Fantasy movie about rapidly aging prince/princess with evil witch

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I saw the second half of a movie on Sci-Fi channel, probably around the year 2000. I'd guestimate it was probably made in the 80s/90s.

The premise, along with what I gleaned from context, was that it was about a fairly stereotypical "fantasy" kingdom and castle, with the protagonists being a prince and princess who appeared to be betrothed to wed. I think the prince was from elsewhere, with the princess being "native" to the castle, though I'm not sure on that point. An evil witch/queen cast some sort of curse or spell on the kingdom, which caused a rapid aging effect on everyone in the kingdom . . . I think they aged up in significant jumps "daily", but I'm not sure. I missed the beginning, and by the time I started watching, the protagonists were adults, but context implied they had been children who "didn't like each other" initially, but were falling for each other as adults under the aging curse.

The prince basically had to go on a journey to find and end the curse before they aged to death, with a pretty strict timeline of just a few days. I remember the "final battle" was in some sort of construction full of gears and machinery, with the prince nearly losing (he was an old man at this point and pretty decrepit) before some clutch win happened that let him steal victory from the evil witch/queen. Upon victory, all of the aging/deaths were reverted (I don't remember of the protags went back to being kids or adults).

A very distinct character I remember was a jolly chef/cook of some sort who was very close with the princess, like a sort of friend/guardian. He was older than the protagonists, and I remember a sequence where he died of old age, much to the princess's grief.

I remember the movie pretty clearly, and I saw at least half of it, but I've never been able to find any mention of it on the internet for years.



This is absolutely the movie! A lot of things I had vague recollections of (airships, deserts, clockwork machinery) were confirmed by this trailer and reading more online.

And its no wonder I couldn't find it: the movie has barely any presence online! No wikipedia page, no TV tropes, nothing. Most people mentioning it are people like me, who couldn't find it!

Thanks for the confirmation, a decades long mystery solved!