Wreck-It Ralph is very clearly a movie made by people who love video games. None of its myriad references feel forced. Every video game-y thing about it works in its favor rather than its detriment, and it isn’t shackled by its premise. It breaks beyond being solely about video games and is, as a result, a more resonant film.

The abundant video game references aren’t crutches, supporting a lifeless husk of a film. Instead, they act as a ladder. They don’t alienate anyone who doesn’t understand every last Easter egg. Rather than living or dying by its references, the film is better to the folks that get them but not worse to those that don’t.

The film tells the story of the eponymous Wreck-It Ralph (played by John C. Reilly), the villain in the fake arcade game Fix-It Felix Jr., which is waning in popularity. After 30 years, Ralph is tired of being the bad guy, hated by not only the players but the other characters in his machine. He sets off to find a medal in another one of the arcade games to prove that he has the potential to be a good guy.

Except, him journeying to other games means he’s leaving his game unoccupied. What’s Fix-It Felix Jr. to fix if Wreck-It Ralph’s not there to, you know, wreck it?

His vacancy means the arcade owners suspects his game is bugged and not worthy of being in the facility. These stakes make the film feel like it has more of a purpose than just being a video game reference dispenser.

On his journey, Ralph travels to two games: Hero’s Duty, a mash-up between Starcraft and Halo, which are already fairly similar, and Sugar Rush, which feels like Mario Kart by way of Candyland.

Sugar Rush is home to my two favorite characters in the film, King Candy, played by Alan Tudyk of Firefly and Dollhouse fame, and Vanellope von Schweetz, played by Sarah Silverman. As I find with most of Sarah Silverman’s roles, her voice is initially grating and annoying, but as the film goes on, Vanellope’s development and Silverman’s portrayal brings the character to life brilliantly.

Sugar Rush is home to the vast majority of the film, which doesn’t initially seem like the most riveting thing, but as more and more is revealed about the history of the game and its characters, the better the movie gets. In addition to the video game references, the second half of the movie is packed with candy jokes, and good ones at that.

I don’t want to spoil any of them, as part of the fun of the movie is seeing how many shout-outs or cameos you can spot.

The licensed soundtrack, as well as the original, does a great job of bringing the world to life. Whether your love dubstep or hate it, the song that scores the main Hero’s Duty scene is nothing short of fitting, and the scene itself is perfectly paced and exciting, especially in 3D. As usual, I’m not always pro-3D, but animated movies have a higher success rate in the category than live-action, so it makes sense that it worked for me here.

The look of the film is also inspired in its approach. Hero’s Duty and Sugar Rush aren’t purely original, but they aren’t knock-offs, either. They take what they need and expand to make each of the film’s locales unique and fun to watch.

All in all, I loved Wreck-It Ralph. I wish that I could see it with new eyes, from the perspective of someone who’s never played a video game in their life, but I can’t. I can only assume that the references wouldn’t be distracting, and that the film’s fundamentals would work outside of that context.

Even though it’s not an adaptation of an existing property, Wreck-It Ralph  is the best video game movie since Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, which is also not based off of a video game. A pattern is becoming apparent; maybe we should embrace it.