Dancing Zombie

Dancing Zombies are Zombies that dance across your lawn, summoning four Backup Dancers. The original Dancing Zombie resembled Michael Jackson in his costume from the Thriller music video, complete with moonwalk, but he was changed in later versions to a 70s disco look a little like Disco Stu from The Simpsons. Dancing Zombie is the 9th Zombie encountered in Adventure Mode.

Suburban Almanac Entry
 Dancing Zombie 

Any resemblance between Dancing Zombie and persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Toughness: medium

Special: summons back-up dancers

Dancing Zombie's latest album, "GrarrBRAINSarblarbl," is already rocketing up the undead charts.

Overview
The Dancing Zombie dances across the lawn and summons four Backup Dancers in the squares above, below, in front of and behind him. The five zombies dance at the same speed and will not break formation; if one of them has to stop or is slowed down through freezing, the others will stop or slow down as well. If any of his Backup Dancers die, the Dancing Zombie will summon replacements.

Absorbs 17 normal damage shots. Appearance changes upon absorption of 9 normal damage shots before dying at 17 normal damage shots.

Appearances
Adventure Mode: 2-8, 2-9, 2-10, 4-5

Mini-games: Wall-nut Bowling 2, Zombie Trap

Puzzle Mode: Third Vase, ZomBoogie, I, Zombie Endless, Last Stand: Night

Survival Mode: all levels (except Roof)

Co-op Mode: all levels except Co-op Day, Co-op Bowling, Co-op Hard Roof and Co-op Zomboss

Others: Vs. Mode

Strategy
The Backup Dancers have low health and can be handled by a competent lawn defense so you shouldn't concentrate on attacking them. To easily deal with them, simply place an instant kill (like a Squash, Doom-shroom or Cherry Bomb) near the lead dancer. Also, it is one of the more deadly candidates for a Hypno-shroom, as although any already summoned Backup Dancers will not be hypnotized, it will summon new hypnotized Backup Dancers. Fume-shrooms and Gloom-shrooms are very good against these zombies, because their fumes will damage the lead dancer as well as the shielding Backup Dancers. Another weakness of the Dancing Zombie is that he and his Backup Dancers must stay in their cross formation. This means that if one Backup Dancer is frozen, slowed, or blocked, this will affect the rest of the Zombies as well (this only applies to movement speed; if a zombie is frozen or slowed but another zombie is in range, it will eat a plant at the normal rate). Because of this, using movement-restricting plants like Kernel-pults and Snow Peas are a good idea. If you want to block this zombie with a Wall-nut or Tall-nut, you should plant it in the row that the Dancing Zombie itself is in, preferably where the hindmost Backup Dancer is; because otherwise the formation will simply walk onward after the Backup Dancer dies.

Survival: Endless
In Survival: Endless, the old Dancing zombie can be very deadly since it summons Backup Dancers in the 2nd column from the right, where Cob Cannons in many builds are placed. The new Dancing Zombie summons its Backup Dancers one column earlier and is thus not as large a threat. When you have more than 10 Cob Cannons, you can probably blast them off when they're are still moonwalking with correct timing. If you have less than 10 Cob Cannons and some of them must be inside the attack range of Backup Dancers, you must use other plants to protect your cannons, like Gloom-shrooms, Spikerocks, or Gatling Peas.

I, Zombie Puzzle Mode levels
Plant Dancing Zombies in rows (or next to rows) with many Squashes, Potato Mines or Chompers. If the first plant in the row is a Potato Mine, make sure to plant it in the back row so it doesn't get destroyed. Also, if there is a Chomper or Squash in the first column of the row you plant it in, make sure to put a normal Zombie or Imp there first so it cannot eat the Dancing Zombie. Don't plant it in rows with Fume-shrooms, or Spikeweeds, which can hit both it and the Backup Dancers at the same time. Another strategy is to plant the Dancing Zombie in a cleared row in between two heavily defended rows. Another useful place to use them is where you have cleared a row but a nearby row is very heavily defended, i.e. would take more than two Football Zombies to destroy. It will very probably summon a Backup Dancer behind the last offensive plant, allowing you to get the brain. On the other hand, if there is a Sunflower you really want with significant firepower behind it, this isn't that helpful, although the Sunflower probably will still give you some Sun. It is probably best to make a Dancing Zombie start in the back, because it takes time for the zombie to summon the Backup Dancers.

Achievements
The Achievements "Disco is Undead", and "Thrilling the Zombies" are unlocked by using a Hypno-shroom to hypnotize a Dancing Zombie, but the latter achievement name was changed when the zombie was changed. However, if no Zombies kill them, it will summon hypnotized Backup Dancers.

New Dancing Zombie
Although this Michael Jackson-inspired zombie was present in the game before Jackson's death, the estate of Michael Jackson objected to its inclusion in the game (more than a year after his death), claiming it resembled Michael Jackson too closely. PopCap Games agreed to remove the zombie from the game, and replaced it with a more generic disco-dancing one in a leisure suit, afro and fish-in-shoes in an update to all future releases of the game.

