That's funny you mention Roger Ebert, I never saw the French version, but I was aware of it, solely based on Siskel & Ebert's "Worst Films of 1996." My dad sporadically would watch At the Movies as I was growing up. Anyway, when I saw the trailers for Jungle 2 Jungle, I was like, "isn't that the foreign movie that Ebert hated?"
Also, you remember the character's name! I literally hadn't seen that film in over 20 years. He was cute though yes. Even for teenage Spikey who still couldn't figure out why he was watching this cheesy movie just cause there was a cute boy in it.