Dancing Zombie


 * For other uses, see Disco Zombie (disambiguation).

Dancing Zombie is a zombie that dances across the player's lawn and summons four Backup Dancers after a short while. The original Dancing Zombie resembles Michael Jackson in his costume from the Thriller music video, even entering the lawn moonwalking, but it was changed in later versions to a 70's disco dancer. The new version resembles Disco Stu from The Simpsons. The Dancing Zombie is the ninth zombie encountered in Adventure Mode.

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.

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 enters the lawn dancing backwards. It is accompanied by its own jingle tune and also a color changing spotlight appears out of the sky, following the Dancing Zombie. It then turns around and summons four Backup Dancers in the squares above, below, in front of, and behind it. Then, it starts dancing across the lawn moving close to the Player's House. The Dancing Zombie and its Backup Dancers 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 its Backup Dancers die, the Dancing Zombie will summon replacements.

The Dancing Zombie absorbs 17 normal damage shots and its appearance changes upon absorbing 9 normal damage shots before dying at 17 normal damage shots.

Audio
The tune of the Dancing Zombie.

Encounters

 * 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: Versus Mode

Strategies
The Backup Dancers have low health and can be handled by a competent lawn defense, so you should not 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. Though, if that strategy is used, the Dancing Zombie has to have its health full, because if it lost a part of its health, it could be instantly killed by the Backup Dancer from its back, assuming that this one is not damaged. Most of time, the Backup Dancer from the back is the dancer from the group which actually takes the least damage, because of the two zombies in front of it (the front Backup Dancer and the Dancing Zombie itself). If the Dancing Zombie took damage and it's hypnotized by placing the Hypno-shroom between it and the front Backup Dancer, it will get to the left, encounter very quickly its back Backup Dancer and fight it, and will usually die without summoning any hypnotized Backup Dancer, being killed by the other Backup Dancer. However, if its health is full, it will be able to win against a solo Backup Dancer, as its health is greater than the Backup Dancer's one. 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 it and its 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 second/third column from the right, and Cob Cannons are placed in the fourth column in many builds. The new Dancing Zombie summons its Backup Dancers one column earlier and is thus not as large a threat. When you have more than ten Cob Cannons, you can probably blast them off when they are still moonwalking with correct timing. If you have less than ten Cob Cannons, and some of them are inside the attack range of Backup Dancers, you must use other plants to protect your cannons, like Gloom-shrooms, Spikerocks, or Gatling Peas.

Due to being a low health zombie, specially to splash damage, Winter melons, Melon-pults, and Fume-shrooms can also be used effectively against it. Wall-nuts or Tall-nuts on front really helps, as while it does not have the most health, its Backup Dancers can cause problem, due to each eating individually, it means a badly defended strong plant could end dying to it and its Backup Dancers.

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. In many situations, it is best idea 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. A canceled achievement called "Beat It" was planned with the requirements being to kill a Dancing Zombie before it could spawn Backup Dancers.

Trivia

 * Like Michael Jackson, the original Dancing Zombie only wore one glove.
 * The new Dancing Zombie has a dead goldfish in its shoe, a nod to Disco Fishbowl Platform shoes from the 1970s.
 * It, Dr. Zomboss, Gargantuar, Giga-gargantuar, Catapult Zombie, Catapult Baseball Zombie, Jack-in-the-Box Zombie, and Target Zombie are the only zombies that stop for any reason other than eating the player's 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, Zombie Yeti, Football Zombie, Giga-Football Zombie, Balloon Zombie (when his balloon pops), Gargantuar, and the Giga-gargantuar are the only zombies that have straight feet (excluding the zombies that do not 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 also does this when summoning Backup Dancers.
 * 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. The Backup Dancer will still eat the player's brains.
 * This makes the Backup Dancer the only zombie that can avoid a Lawn Mower by itself and without any glitches.
 * It also happens with Zombie Bull in Plants vs. Zombies 2. If it throws a Zombie Bull Rider after it reaches a certain column of the lawn in which the Lawn Mower will also not consumed and the said zombie will eat the brains. This is also the same case if the player uses a Plant Food on the Spikeweed in a battle against Zombot Plank Walker, it pushes into the second or first column if the said plant is situated at these columns which allows the zombies summon past the lawn mower and the above situation will happen in earlier versions.
 * If the player freezes a Dancing Zombie while it is 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.Plants vs zombies new dancing zombie
 * 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).
 * Dancing Zombie, Zombie Bobsled Team, Dolphin Rider Zombie, 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 on the roof, due to the fact it does not make sense for the Backup Dancers to spurt out from the roof tiles. The other land zombies not to appear on 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 seven zombies that falls backwards when it dies; the other six being Zombie Bobsled Team, the Backup Dancer, the Football Zombie, the Imp, the Giga-Football Zombie and the Balloon Zombie.
 * It and Backup Dancer are the only zombies 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 even though all of 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 the "reanim" folder, the player can find the old Dancing Zombie and old Backup Dancer textures.
 * The Dancing Zombie is named "Disco Zombie" in the Plants vs. Zombies Trading Card Game.
 * It is also referred to as this in most games in the Plants vs. Zombies franchise.
 * It is somewhat similar to the Conga Leader of Plants vs. Zombies Adventures.
 * On the iOS versions, the new Dancing Zombie's idle animation is it moon walking, instead of it lifting its glasses repeatedly.
 * On the iOS and Android versions, when the Dancing Zombie and Backup Dancer's heads fall off, their jaws fall off.
 * There is a glitch on the Nintendo DS version. If a Dancing Zombie appears on Survival: Fog (both normal and hard), the spotlight that appears when it summons Backup Dancers will slightly clear the fog.
 * When this happens, it's not enough to be able to see much of anything, but it will clear the most fog at the left-most end.
 * This does not apply to DSiWare for two reasons: DSiWare does not have Survival, and the Dancing Zombie does not appear on any of the Adventure fog stages (excluding 4-5, which is on the front lawn and consequently has no fog).
 * In most versions of Plants vs. Zombies, the Dancing Zombie does not have a standing animation.
 * The only other zombie that does not have a standing animation is the Imp. Unlike the Dancing Zombie, though, this occurs in every version of the game.
 * Dancing Zombie, Jack-in-the-Box Zombie, Pianist Zombie, Disco-tron 3000, Announcer Imp and Boombox Zombie are the only zombies that play music.
 * Dancing Zombie makes a reappearance in Plants vs. Zombies 2, although as a "Disco Jetpack Zombie" summoned by the Disco-tron 3000.
 * In the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network versions, the Dancing Zombie sways from left to right similar to the old Dancing Zombie's Thriller.