external swf won't load into movie clip at proper size/specs! PLEASE HELP

I am having a very frustrating problem with the loadMovie function and external swfs. I have set up everything as it should be: the empty movieholder clip in the main swf and the external swf I want to load into it are the same sizes, and the movieholder is registered at (0,0). the movieholder instance and everything is named. the external swf loads into the clip fine. but when loaded, the swf's background color is gone, and stuff that is outside the stage of the external swf file shows up instead of staying inside the stage/size of the swf and the movieholder. also, this swf isn't just an image, it is an animation, so a whole other swf that I want to load into the main navigation swf.

once a swf is made from a flash file, shouldn't anything else in the flash file that is outside of the stage/main area stay out of the swf? the swf plays fine on its own in the flash player, but won't play within its own borders inside the movieclip when loaded externally. what am i doing wrong??? is there some way of formatting the external swf so the background and playing size of it doesn't change when loaded into a movieclip holder of the same size as the swf?

i have tried to find a solution for this for many hours online already and have found nothing dealing with this specific problem. i am at my wit's end. please help! thank you for your expertise...

Your background colour of the external swf is coded in the HTML page, not he swf itself so you will lose this if you load it into another swf/HTML page.

Use a mask in you external swf to hide anything outside the borders. Again, border size is coded in the html.