Dancing Zombie

Dancing Zombies are Zombies that moonwalk across your lawn, summoning 4 Backup Dancers and may look similar to Michael Jackson, depending on the game version. It Is the 9th Zombie encountered in Adventure Mode. There is now a new Dancing Zombie with new Backup Dancers.

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 onto the lawn and summons four Backup Dancers, which appears somewhat like a straight cross. These five zombies will dance at the same rate, and will stop moving if one of them has to stop or is slowed down through freezing. If one or more Backup Dancers die, and the Dancing Zombie is still alive, it summons Backup Dancers until it dies.

Note: The newer version of Dancing Zombie is slightly stronger. The older Dancing Zombie always summons Backup Dancers on the second column from the right, while the newer version of the Dancing Zombie summons them on the first column. The newer Dancing Zombie also eats faster than the older one.

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

thumb|left|300px|New Dancing Zombie rocking!

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.

I, Zombie Puzzle Mode levels
Plant Dancing Zombies in rows (or next to rows) with many 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 in the first column of the row you plant it in, make sure to plant a plain Zombie or Imp 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, 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 "Walk This Way", "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



 * The old Dancing Zombie resembles pop superstar Michael Jackson who, coincidentally, died less than a month after the release of the game.
 * It was actually created in tribute to Michael Jackson's "Thriller".
 * If the lead zombie bites a Hypno-shroom, it will summon hypnotized Backup Dancers.
 * Hypno-shroom Dancing Zombies are still vulnerable to the un Hypno-shroomed Backup Dancers.
 * The text in the Suburban Almanac stating that "any resemblance to any persons is coincidental" was not changed when the Dancing Zombie's image in the game was changed.
 * The new Dancing Zombie has a dead goldfish inside its shoe, a nod to Disco Fishbowl Platform shoes from the 1970's.
 * If the Dancing Zombie or any of its Backup Dancers are slowed down, paralyzed, or blocked by a plant, the rest of the group will slow down with it or not move, respectively, as well.
 * 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 wears Michael Jackson's white glove.
 * The old Dancing Zombie, the Imp, the Zombie Yeti, and the Football Zombie are the only zombies that don't wear shoes (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.
 * The Dancing Zombie only appears in level 2-8, 2-9, 2-10, the Wall-nut Bowling 2 minigame, ZomBoogie, All your brainz r belong to us, I, Zombie Endless, and Survival levels (excluding the Roof).
 * 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.
 * The old Dancing Zombie represents someone from the '80's and the new Dancing Zombie represents someone from the '70's, which makes it weird that the new one was from an older timeline.
 * 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. (The Snorkel Zombies and the Zombie Bobsled Team have straps on their eyewear, which hold them up.)
 * The new Dancing Zombie may have ears to hold their eyeglasses. This is unconfirmed, as the ears are covered by his hair.
 * The Dancing Zombie, the Zombie Bobsled Team, the Dolphin Rider Zombie, the Snorkel Zombie and Dr. Zomboss are the zombies that don't have single lacerations on their clothes.
 * A 'G' version of this game was released, excluding the Dancing Zombie, because it was made before the update and it resembled Michael Jackson too closely.
 * Aside from the changes, the text on the Almanac and music played when Backups are first summoned are the same.
 * The only other Zombie to have changed over time is the Zomboni. Its appearance is unchanged, but its Almanac description was different in the original version.
 * 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 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 XBLA, the Dancing Zombie appears in Co-op Roof.
 * The new Dancing Zombie is featured in the Windows Phone 7 trailer, shown dancing under the glow of a disco ball.
 * The new Dancing Zombie is one of the three zombies to appear in the Windows Phone 7 trailer of the game. The others are Imp and the Zombie Yeti.
 * Despite rare due to the backup dancer in front, it is possible for the dancing zombie himself to eat your Brains.
 * In I, Zombie levels, the old Dancing Zombie does the Moonwalk in 5 blocks while the new Dancing Zombie only does in 3 blocks.
 * There's a glitch in Pool level, if you kill Dancing Zombie in time, it will only summon 2 Backup Dancers.
 * They will actually summon 3, but the third is summoned off-screen, so it will appear later.
 * Dancing Zombies will only summon 3 Backup Dancers in Pool or Fog Levels.
 * It is the only zombie with 17 hp that does not carry any type of item.
 * It is the only zombie that has a different size in different versions.
 * The Dancing Zombie is one of the four zombies that falls backwards when it dies; the other three being Zombie Bobsled Team, the Backup Dancer, and the Football Zombie.
 * The new Dancing Zombie is likely a homage to Disco Stu, from TV show The Simpsons.
 * The fish in the glass soles of his shoes are also likely a reference to Disco Stu.
 * In the DS, Xbox and PSN versions, the (New) 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 notably more hair than other zombies or a wig.
 * The Dancing Zombie is the only zombie that appears by walking backwards.
 * 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.
 * Sometimes, the Backup Dancers summoned by it can get ahead of it.
 * The new Dancing Zombie has a smaller head on the iPhone and iPad version. This is strange becuase all the other zombies got bigger heads than normal.
 * A Moonwalking Dancing zombie is the fastest thing in the game, even faster than a rolling Wall-nut or a Lawnmower.