I feel exactly the same way. I know the ins-and-outs of AE in fact I started tutoring people at school on it. But YES! i feel there is a glass-ceiling I cant get past. I look at so many examples and study them but my work is just missing that touch you know.
For that movie all I could say, that it is one huge piece made up of many pre-composed comps with a camera on some path or manually animated.
If anyone could help I am sure Rich and of course I would be in everyone’s debt.