Best programs for creating and animating pixel art?

Hi. I'm working on an adventure game with 8-bit style graphics like, for example,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3gKyF5Muw8
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jWYCXneCn8
which is going to feature a great deal of animations and cutscenes. Can anybody recommend me a good program for creating long animations which is at the same time handy for pixel art? I'm currently using Graphics Gale, but it's clearly not cut out for the job.

If you can get your hands on Photoshop it should be able to fulfil most of your needs. Zoom right in and and use the pencil tool. And just open the animation window and away you go.

If you need more complex animation features, PS extended addition has a few extras when it comes to animating. You can also import everything into after-effects if you want even more control.