Well, it seems usually calling animation "start" or similar calls in onCreate can be problematic because all the views haven't finished their "setup". Check out the note at the bottom of the
Android developer 2D graphics page which basically says the same thing.
As for an example, I don't have any great examples for you. But, you might want to check out the Android examples
Jet Boy or
Lunar Lander for some examples of drawing on a canvas SurfaceView. Then integrate your AnimationDrawable in a similar manner.
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