The story centers around a group of animals gathered on a floating island led by Noah, a polar bear. Noah is determined to turn the island into a safe haven for all animals and to steer it in the direction of Diamantina, a paradise in the Indian Ocean unsullied by humans.
Tropes include:
- Artistic License – Geology: The titular volcanic island moves impossibly around the planet as fast as a ship. In Real Life hotspot volcanoes do move forming islands, such as the archipelago Hawaiian Islands, that appear to move, but in actuality the hotspot region hasn't moved, the tectonic plates over the mantle have, leaving behind several extinct volcanoes in its trail. And all this is a process that takes millions of years.
- Beary Friendly: Noah the polar bear is a noble leader who always wants to do his best by the island's community and help whatever animal might come his way.
- Beary Funny: Noah, Ursula, and Chang.
- Beware the Nice Ones:
- Noah is the wise and caring leader of his community but he has moments where he can be fierce and angry at those who ruin his community.
- Sascha is one of the most friendliest animals on the island but he can still lose his cool every now and then at others.
- Woomera also. She's a nurse and cares a great deal for others but won't hesitate to try and knock some sense into some like Rocco and Reg.
- Bottomless Fuel Tanks: Averted. The island's volcano, which is used to steer the island across the ocean, only has a limited amount of lava inside it, so Noah has to conserve it as much as he can. A plot point in Season 3 is Noah trying to find more fuel for the Fire Bowl.
- Butt-Monkey: Nearly every character suffers this one way or another but Sparky, Sascha, Reg and Mammothsbody are prime examples.
- Carnivore Confusion: On the island, carnivorous animals like the bears subsist on fish and other foodstuffs, ensuring the herbivores don't have anything to fear. "Rocco Fights a Dragon", however, has the animals trying to help a mother turtle protect her eggs from a hungry Komodo dragon.
- The Chew Toy: Sparky the White Rabbit. His incidents are generally played up for laughs the most.
- Civilized Animal: What Reg wants to become most.
- Closest Thing We Got: Rocco in particular, as he ends up becoming the island doctor based on him having watched human vets at work on the cargo ship before he and the other animals came to the island.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The titular fight in "Rocco Fights a Dragon" is one of these in Rocco's favour, as the terrified Komodo dragon doesn't understand why Rocco is angry with him and makes no effort to fight back.
- Deadpan Snarker: Quite a few characters, actually.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- In the season 3 finale, the Diamantina frogs, who started out as the villains, turned over a new leaf after realising Noah and the animals wanted to live on Diamantina rather than ruin it.
- In the episode "Aye-Aye Captainski" an aye-aye named Calanor started out villainous and wanted to take over Noah's island. After Noah manages to clear the island of locusts Calanor decides to abandon his evil plans and join the animals.
- Human Popsicle: Salomi and Mammothsbody are two mammoths who were frozen in the ice age. They thawed out in the series' present time and guide Noah in his journey, as they were the first ones to know about Diamantina.
- Interspecies Romance: Implied with Rocco, a gorilla, and Woomera, a kangaroo. There was even an episode where they both wished they were of the same species so they could be together.
- It's All About Me: Reg was like this in the first season due to believing he was "almost human". It was toned down in later seasons.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Reg started out as quite the Jerkass in the first season but he slowly started to show his softer side in later seasons.
- Rocco can have his moments of jerk-ish behaviour but he's still a good guy at heart.
- Ursula the Bear can also be quite self-centered and mean at times but she does care for others a great deal, especially her best friend Chang.
- In season 3, Gorm the Mammoth starts out as rather aggressive and a complete jerk to the animals when they arrive to Diamantina but as the season went on we see more of his softer side.
- Kangaroos Represent Australia: Woomera
- Last of His Kind: Doo-Dah the dodo, although he was in denial of this at first.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to The Animals of Farthing Wood this show was a lot more cartoony and more humorous. Though there were still some episodes that had mature themes, like the episode where the Grandfather elephant passed away, even around his young grandson.
- The Lost Lenore: Rocco's character arc revolves around not being able to get over his mate's death when the cargo ship they were both on sank in episode 1.
- Martial Pacifist: Goosey the mongoose
- My God, What Have I Done?: In "The Skating Rhinoceros", Noah is stricken with gild after his reckless sailing into a storm causes the Fire Bowl to be extinguished and Mammothsbody to be gravely injured.
- Never Be Hurt Again: Woomera at one point becomes disillusioned with the island after her attempts to save some sick dolphins fail and, unable to watch other animals suffer or die despite her efforts, demands that Noah allow her to leave.
- Noah's Story Arc: With a protagonist called Noah and the concept of the series being about a moving island filled with animals searching for an unpolluted home, the parallels to the biblical Noah and his ark are obvious.
- Predation Is Natural: Discussed in "Rocco Fights a Dragon", where the animals try to help a mother turtle protect her babies from a Komodo dragon. The emotionally-driven Rocco argues that they can't let the "horrible" dragon eat the "adorable" turtles, but Noah maintains that the dragon has as much right to live and thrive as anyone else and that taking sides against him just because of their own feelings is wrong.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Subverted with the Komodo dragon from "Rocco Fights a Dragon". It was just hungry.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Sparky, the white mute rabbit. Lampshaded with all the animals and even when he tried to be aggressive once, was not taken seriously.
- Scavengers Are Scum: Averted with the Vulture Patrol.
- Second Love: Rocko's first mate, Hettie, drowned at the start of the series. After mourning for a while, he meets Gertie and falls in love with her, eventually marrying her.
- Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: The animals on the island are never stated to be more than just animals, but they occasionally slip into Partially Civilized Animal territory. For example, Noah walks on his hind legs, which normal polar bears don't do, and uses his forepaws to hold objects despite not having opposable thumbs.
- Zig-zagged in the case of Mammothsbody and Salomi, who use their trunks to hold tools. While there's no evidence for mammoths doing this, captive elephants are smart enough to use things like paintbrushes, so it's not too unreasonable to depict mammoths doing so.
- Still Sucks Trunk: Mammothsbody does this whenever he's upset, which Salomi finds revolting.
- Those Two Guys: Rocco and Reg can be like this from time to time.
- Traveling Landmass: The floating island that most of the show takes place on. A meteor caused it to break off from the mainland, and its crater created a volcano that allows the island to move. At first its course is random, then Noah figures out a way to steer it the way he wants it to.
- Two Girls to a Team: Ursula and Chang.
- Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: Woomera loves Rocco very much, even wishing he were a kangaroo so she could snap him up for her mate in a heartbeat, but as he's a gorilla grieving over his first loss, realizes it's an impossible dream.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Woomera and Rocco argue and snark at each other a lot, but often prove that they care about each other deep down. Ursula and Chang are the same.
- Warm-Hearted Walrus: The Problem Walrus is wise and serves as the Island's counselor.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Rocco's first wife, Hettie, drowns before she can join her husband and the other zoo animals on the island. She doesn't even get a single line of dialogue before her death.
