The bind your mesh to your joints, you need to use Skin | Bind Skin | Smooth Bind. There is info in the Maya help files on exactly how to do this.

To adjust the frame rate, go to Animation Preferences (the button next to the keyframe button in the lower right), and adjust your playback speed. You'll also need to go to Settings in the Preferences Panel to adjust your timebase (NTSC, PAL, film, etc).