as the topic says the emoticons in Yahoo! Messenger work fine, but the animation is lost. I dont know why. Been trying to find a fix and cudnt. ANyone with any suggestions or solution? 
Edit:
Tried uninstalling n reinstalling too. NO help. And i’ve the latest version 8.1.0.209
Happens to me too … maybe itz a virus or maybe yahoo iz screwed
^lol..the smileys are stored in your local HDD…
hmm…browse the YIM folder & see if the images workin properly in image viewers..
images (gif) files are working perfect.. apart from gif files there are BMP and SWF files for the corresponding gif files too.. tried moving the BMP/SWF files to another folder leaving only gif files in C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\Media\Smileys folder, yet no help
If I’m not wrong, your gif’s must not be “animating” in Internet Explorer as well.
Yahoo messenger, derives it’s setting for gif from IE. Goto (in IE) Tools>Internet Options>Advanced. In Multimedia groups check “Play animations in web pages”. Logoff, restart and relogin in messenger.
This might solve your problem. Try other options as well if this doesn’t work.
Anything to do with ZA 
… http://www.techenclave.com/forums/no-movment-in-gif-files-82104.html
My saviour!! 
Tnx a ton!! 
But the ‘restart’ was not required. Just ‘checked’ the option, logged off Y!M, logged back in, n Voila!