Software advice - for creating animations I need to make a sort of animation. Not that I am going for same feel or style but I would like to make something that is sort of similar to the animated sequences in "Monty Pyhton's Flying Circus".

There is one catch though! I need to attach some collage/clip-art to something that can easily be distorted into a 3D-perspective - so I can move 'a virtual camera' around imported 2D-images(bitmap) in 3D-space (hope that's clear enough). Currently I am passing on Flash, I think.
If you are a starter go for after effects, check videocopilot.net for subject of interest..

short:

new project, import your prerpared files, create new camera, drag your footage to the timeline, mark the 3d layer switch, set up the positions of the layers(x y z) and roll the camera ;)