Comment out lines 2189-2191 (the for loop adding child to picture container) inside the file www/js/rpg_sprites.js
Thank you man!!!! Your amazing!
For more clearance, you can edit the .js file by dragging it to a blank page on notepad.
Use the find command (control+F) and enter this.addChild(this._pictureContainer);
The for loop midori is talking about are the first three lines above the function call that should be highlighted from the find command.
To comment out the lines, add // before each of them. Make sure you only comment out the top three!!!!!
Save and the problem should be resolved.
*Edit: Ok, while this works, the problem is that it prevents any picture at all from showing up on the screen. See, the portrait is actually a .webm file, a video. You can remove the movies folder, but that results in a retry message prompt showing up every 5 seconds. So the actual solution I assume most of us are looking for will have to either prevent the videos from loading in the first place, or removing the retry command/function from somewhere in the code.
*Edit *Edit: OK!!! I think I found a permanent solution, or at least one I am very happy with. So, with this fix, instead of preventing the videos from loading, we are gonna prevent them from looping. Now remember, the videos will
STILL LOAD. For example, every time you change your character, a video will be loaded, causing a 1-2 second slow down, but will disappear and give you back your wonderful frames. So, without further ado, here are the instructions:
Locate the file MoviePicture.js in www/js/plugins
Make a copy of it. If for whatever reason you want things back to normal, you don't have to come all the way back here
Open it, use the find command, and paste this.picture() && this._playStart
Add // to the beginning of the 5 lines below the highlighted if condition, basically everything between the { }
Save
And there it is folks. Big shout outs to midori, because I wouldn't have even attempted to mess with the files myself if it wasn't for his post, and to high school, for being able to understand his post at all

.