Regarding a minimal setup python environment, which requires nothing more than a newbie parent to download, PythonTurtle or Squeak is probably what you want.
I think the issue is mainly just lack of knowledge that truly newbie friendly environments exist. Perhaps the solution is simply better advertising of squeak, or perhaps having it come preinstalled (as OLPC did)?
Incidentally, the animation info you seek (admittedly, not suitable for newbies):
for i in range(numframes):
[...code to make frame...]
savefig("framedir/" + str(framenumber).rjust(8,"0")+".png")
os.system("mencoder -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video:vbitrate=1500 -mf type=png:fps=16 -nosound -of mpeg -o movie.mpg mf://framedir/\*.png")
I think the issue is mainly just lack of knowledge that truly newbie friendly environments exist. Perhaps the solution is simply better advertising of squeak, or perhaps having it come preinstalled (as OLPC did)?
Incidentally, the animation info you seek (admittedly, not suitable for newbies):
http://www.scipy.org/Cookbook/Matplotlib/Animations
Or, if you want to generate movie files: