstate 95) which is shaped like the head of, and is accordingly labeled, Godzilla.
• J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fall of Númenor: The island of Elenna (Land of the Star) was shaped like a five-pointed star. Justified because the island was given that specific shape by the Valar when they raised Elenna from the ocean. Ironically, the island was not named Elenna because of its shape, but because the Men who colonized the land sailed "starwards" -following the Star of Eärendil- to reach it.
• Holes: In both the book and the movie, it's stated that after being robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow and wandering through the desert, Stanley Yelnats I is stated to have found refuge on "God's Thumb". It's rather vague what this statement means until Stanley sees a huge rock formation off in the distance from Camp Green Lake. It seems to look like a gigantic thumb, and he even holds up his thumb to it to compare. It turns out the rock formation is what Stanley the first meant as God's Thumb.
• Wings of Fire: Both Pyrrhia and Pantala are shaped like their dragon inhabitants, though it's much more obvious looking at the latter. Strangely, though, the Pantala's "wings" are shaped like stereotypical dragon wings, when none of the three Pantalan tribes have wings shaped like that.
• The Worst Witch: In All at Sea, there is a rocky formation a short way out to sea, called Cat's Head rock, which is indeed shaped like a cat's head, and is said to be the home to a treasure chest.

Live-Action TV

• A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017): In the last episode "The End", the Baudelaire children and Count Olaf were stranded on an island that is shaped like the letters VFD which fused together to make a sister eye.
• Doctor Who: In "Boom Town", Rose recalls visiting a world named Woman Wept because the outline of one of its continents resembles a weeping woman.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Galadriel explains to Halbrand that Numenor is knows as the Land of the Star because of its star-shaped island.

Video Games

• Angry Birds: The mountain on Piggy Island is shaped like a pig's nose.
• The Curse of Monkey Island: To get a "whopping big" diamond ring for his fiancee, Guybrush has to confront the smugglers of the terrifying Skull Island, which is shrouded in darkness. When a lightning flash briefly illuminates it, however, it turns out to be shaped instead like a duck.
  Ferryman: Well, you see, you have to sort of squint and turn your head a bit to see the skull, but then, it's just SO SCARY!
  Guybrush: If you squint and turn your head it looks like a bunny.
• Chrono Cross:
  • Sky Dragon Isle is shaped like a crescent moon. Late in the game's story, it unfolds into Terra Tower, with the arms of the crescent also becoming the arm of the tower itself.
  • Gaea's Navel is shaped like a cylinder, surrounded on all sides by impassable cliffs. Ironically, it's the one part of the El Nido Archipelago that wasn't created by FATE or sent back in time to counter Chronopolis like Terra Tower.
• Cyclone: Several of the islands have the shapes of objects, such as Bone Island, Banana Island, and Enterprise Island.
• Fossil Fighters: Vivosaur Island is shaped like a theropod skull, with a bay resembling an open fanged mouth, a crater where the eye socket would be, and a volcano for a nostril.
• Gary Gadget: "Bygg båtar med Mulle Meck" has several islands shaped like things, such as a cross, a foot, a skull, a bottle, a hammer, a ghost, a wolf's head, and a balloon.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has a location known as Dee Ess Island that looks practically identical to a Nintendo DS, with several items hidden at places corresponding with parts of the handheld. The whole thing serves as a Development Gag to a planned Gamecube-shaped island that was supposed to be included in The Wind Waker.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Inverted. The Skull Lake is a large lake in the Akkala region, which is shaped like a humanoid skull with no lower jaw and two round islands in the middle for eye sockets.
• Mega Man 8: The first level of the game is set on a skull-shaped island. Fitting for his skull motif, Dr. Wily's based on this island before he gets away with the Evil Energy that just landed on it as soon as Mega Man crosses paths with him.
• Meteos: Geolyte has a continent shaped like one of the planet's natives in Meteos Wars.
• Pac-Man: The titular island of Pac-Land is depicted as a circle with a missing slice (resembling Pac-Man's usual form), while the neighboring Ghost Island is shaped like a ghost. This also applies to the map of Pac-Man World 2.
• Pokémon:
  • Pokémon Conquest: The region of Ransei heavily resembles the Legendary Pokemon Arceus, providing foreshadowing as to the identity of the Legendary Pokemon which only appears when a warrior unites all 17 kingdoms in the region.
  • Pokémon Dash: Some of the islands which can be raced during the courses of the game look like Pokemon, such as Pikachu Island (which resembles a Pikachu) or Luvdisc Island (which resembles a Luvdisc). It's taken even further when a GBA cartridge of one of the mainline Gen III games is inserted, as it allows you to race on landmasses shaped like any of the Pokemon which were available at the time of the game's release.
  • Pokémon Platinum introduces an inversion in Torterra. It's a Pokémon shaped like a landmass.
• Primal Rage: The same meteor that reawakens the Primal Gods also rearranges the continents into the shape of a giant T. rex skull.
• Various islands in StarTropics are shaped like objects. C-Island is aptly named, and Tunacola's home island looks like a fish with its mouth gaping open, foreshadowing the Sub-C being devoured by a whale.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Mario Kart: Double Dash!!: Yoshi Circuit is a racetrack along the perimeter of a Yoshi-shaped island. (Reappears in DS, 8, and Tour)
  • Paper Mario: The Origami King: Some of the islands which Mario can go to in the Great Sea are shaped like objects, including Mushroom Island (which resembles a Super Mushroom and is where Mario finds the Origami Craftsman), Heart Island (which resembles a heart and which houses a MAX Up Heart) and ? Island (which resembles a question mark and features tons of ? Blocks).
  • Super Mario Odyssey: Some of the land masses on the globe map have shapes that reflect the kingdoms within them. For example, the Cap Kingdom is shaped like a top hat, and the Cascade Kingdom is shaped like a triceratops skull; the Mushroom Kingdom, of course, looks like a Super Mushroom.
  • Super Mario Sunshine: Isle Delfino is shaped like a dolphin (Delfino means "dolphin" in Italian).
• Uncle Albert's Fabulous Voyage: There is an island shaped like a crocodile.
• World of Warcraft: Since Cataclysm, the region of Azshara is shaped like a gigantic Horde symbol, done with mountains of explosives as a show of good faith by the Bilgewater Cartel goblins to prove how loyal they are to the Horde.

