Flying objects must be a lot of work

I know we have barely talked about key framing in Maya but watching this animation makes me scared to key frame and make objects move. I wonder if flying objects are more of a pain to animate than objects that don't move that much. When flowers fly around really fast in the air, in this video, is someone key framing the flower or is there a way to make the flower spin and automatically animate the flower to cause less stress for the animator? I know I can never be an animator but I wonder how much animators really have to do when we see their objects on the big screen.

This character seemed really easy to model when I first saw it. It's mouth stays open for the first 10 seconds, but then while it runs I can see the details of the eyes moving and then the mouth move. Not so easy anymore.