Whoa. Deep.

A commentator today on NPR had an epiphany as he walked out of one movie theater showing Pixar’s “Finding Nemo” into a crowd leaving another theater showing “The Matrix.” You see, the closing credits of “Finding Nemo” featured a gag cameo by Mike Wazowski from “Monsters, Inc.” And that got Bob Mondello thinking.

“Monsters, Inc.,” Mondello realized, is based on an eerily similar premise to that of “The Matrix.” (Hmm. Wazowski. Wachowski. Nah!)

“Monsters, Inc.” deals with an alternative universe, behind the doors of which an entirely unknown society powers its world by tapping into the output of ours. And so does “The Matrix.” Only, one wants us to scream, and the other wants to drill holes into our flesh.

Closets and phones as portals. “Crossing over” as a threat to The System. Dreams that aren’t really dreams perpetrated by monsters as a system of control. And knowledge of the truth as a weapon against evil agents. Sully = Morpheus? Neo = Boo? Ooooooh…