Naturally, with any level of involvement from Desplat, it features a great main theme and, shock horror, there is even a proper Main Title to introduce it. Desplat keeps it bouncy, but not self-consciously zany (the use of Danny Elfman's otherwise enjoyable Pee Wee music certainly didn't help the trailer), and can also make it soar, as in The Flight of Magorium which also brings in a gentle, secondary theme on piano. Not perhaps as memorable as the main theme, but still a pleasing counterpart. However, a score like this can't pass without some playful material and there are abundant examples, notably Dodge Ball, Toy Store Jam and both Temper Tantrums. However, both composers write with considerable clarity in terms of orchestration (particularly Desplat, indeed it's practically a trademark) and while there are some nice brass blasts, nothing feels too overegged. Further, there isn't much in the way of tiring Carl Stalling passages; sure, some of the tracks are brief, but within each cue, everything feels carefully crafted and not just 5 second ideas thrown together. There is one curiosity, Triscadecaphobia (fear of the number 13), which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Hospital Chase cue from Leonard Rosenmann's Star Trek IV score. Fortunately, plentiful fun and only a brief distraction.
The gentle material is of predictably high quality, avoiding the mawkishness that such a film could easily inspired. Even cues such as The Funeral, Great Wisdom and Your Friend are superb, with a touch of melancholy, which is a perfect antidote to the jollity elsewhere. The disc concludes with the Flaming Lips' Love The World You Find which, despite having nothing to do with either of the score's composers is actually a decent way to conclude and a good piece of gentle indie rock in its own right. If there have to be some downsides, it perhaps teeters or the repetitive in the second half and culling a couple of tracks of more gentle material would have tightened things up a touch, but that's possibly quibbling. In a blind test, I doubt anyone could hear where Desplat finished and Zigman started; I'd still contend that Desplat is perhaps the finer of the two, but with his great melodies to work with, Zigman clearly had plenty to inspire him to round out the score. Recent times have brought us many great collaborations on kids' movies (notably Messrs Powell and Gregson-Williams) and while this might have been more by accident than design, the results are equally memorable, resulting in a score almost certain to outlive the film for which it was written.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 59:18