Web Animation

• Dinosaurs: The True Story: Seen from orbit, the world's sole continent is shaped like a theropod's head, with a small lake as an eye.
• RWBY: Invoked in-universe. In the world of Remnant, there are two continents that have a dragon-esque appearance. The eastern continent of Anima has a serpentine form and the unnamed north-western continent has a lizardine form. Although the original map creation produced these shapes by accident, it was incorporated into the lore of the world in the form of a legend about the two Brother Gods who created the world. When the Two Brothers fought over the fate of the world, they agreed to enter a state of hibernation; the God of Light became the continent of Anima and the God of Darkness became the unnamed north-western continent. They sleep until The Day of Reckoning, where they will judge humanity's existence. Although there is truth to the legend that the two Brother Gods have dragon forms and that humanity is under a secret test of redemption that could see them destroyed if they fail, the disappearance of the two gods is more complicated than them becoming the continents, and the fairy tale is implied to be humanity's way of explaining the appearance of their world.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: The titular continent is shaped like an enormous lily pad.
• The Mummy: The Animated Series bizarrely depicts the very real Lake Titicaca as being shaped like a puma's head (as well as being located beneath the ruins of Macchu Picchu).
• My Little Pony (G3): The Butterfly Island, where the pegasi live, is shaped like a butterfly.
• Robotomy: "Nana's Run": Escargot, the planet of the snail people, is shaped like a giant snail shell and covered in landmarks resembling tall stacks of smaller shells.
• The Simpsons:
  • "Treehouse of Horror XIII": The segment The Island of Dr. Hibbert takes place on a skull-shaped island. According to the Rigellians Kang and Kodos, it looks like their race's equivalent of the number 4.
  • The Italian Bob has a flashback explaining how Bob ended up a mayor in an Italian town. Pointedly trying to avoid interacting with Bart, he indulges in some Map Stabbing of a globe to look for somewhere to go. He hits an island named "Bartovia" shaped like the winking head of Bart and irritably says "Now cut that out" before trying again.
• TaleSpin: "The Idol Rich": Inverted when Baloo and Kit take part in a treasure hunt. The treasure is said to be "right under your nose." A map of the area shows a lake that's shaped like a moose's head. An exchange with Colonel Spigot and some troops from Thembria results in Baloo being held upside down. When they do, Baloo sees that Moose Lake resembles a nose with a moustache under it.

Real Life

• Catalina Island, off the coast of California, is sometimes described looking like a diving seal.
• A occasional joke is that the world's continents combined resemble a cat playing with a ball, the ball being Australia.
• Hashima Island is a former coal mining colony near the shore of Japan. Because of its shape, it's commonly called Battleship Island.
• In the small Southeast Asian country of Brunei Darussalam, a ship-shaped rock named Jong Batu is visible in Brunei Bay. According to local folklore, it's an actual ship, turned to stone along with everyone aboard when the ungrateful captain refused to acknowledge a poor, ragged woman as his mother due to not wanting to look bad in front of his rich and snobby wife.
• Italy looks a lot like a boot, with the island of Sicily looking like something the boot is kicking.
• The Lower Peninsula of Michigan looks a lot like a mitten, leading to the image of Michiganders pointing at their hands to indicate locations like cities. The region to the east and southeast of Saginaw Bay is known as the Thumb.
• In the United States, "panhandles" are narrow strips of state territory that protrude outwards and should logically belong to one of the neighboring states, but doesn't due to various geopolitical reasons. The Oklahoma Panhandle is arguably the most famous since it makes the state actually look like a cooking pot. The reason it exists is that Texas, to the south, didn't want that land since it was located right at the boundary of where slavery was and wasn't legal in the US.
• A common joke made about maps of The European Union is that since Norway isn't part of it, Sweden and Finland look like a penis.
• The Philippines is often described to resemble an old man, with Palawan being his walking stick and the Zamboanga Peninsula (unfortunately) being his privates.

---