Pivot is a free program with which anyone can make animated figures, objects, and scenes. It is pretty simple to manipulate, but with a lot of built in flexibility.

One of the handy things about Pivot animations is that they can be saved as .gif files, which can then be used in a movie maker film (the action part of the introductory movie is a pivot animation saved as a .gif).

Pivot itself is no longer being updated, but it is a clean, small program that young animators (especially) really seem to enjoy!