According to legend, humans were always fascinated with the sky; therefore they created increasingly sophisticated ways of lifting aircraft from the ground. This eventually led to flying cities and fortresses. Due to an unspecified catastrophe, most of the flying cities were either destroyed or crashed to the ground, forcing the survivors to live on the ground as before. One city, Laputa, is said to remain in the sky, concealed in the swirling clouds of a violent thunderstorm. While most people considered it to be fictional, some believed the legend to be true and sought to find the ancient city. "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" is a 1986 film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is the first film created and released by Studio Ghibli. Castle in the Sky won the Animage Anime Grand Prix in 1986. The name Laputa itself comes from a novel written by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels. In this story, Swift's Laputa is also a flying island that was controlled by its citizens. Miyazaki's Laputa: "Castle in the Sky" is similar to themes from Swift's Laputa, where the technological superiority of the castle in the sky is used for political ends.