Movieclips and cartoon characters

hello everybody, im an ex. highschool student that learned flash for finals, used flash MX to make a little kareoke video for my favorite singer.

since then, i got hooked on flash, so i decided to make an inspirational comedy thx to the godly Southpark (love the new season) and stuff from icebox.com.

to the point, im following kirupa’s tutorial on cartoon chararcters found here
and here is my 1st question: what are movieclips inside movieclips and what are they good for?

and the 2nd question is: what is the best way to draw a human body (southpark style, flattened) for animating the body parts?

note: im familliar with flash itself so speak pro please

A movieclip inside a movieclip is most useful. And it’s perfect for making southpark styled characters. Think of it like this, you’ve got a big ball and inside that ball, there are several balls that bounce and inside those balls there are more balls that bounce. If you move the big ball, all of them will move but they will still bounce and act like before.
That’s how you can make like a guy walking from left to right opening his mouth and blinking his eyes at the same time.