Mumbo's Mountain Inspiration

[Alucard]

If we look at some worlds from Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie then we can clearly see that some worlds have inspiration from ancient culture. For example:

Gobi's Valley - Ancient Egypt
Mayahem Temple - Aztec/Maya/Inca
Jolly Roger's Lagoon (ocean floor) - Atlantis

but I allways wondered from which culture the devs took the inspiration for Mumbo's Mountain and even for Mumbo himself because there is also Humba which represents the native american culture. What do you guys think ?

[Taylor]

Generic* Voodoo tribe, I believe. Shrunken heads and all that business.

*I say generic because I have no idea where these tribes originate, but as the World of Warcraft trolls have Jamaican accents, I'll take a guess at Jamaica.

Edit: Although it's worth mentioning there's a totem pole in the village, possibly connecting him to Native American culture just like Humba Wumba.

Edit 2: Okay, I did some digging for you. I believe Mumbo is inspired by traditional Zulu warriors on top of the voodoo (both originating in Africa, but spreading to Haiti etc. which explains the troll accent in World of Warcraft /off-topic).


Zulu Warrior (+ Shield) + Mumbo:


Notice that Mumbo has the traditional Zulu shield hanging behind him on the walls and two African masks on the podiums beside him. He also has a similar loincloth and similar feathered head-wear. Case solved?

Additional Edit: The beta name for Conga the gorilla was Congo. Congo is a country in Africa; not to mention that gorillas themselves are only native to Africa. The also originate from Africa (alongside Australia and South America). Putting these clues together, I'd say Mumbo's Mountain is itself loosely based on Africa with Mumbo; however, Stonehenge is English so it's not got any one particular theme. The level barely resembles Africa outside of the links I've made (). I guess it's like Clanker the "whale" having gills like a fish, but a blow-hole like a whale. Things are inspired in the Banjo games, but not always true to life; the devs threw in anything they fancied. Game-play came before logic, I think.

I have too much time on my hands, don't I...

[rocho]

Well I actually asked a similar question to the creator of Mumbo Jumbo and the Jinjos a month ago. I guess we can ask again but this time for the "inspiration culture" instead of the nationality but hey here is the answer:



source:



I think they really went with a mix of the Mayan culture and some African culture too in the mayahem temple.


I've been researching this since I'm from Guatemala I got very hooked up on the topic, here we have this:



Which is similar to this:


"Gran Juguar" Tikal, Guatemala.


Then we have this:



Which is similar to this:


"Chac Mool" Chichen Itza, Mexico and pieces of this deity have been found in Quiriguá, Guatemala too.

I find pretty interesting that Chac Mool allegedly means "Gran Jaguar Rojo" (Great Red Jaguar in English) which matches the name of the Mayan Temple in Tikal I previously introduced.


There is also some kind of Tiki heads (the ones that shoot darts) but I haven't done any research about it.


Another interesting bit of info is that you can see some Mayan Hieroglyphics in the Treasure Chamber.



Sorry for the long post I just wanted to share this info with you guys!

[Alucard]

[Alucard]

[rocho]

[polomi]

Has there been anything inspired by Chinese folklore? I can't think of anything but maybe I just forgot.

[Taylor]

Mayahem Temple was the obvious one. 'Maya' is in the name. Rare really liked putting ancient civilisations in their games. DK64 has Angry Aztec too, off the top of my head.

They also put a lot of real-world objects/buildings within their games, like the Zulu shields behind Mumbo and all the Mayan architecture Rocho pointed out.

Another example (but not ancient) is the church in Mad Monster Mansion; its design is based on a real church nearby the Rare studio. (I'm not sure which Church because Twycross has a couple that look very similar to the one in MMM):



Also, these are the interiors of two churches in Twycross:



Notice the beams across the top and the seats facing the front. This is the organ room in MMM.

It always amazes me to think that parts of my favourite game actually exist in the real world! I wonder what else is in the Banjo games that took inspiration from physical things...

[Alucard]