Trivia

 * Like Michael Jackon, the original Dancing Zombie only wears one glove.
 * The new Dancing Zombie has a dead goldfish inside its shoe, a nod to Disco Fishbowl Platform shoes from the 1970s.
 * Dancing Zombie, Dr. Zomboss, Gargantuar, Giga-gargantuar, Catapult Zombie, Catapult Baseball Zombie, Jack-in-the-Box Zombie and Target Zombie are the only zombies that stop to for any reason other than eating your plants.
 * The new Dancing Zombie walks and summons Backup Dancers faster.
 * The Dancing Zombie and its Backup Dancers are the only zombies that have been restyled so far.
 * If the Dancing Zombie is slowed down immediately after appearing, it will continue to move at normal speed until the first Backup Dancers are summoned.
 * The new Dancing Zombie is featured in the Windows Phone 7 trailer for Plants vs. Zombies. The new Dancing Zombie is dancing some random moves, including the splits to some disco music. The Imp and Zombie Yeti are also featured in this trailer (the Backup Dancers are not featured in this video).
 * The music when the Dancing Zombie summons Backup Dancers is the same as when the "dance" code is activated.
 * The old Dancing Zombie, the Imp, the Zombie Yeti, the Football Zombie, the Giga Football Zombie, the Balloon Zombie (when his balloon pops), the Gargantuar and the Giga-gargantuar are the only zombies that have straight feet (excluding the zombies that don't step on land).
 * The old Dancing Zombie does the "Moonwalk" on its standing animation.
 * The new Dancing Zombie does a "Point and Raise" dance on its standing animation.
 * It is possible that a Dancing Zombie that is standing right in front of a lawn mower, not setting it off, could summon a Backup Dancer behind the lawn mower, passing the lawn. The lawn mower will not activate.
 * If you freeze a Dancing Zombie while it's moonwalking, it will turn on the spot and summon Backup Dancers directly.
 * When moving backwards, the new Dancing Zombie is the only unhypnotized zombie to have a twisted left leg.
 * The old Dancing Zombie represents someone from the 1980's and the new Dancing Zombie represents someone from the 1970's, which makes it weird that the new one was from an older timeline.thumb|right|300px|New Dancing Zombie rocking!
 * The new Dancing Zombie is one of the five zombies that have eyewear, the others being the Zombie Bobsled Team, the Snorkel Zombie, the Newspaper Zombie and the Pogo Zombie. It is unknown how the zombies are able to wear eyeglasses, as they do not have noses or ears to rest them on. (Snorkel Zombies and the Zombie Bobsled Team have straps on their eyewear, which hold them up).
 * The Dancing Zombie, the Zombie Bobsled Team, the Dolphin Rider Zombie, the Snorkel Zombie and Dr. Zomboss are the only zombies with intact clothing.
 * The only other Zombie to have changed over time is the Zomboni. Its appearance has remained the same, but its Almanac description has been altered.
 * Sometimes during I, Zombie levels, the old Dancing Zombie might toe-stand just before entering the house even if it still has all its zombies.
 * The old Dancing Zombie's right hand changes to a left hand (and vice versa) when it dances. This still happens even when it loses an arm.
 * The Dancing Zombie does not appear in the roof, due to the fact it does not make sense for the Backup Dancers spurt out from the roof tiles. The other land zombies not to appear in the roof are the Digger Zombie and the Zombie Bobsled Team. However, in the Xbox Live Arcade version of Plants vs. Zombies, the Dancing Zombie appears in Co-op Roof.
 * Dancing Zombies will only summon three Backup Dancers in Pool or Fog Levels.
 * The Dancing Zombie is one of the six zombies that falls backwards when it dies; the other five being Zombie Bobsled Team, the Backup Dancer, the Football Zombie, the Giga Football Zombie and the Balloon Zombie.
 * It is the only zombie to appear in different sizes in different versions.
 * In the Nintendo DS, Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network versions, the Dancing Zombie and Backup Dancers are almost as tall as a Gargantuar.
 * The Dancing Zombie, Backup Dancer, Pole Vaulting Zombie, Newspaper Zombie, Zomboni, Zombie Yeti and Digger Zombie are the only zombies with significant amounts of hair (though some are clearly wearing wigs).
 * If multiple Dancing Zombies are present on the lawn at the same time, they (and their Backup Dancers) will all dance in time with each other, essentially forming one large group. This is most apparent in I, Zombie.
 * The new Dancing Zombie has a smaller head on the iPhone and iPad version. This is strange because all the other zombies got bigger heads than normal in these versions.
 * The Dancing Zombie in Wabby Wabbo sings "I'm gonna eat your braaaains".
 * If the old Dancing Zombie loses an arm in Wall-nut Bowling 2, no bone can be seen.
 * In the iPhone I, Zombie, Dancing Zombie cannot summon Backup Dancers less than a tile away from the Brains, hence it is less useful there.
 * In "reanim" folder you can find the old Dancing Zombie and old Backup Dancer textures.
 * In I, Zombie, Dancing Zombie (and Backup Dancers) first appears in ZomBoogie.