Where Every Scroll is a New Adventure
This, and like a different post said, if you want to gear toward a more adult audience, just add in day to day things. Like shaggy smoking or cooking for the gang, Velma, Daphne, and Fred working on traps, playing fetch with Scooby, how the take care of themselves on the road, what they do for school or if they collect payment. Personally I’m ride or die Poly Gang (minus Scooby obviously) but regardless fleshing out the relationships between characters would be wonderful. I think they’ve given Velma a holyer than thou complex, made Daphne boy obsessed and Fred girl obsessed, and made shaggy and Scooby the same character of just eating. There are so many ways to make the characters interesting.
Velma in the original show, did actually believe there could be real ghosts, while also trying to prove it was a person. Daphne now has so much lore that new iterations of the series don’t pull on. Fred is like a true mom friend who cares sunscreen and protein bars in his fanny pack and listens to all suggestions making for a collaborative effort. Shaggy is, as said above, resourceful and funny, but not the butt of the joke, and Scooby has his own personality that I agree with op about.
Like damn, every iteration keeps going down hill and is sucks.
Anyone looking to make a proper Scooby-Doo adaptation please remember:
Fred is the charismatic face of the group and the strategizer. Later adaptations made him a massive himbo who chugs respect for women juice and those have become necessary parts of his character.
Shaggy is cowardly but also incredibly resourceful; let us not forget his skill at ventriloquism. Make Shaggy the skill monkey, who every episode mentions some weird skill he has that's previously unmentioned; that'd be an amazing running gag. Also, bring back the dry humor Casey Kasem injected into the og character.
Scooby is Shaggy's best friend, the other half to his two-man comedy routine. Independently of Shaggy, Scooby is also prone to be a bit mischievous and just kind of a little scamp. Play up both of those things.
Velma is the smart nerdy one, who also had a really dry sense of humor. I don't know why she was turned into the "I'm surrounded by idiots" character because, while as I stated, she always had a dry sense of humor, she was never mean to her friends and never talked down to them, or anyone else. Bring back the chipper Velma from like Witch's Ghost or Zombie Island. Let Velma be a little cutie pie. Also keep her as a lebian
Daphne was... originally really just "The Girly One" but later adaptations have fleshed her out, like making her essentially the muscle of the group, which is just amazing and should continue. She's also been cast as the oddly resourceful one. Shaggy is the skill monkey, Daphne is the one who has a tool for literally any job. Human Swiss Army Knife, which again, would be an amazing running gag.
Have Shaggy and Daphne bounce off-the-wall ideas for a plan together, Fred steps in to ground them, while still using their ideas, and incorporating Velma's theories about the case.
Make references to Flim Flam and Hot Dog Water
A Scooby-Doo adaptation should not be difficult, and must be done with love.